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Dabbling in the art of self-deception
Chido Makunike
February 03, 2006

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2006/February/Friday3/4116.html

IN response to being as oppressed as we are in Zimbabwe, we have developed various coping mechanisms which include skirting around important issues instead of taking them on directly.

The number of words and actions that are considered to be threatening to the ruling regime keeps rising as it becomes more afraid and insecure. So to try to avoid getting into trouble, we have learned to talk around issues, rather than hone in on their essence.

One result of this is that we get very easily side-tracked about what the issue under discussion is exactly.

Because of this natural protective reaction to having one's free space threatened and reduced so dramatically by a brutal ruling authority, we frequently deceive ourselves into paying more importance to side issues than to the central ones.

It might seem at first that this malady would only afflict the oppressed, but in reality it affects the oppressors every bit as much as their victims, and perhaps even more so.

Statements and declarations are made without much effort being put into pursuing where they logically lead. This is how we end up with a regime as deluded as that of President Mugabe's about the true state of the nation, the genesis of its problems and what to do about them.

Let us take some examples of the recent statements of senior Mugabe regime members to illustrate what I am talking about.

He may be completely inept at the nuts and bolts of running a modern nation, but President Mugabe likes to imagine himself as somewhat of a roving world statesman, taking every opportunity to pontificate about some issue of international import. Recently, he held forte on the issue of the UN Security Council seats for Africa.

Africa must demand rather than beg for the two permanent seats it is "entitled to", President Mugabe is reported to have said to his African Union colleagues in Sudan.

He then went on to whine about the historical humiliation of Africa, using that as one of the justifications for the demand of the seats.

Excuse me Mr Mugabe, but in the world of real-politik that we live in, nations and blocs can only make "demands" from a position of strength. For your "demand" to have any persuasive effect, you must be in a position to say "do/give me this or we will do this in retaliation to get our way."

I'm sorry to tell you this Sir, but Africa under rulers such as yourself, has no such trump-card because you have squandered the last several decades of Independence, resulting in Africa being ever weaker relative to other continents. The current world currency of "demanding" anything is economic or military power, and Africa does not count on either score.

As for moral authority suggested by his reference to the historical "humiliation" of Africa, people like him have also used up much of Africa's moral capital by being as vicious on Africans as the colonial powers of yester-year.

Even if the rest of the world agreed with the logic of President Mugabe's argument about the Security Council or any other issue, those arguments are neutralised by his low standing in the world. All his detractors have to do is to point at the state of the country he rules and say: "who would listen to the arguments of a man like that, who has managed the amazing feat of snatching poverty, decline and failure out of a jewel of a country like Zimbabwe." Case closed, forget your "demands" and go home.

And suppose Africa won its two seats, what would it do with them that would make any difference to you and me or the world? How do you enforce your veto power from a point of such weakness?

With no currency to make the world take you seriously, those seats would mean absolutely nothing except perhaps provide yet another forum for those who enjoy showing off their speech-reading skills.

Do not delude yourself by putting the cart before the horse. Zimbabwe and Africa must put their house in order before they will be listened to and taken seriously. It cannot be the other way around.

Every few months the visit of a few IMF officials gets us all excited. Officials run around to look for hard currency to pay IMF arrears and hopefully stave off expulsion from that body. Passionate pseudo-nationalistic editorials are written about how the "IMF done Zimbabwe wrong" in one or another way.

More people from all over the world ideological spectrum are questioning the role of the controversial IMF in developing countries. I will leave that subject for another day.

But for the purposes of how self-delusional the regime that rules Zimbabwe is, look at how brilliantly the IMF outsmarts that regime every time. They string them along as they coax more of the money owed to them out of the regime. That regime tells itself that if it pays up it may then be able to borrow more from the IMF and other international lenders. The IMF is quite happy to have the regime tell itself this and never comes right out to say: "no way in hell would we advance any more money to such an economically and politically illiterate regime."

It seems incredible to me that any officials in the Mugabe regime can really believe that given the prevailing environment in Zimbabwe, any lender would advance us any meaningful credit. This is self-delusion at its most insidious.

The process of trying to limit what Zimbabweans think and say aggressively began by the notorious Jonathan Moyo continues apace under Tafataona Mahoso, George Charamba and other regime apparatchiks.

The media and free expression in general continue to suffer at the hands of these officials.

Central banker Gideon Gono recently joined the chorus of regime members who blame the country's many woes on the media. But what does this tell us about the success of clamping down on freedom of thought and expression then? The regime "controls" the thinking and talking space more today than it has ever done, and yet its reputation is even more in the dog house than it has ever been. Would this not suggest that trying to control the thinking space in this modern age is not only difficult to impossible, but is counter-productive?

Are there any regime members who are smart enough to see this and make reversing this a central pillar of getting the country back on track?

But once you reach a certain level of self-delusion, nothing is as clear and obvious as it is when one is in a normal state of being.

"But wait a minute Makunike, in all your reactionary arguments against the gallant, revolutionary Mugabe you fail to factor in the Western sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe." Let us take this argument at face value and say that the sanctions that are in place are the cause, rather than the effect of the situation in the country. But instead of whining and using them as an excuse for helplessness, should we not "demand" to know what the "revolutionary" government is doing to get around them? Of what use to us are these claimed "revolutionary" credentials if they do not include economic counter-insurgency for the benefit of the people?

I thought part of the cachet and romanticism of being a "revolutionary" was in being able to show an ability to thwart more powerful enemies, not merely constantly whining that they are plotting against you.

Being able to fool oneself about reality is not strength. Quite unwittingly, the astonishing ineptitude of the regime of President Mugabe shows this truth to the whole world, ever reducing it in stature and influence, and giving a historical example of how to ruin a nation.

*Chido Makunike is Zimbabwean writer based in Senegal.

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