LID Leaders Condemn Britain’s Persecution of Zimbabwe

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LID Leaders Condemn Britain’s Persecution of Zimbabwe

Remarks of President Robert Mugabe in Malaysia

The Langkawi International Dialogue 2002

Political and business leaders attending the Langkawi International Dialogue 2002 (LID) on the island of Langkawi, Malaysia, condemned on Friday the persecution that Zimbabwe is receiving at the hands of Britain and some EU countries.

In a message he delivered on behalf of heads of state and governments attending the Dialogue, Namibian President Sam Nujoma denounced Britain’s "diplomatic terror" on Zimbabwe.

He said developing countries were aware of Britain’s attempts to use the EU and the United States to isolate Zimbabwe. Developing countries rejected the move strongly, he added.

The leaders also condemned an attempt by the British government to interfere in this year’s Dialogue by trying to force the Malaysian government not to invite President Mugabe to the Dialogue.

Evidence of Britain’s machinations has since emerged. Minister of State for International Trade and Development, Baroness Symons, wrote to the chief executive of the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology and Management (CPTM), Mihaela Smith, to "register the UK’s dismay that President Mugabe has been invited to Langkawi".

"I understand that amongst other eminent heads of government, an invitation has been extended to the President of Zimbabwe to participate in the partnership dialogue. While this meeting is not a Commonwealth Council and, therefore, is not covered by the Commonwealth suspension (of Zimbabwe), the fact that other heads of Government will be there means President Mugabe will be received into a high-level discussion."

"This is not acceptable," Baroness Symons wrote in the letter dated July 30, 2002. She added: "The manner in which the economy had been damaged by the Government of Zimbabwe, and the laying to waste of the tremendous potential and skills of the people of Zimbabwe can hardly be an example for other partners to follow. Nor can there be effective dialogue with the head of a regime that so blatantly stifles freedom of expression and ignores the rule of law. I do not think that CPTM should offer him a platform at the formal sessions of the dialogue. Nor should CPTM be involved in the retreat of heads of government."

The leaders in response said that there was a need for Third World countries to unite under such circumstances, as the "diplomatic terror" Zimbabwe was being subjected to might be directed at any one of them in future. The leaders added that developing countries should also unite as "smart partners" and condemn countries such as Britain, which had colonised them for more than 300 years, but were now persecuting them for alleged lack of "good governance" when they had only been independent for about 20 years.

WDIE also adds its voice to the condemnation of Britain for its treatment of Zimbabwe, and its persecution of President Mugabe and the Zimbabwean government. The British government still acts as though it were the colonial power, and lectures Africa on "good governance", which is equated with the parliamentary model, political pluralism. It demands that all states adopt the "western, civilised values", which it asserts are universal values that all should follow to be considered as part of the "international community". The Dialogue in Malaysia gives the lie to this assertion.

It should be noted that the British government’s arrogance in this matter knows no bounds. Baroness Symons remarks are testimony to this. A further example is the treatment of a senior member of the ZANU-PF party at Gatwick airport on Friday, July 26. Joseph Malinga, Deputy Secretary for the disabled in ZANU-PF, was detained – along with his wife – on his arrival at the airport in transit to New York. British officials said that Joseph Malinga was violating EU sanctions, which prevent leading Zimbabwean politicians from travelling abroad.

The Zimbabwean government reacted angrily, saying that Mr Malinga and his wife, who were on their way to a United Nations conference for the disabled, and who are disabled themselves, had been mistreated.

"This is the clearest example that the Brits have gone bananas and are harassing disabled people who should be assisted," ZANU-PF Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said. "To detain someone you don't want in your country, especially who is in a wheelchair... is the height of madness."

The British government said it would not make an exception for Mr Malinga, saying that the EU travel ban had been imposed on people whose policies were "ruining Zimbabwe", it is reported.

Earlier last week, EU foreign ministers had agreed to extend sanctions on the Zimbabwean leadership to include an extra 52 people, among them the First Lady, Grace Mugabe. This is in addition to the 20 – including Robert Mugabe – already covered by the first wave of EU sanctions agreed in February.

While the British government refuses to accept its responsibilities in compensation towards Zimbabwe, not to mention the reparations which are due to the African people for the shameful periods of colonialism and slavery, it continues to act in an outrageous manner, attempting to bully developing countries into adopting Britain’s own programme of neo-liberal globalisation. This is the opposite of civilised behaviour, and is acceptable neither to the countries of Africa and Asia, which are strengthening their unity against it, nor to the British working class and people.

Speaking during a media and culture link being held concurrently with the LID, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe urged the press to be objective and report facts as they are. The link is a meeting between heads of states and journalists to exchange views on various issues including how best they could work together. King Mswati III of Swaziland and several journalists, including those from the BBC, also attended.

Robert Mugabe said there was nothing wrong about the press criticising his government as long as this was done objectively. "But when stories are created, completely false and they are carried by the international press without verification, then the question arises over what kind of Press we have. Is the Press objective or is the Press subjective?"

He said Zimbabwe was not the only country in the world being vilified by the press in the so-called liberal countries, which was owned by private individuals who had their own biases. "We have in Zimbabwe the so-called opposition Press. They will say nothing good, not a single word, of the virtues side of Government. But what they conceive to be vices, that’s what they are writing. Nothing good at all. We are damned; we are demons who deserve to be sentenced and to go to hell. All that we have done, the education system which in our view, is second to none, and that approach in favour of gender . . . no, those things do not matter."

Robert Mugabe said the negative press reports were compounded by the fact that the government had embarked on a resettlement exercise to empower people through agrarian reform. "Land was taken from us by force and no payment was made for it. Now we are taking it back. We will pay compensation but even then we are saying we will not take all the land. There is no farmer being deprived of the land, we are kicking nobody out. But what good do we see in the programme being reported globally in the media? We are taking away whiteman’s land. And this is what they have been projecting, the bad, the bad. And it so happens that in Britain you have a government completely oblivious of the needs of our people and they put out the negative. The BBC has reported nothing good about us, you see. Now how are we expected to respond?"

He continued, "Obviously we will respond also in a manner that is intended to protect us as a Government and in a manner to protect our people. Yes we will arrest people who tell lies. We do not want journalists or reporters to have freedom above everyone else. It's not freedom of the Press to be immoral, to be untruthful, to be a liar. It is freedom of the Press to be learned and to have prescribed morals and standards. That we will accept."

Robert Mugabe said the opposition was always expressing the views of those against the government. The government press would therefore report the views of the government but also criticised some of its policies. For example, when the government does not build schools in some particular areas or when there are shortages of drugs in hospitals.

He said there were certain views which were clearly biased and certain views which were objective but the press in developing countries was always not supportive of governments.

"But you find the trend everywhere. There is a mission of wanting to destroy certain individuals because he does not belong to your camp and you must be saying things that are damaging to that individual all the time," the President said.

He wondered whether a stage could be reached where there would be what he called a "perfect journalist" with more education and more experience.

The Langkawi International Dialogue was inaugurated in 1995, at the suggestion of the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as part of the "International Dialogue on Smart Partnership" series. Similar dialogues in the series – the Southern Africa International Dialogue (SAID) and Eastern Africa International Dialogue (EAID) – are held annually in Africa.

The biennial Langkawi International Dialogue is attended by heads of state and government, senior officials, corporate and labour leaders as well as senior professionals from academia, the media and other key interest groups.

Eighteen heads of state attended LID 2002 from August 1 to 4. Participants from 56 countries also attended the Dialogue. They included delegations from Botswana, the Chief Minister of Bangalore, the President of Burundi, the President of Ghana, the Republic of Kyrgyz President, the Prime Minister of Lesotho, the Prime Minister of Malta, the Prime Minister of Mauritius, the Prime Minister of Mozambique, the President of Namibia, the Nigerian President, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Prime Minister of St Lucia Dr Kenny Anthony, the Vice-President of Seychelles, the Deputy President of South Africa, Sudanese President Omar Hasssan Ahmad Al-Bashir, the King of Swaziland, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

The Smart Partnership concept of the Langkawi International Dialogue (LID) can spur co-operation in developing rural areas, Malaysian Rural Development Minister, Datuk Azmi Khalid, said on Sunday.

"Under this concept, there is no domination by developed nations unlike in other global meetings where developing countries felt they are marginalised although they have many voices but are not heard," he said. The discussions at the Global 2002 LID, held under an informal and open manner, had allowed the participants to share their experiences more effectively.

After having successfully staged six LIDs, the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MiGHT) is proposing to expand the concept to other ASEAN countries.

Some 450 participants took part in the this year’s Dialogue compared with the Global 2000 LID, which saw 350 participants, and the inaugural LID in 1995 which had 250 participants.

When opening the LID on Thursday, the Malaysian Prime Minister hit out at the international media and liberal Western countries which work hard to undermine new developing democracies even to the extent of supporting efforts to overthrow governments.

They could not bring themselves to believe that the people in these countries had democratically elected the governments, said the Prime Minister. "They cannot believe that the natives they had ruled before understand democracy or the rule of law," he said.

If the countries were stable and doing well, the international media and the Western countries accused the leaders as dictators, said Dr Mahathir. "They fabricate stories that although the people support the leaders of these countries enthusiastically, actually they are forced to do so, to shake the hands of these leaders, forced to smile and shout their support," he said.

"Or they would report despite evidence to the contrary that these leaders were ignored by the people, that the people fear them," said Dr Mahathir, who is the Global 2002 host patron and adviser. "For the media and the Western governments, there is nothing right that these governments of the natives can do. And because they have convinced themselves through their own lies that these governments are bad, they would do their best to destabilise these countries. They would support and encourage anyone, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in particular, to overthrow the government," he said.

The Malaysian Prime Minister also said that developing nations should stand together as a group in order to defeat economic terrorism. "We should stand as a group in order to be effective," he declared at a media conference on the sidelines of the Global 2002 Langkawi International Dialogue on Saturday.

In his speech at the Global 2002 reception and opening dinner on Thursday, the prime minister had called for a total war against terrorism, including economic terrorism. But to be able to do so, he said, all parties must first understand what economic terrorism is.

Earlier, a regular LID participant, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, echoed Dr Mahathir's concern over economic terrorism and pointed out that even under the globalisation process economic terrors loomed. He said economic terrorism occurred at the negotiation tables of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and caused its policies to appear lop-sided against developing countries.

Dr Mahathir said Malaysia had formed a task force on globalisation to study its impact, how it is being carried out and how it would affect the country.

Dr Mahathir also said when he remarked that a country had attracted a major foreign investment away from Malaysia by using US$200 million as "bait", he intended to show that developing countries now had to compete with developed countries as well for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). "That means developing countries have to compete with developed countries for FDI. In a way, we will compete with them but it is an unfair competition," he added.

In opposition to this view, Christopher Beale of the Institute of Directors from Britain said that business can be seen as a hero and not a villain if global capitalism responds to problems with the imagination and creativity of which it is capable. He said if this could be realised, it would bring global capitalism a little closer to what Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said in Tokyo last year.

Dr Mahathir had said that "there could be total oppression of the weak by the strong as capitalism runs riot, or there could be a world democracy where the resources of the world are combined with human ingenuity to create the greatest human civilisation ever".

Speaking at the Global 2002 on Friday, Christopher Beale said although the problems were still enormous, the world had now become a better and fairer place as former anarchist Johan Norberg had said in his book "In Defence of Global Capitalism".

"We cannot assume they (multinationals) were all bad, all paying lip service to an ideal. Surely, the inward investment of multinationals had moved well beyond the predatory concept. If companies don't take account of local needs, they cannot and should not survive," he said in his speech entitled, "Globalisation, the new realities: Multinationals – exploiters or partners?". Beale admitted that there were bad apples in the basket and acknowledged the terrible harm done by companies by Enron, WorldCom and others over recent months but alleged that they were not representative of the vast mass of business.

At the conclusion of the 2002 Langkawi International Dialogue, Tan Sri Dr Omar Abdul Rahman, adviser to the board of MiGHT, said that the 2002 Dialogue had been acclaimed as the best ever held since the series began in 1995.

There was a lot of soul-searching and self-criticism to aid planning to prepare for the next Dialogue in Swaziland in September next year, he said. But Global 2002 LID had had four new heads of governments participating. They were from Ghana, Rwanda, Mauritius and Kyrgyz Republic. Dr Omar said he was delighted that the four new participating countries had immediately embraced "smart partnership" and committed to see continuity in its implementation.