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Exiled Zimbabweans can vote wherever they are
Geoffrey Nyarota, The Zimbabwe Times
January 23, 2008

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/page421.htm

Exiled Zimbabweans can vote in the forthcoming general elections, wherever they may be situated in the Diaspora and they do not even need to be registered on the voters' roll.

Zimbabwe's export earnings peaked at US$3, 4 billion in 1997. Last year's export earnings were expected to generate only about US$1, 3 billion in foreign currency in a situation of persistent decline, despite the massive increases in global commodity prices.

Meanwhile, remittances from exiled Zimbabweans, estimated at anything between two and three million, now constitute roughly 50 percent of the foreign exchange earnings available to the country's economy. At an estimated US$100 million a month the remittances now match the value of export earnings. These remittances, which represent the sweat and sacrifice of the Zimbabwean expatriate community, who in many cases eke a living in the Diaspora to support families back at home, have therefore become an important and reliable source of hard currency for Zimbabwe.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has become notorious for printing the trillions of Zimbabwe dollars used to purchase foreign currency on the streets, thus fuelling the depreciation of our currency as well as run-away inflation, now estimated at more than 24 000 percent.

The hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans, who have access to the US$100 million remitted monthly by relatives in the Diaspora, now make regular shopping pilgrimages to South Africa, Botswana and, of all the places, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. Mozambique has even dispensed with the need for visas in order to facilitate the inflow of foreign currency brought into the country by desperate Zimbabweans.

Exiled Zimbabweans now represent a reliable source of considerable levels of foreign currency for their arrogant and ungrateful government. Their foreign currency remittances also cushion ordinary Zimbabweans from the suffering that their government otherwise inflicts upon them daily.

If Zimbabwean exiles were to withhold these remittances, that action would have an immediate and catastrophic impact on the Zimbabwean economy, apart from condemning millions of Zimbabweans to abject poverty and the threat of instant starvation. Petroleum supplies would be instantly crippled, for instance. So would the already diminished supply of electricity, a large percentage of which is imported from neighbouring countries.

While the Diaspora community now plays a crucial role in sustaining their country's economy and ensuring the welfare of citizens, they are not officially recognized by their government. In fact they are ridiculed, especially by President Robert Mugabe.

They are denied the vote. Zimbabwe faces landmark elections in March which, for the first time, will harmonize presidential, parliamentary and local government polls.

While the Diaspora community will not vote, they have the power to influence the outcome of the election. They, in fact, constitute a powerful voting block. Their hard-earned foreign currency remittances could easily become their ballot paper if wisely used.

If the entire Diaspora population were to withhold any remittances to Zimbabwe during the month of February, the last month before the March 2008 elections, that action would have profound ramifications on the conduct and outcome of the elections.

The government would be denied of 50 percent of the foreign currency available to it at a crucial period. Deprived of foreign currency ordinary Zimbabweans, the electorate, would be confronted by the harsh reality of the extent to which they have become dependent on the goodwill of kith and kin in the Diaspora.

In the absence of the US$100 million safety cushion, which is inflated from the Diaspora, the population would suddenly come face-to-face with the ravages of the economic melt-down. Even the rural electorate would approach the polling stations in a state of unmitigated anger. The task of the opposition would be to ensure that all registered voters actually go to the polls on election day.

Smith was dislodged from power in 1980 through a protracted and bloody guerilla war waged from outside the country. Mugabe could, likewise, be defeated, partly through such a bloodless coup orchestrated from the Diaspora

Yes, our people may suffer as a result but that is a sacrifice they may have to make for the future well-being of our nation. Zimbabweans made worse sacrifices and took greater risks during the protracted war of independence. Provision would be allowed in life-threatening situations, such as the purchase of medical prescriptions.

Suffering and sacrifice are indispensable elements of any revolution inspired by the quest for political change.

It is absurd that the citizens of Zimbabwe should collectively sit back while waiting for President Thabo Mbeki to reach out across the Limpopo to deliver them from suffering and humiliation at the hands of those they elected to power long before Mbeki became president. Neither should Zimbabweans expect Tsvangirai and Mutambara, each in his own way to rescue them, while they subject them to incessant and arrogant criticism and condemnation.

For this strategy to achieve maximum effect Zimbabwean politicians would have to play a complementary role in the national interest. Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara, Jonathan Moyo, and any other progressive politicians in the ranks of the opposition would have to cast their petty, divisive and ethnic differences aside to mount a united campaign against Zanu-PF. If Mugabe and PF-Zapu leader, the late Dr Joshua Nkomo, could join hands in the interests of national salvation, why should Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube not be able to do so?

Dr Simba Makoni, who has not denied persistent reports, especially in the British press, that he is planning to launch a new political party, should seriously consider joining hands with existing opposition politicians. Otherwise he and retired general, Solomon Mujuru, said to be his ally, will forever be condemned for splitting the opposition campaign while strengthening the hand of a beleaguered Mugabe a few weeks before the elections.

Sections of the seemingly omniscient British press may say they are the most serious challenge ever to be faced by Mugabe within his party, but the elections scheduled for much will not be Zanu-PF primaries.

Zimbabweans must of necessity assume ownership of the process of post-independence liberation and democratization. They must look back with pride well into the future and be able to say without hesitation, "We liberated ourselves twice from the ravages of discrimination, oppression, deprivation, dictatorship and humiliation."

Despite an aura of arrogance and invincibility, Mugabe and Zanu-PF are certainly not invincible.-The Zimbabwe Times.

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