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Saturday, June 28, 2008

One Man Election in Zimbabwe

Mugabe and Pak Lah - The Blues Brothers

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Widespread voter intimidation and low turnout marked Zimbabwe’s one-candidate presidential runoff Friday, further damaging the vote designed to bolster longtime President Robert Mugabe’s credibility.

Residents said they were forced to vote, threatened by violence, arson or roving bands of government supporters searching for those without an ink-stained finger.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the runoff citing a campaign of state-sponsored violence, said the results would “reflect only the fear of the people.”

“What is happening today is not an election. It is an exercise in mass intimidation,” he said at a news conference.

Dozens of opposition supporters have been killed and thousands of people injured prior to Friday’s vote, which is expected only to deepen the nation’s political and economic crisis.

Fear and intimidation contrasted with the excitement and hope for change that marked the first round of voting in March. Reporters and independent observers saw low turnout Friday. As polls closed at 7 p.m., officials at one Harare station said they hadn’t seen a voter for several hours.

Voting to be safe

Paramilitary police in riot gear deployed in a central Harare park, then began patrolling the city. Militant Mugabe supporters roamed the streets, singing revolutionary songs, heckling people and asking why they were not voting.

“I’ve got no option but to go and vote so that I can be safe,” explained a young woman selling tomatoes.

More...


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Jake Mugabe

Elwood Badawi

The whole world is eying on Zimbabwe’s one man election day where as it seem to be a deadly poll for the people. “We have to vote to be safe” said a voter. The democracy policy was raped as Mugabe used intimidation to warn his opposition. Last few weeks, he told the people that there might be civil war if opposition leaders continue their campaign. What makes Mugabe that strong? Mugabe is supported by regime as it is normal political scenario in Africa. In fact, during the Congo civil war, Mugabe has sent his troop to support the regime.

Mugabe was blamed for Zimbabwe's participation in the Second Congo War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At a time when the Zimbabwean economy was struggling, Zimbabwe responded to a call by the Southern African Development Community to help the struggling regime in Kinshasa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had been invaded by Rwanda and Uganda, both of which claimed that their civilians, and regional stability, were under constant threat of attack by various terrorist groups based in the Congo.However, the Congolese government, as well as international commentators, charged that the motive for the invasion was to grab the rich mineral resources of eastern Congo.The war raised accusations of corruption, with officials alleged to be plundering the Congo's mineral reserves. Mugabe's defence minister Moven Mahachi said, "Instead of our army in the DRC burdening the treasury for more resources, which are not available, it embarks on viable projects for the sake of generating the necessary revenue". More references here…

The way democracy is practice in Malaysia and Zimbabwe is similar. There are two way to get support from the people. One is through intimidation, and another one is through money or any form of persuasion. As for Mugabe, gun is used in his political campaign but Malaysia uses money and title to get in the politic arena. Last few weeks, SAPP was intimidated with disciplinary action towards Yong Teck Lee and his clans. It was said that he was offered a “senator” post to get him in the Barisan Nasional dacing in order to make it balance. This few days we see the “government” is doing general cleaning in Sabah regarding on the illegal immigrant issue. Why only now? I believe that UMNO has enough support from “Project IC” which was launched legally by the “government”. “Now everybody can stay” is the best idiom to those who have IMM13 document though they are making money as a refugee.

Pak Lah should accept the no-confidence vote from SAPP as a motivation to lead Malaysia as whole. Hence, he should react by resigning from his post since Barisan Nasional has lost 5 states during the political tsunami. He failed to ensure the economic stability of the country. That is why we should never ask an art graduate to do accounting because money will go to somewhere else. The re-structure of oil subsidy is just to reduce the small group of diesel smuggler instead of to help the people with RM 150.00 fuel rebate per year. Fortunately, this is an under control country where there is no permit to be given for peace assembly or else some may get wet with by chemical water canon.

3 comments:

Mike Brady said...

It will be interesting to see how the African Union and other nations follow up on criticism of the election.

The world has a poor record when it comes to dealing with leaders lacking legitimacy. In Iraq the sanctions regime killed many children. Invasion has caused more suffering.

Perhaps leaders can come up with an effective solution. There are proposals elsewhere for weighting votes at the United Nations based on population size and democratic legitimacy - on this model Zimbabwe would have its vote cut drastically, having symbolic and practical implications.

There needs to be great care in meddling in how a country governs itself, but, at the same time, we need to find a better way to protect people's democratic rights, which is something being explored by the Simultaneous Policy campaign. More thoughts on this at:
http://globaljusticeideas.blogspot.com/2008/06/save-zimbabwe.html

Anonymous said...

tbs, another news on Bengoh Dam. Yeah, the usual crooks..

Project: Bengoh Dam
Main Contractor: Naim Cendera
Contract cost: RM310.65m

Naim Cendera website release:
http://www.naimcendera.com/future2.asp
CONSTRUCTION OF BENGOH DAM, KUCHING
Once completed, this 63 metre high by 267 metre long dam will have a capacity of 144 million cubic metres (1m3=1,000kg or 1 tonne) and will produce a lake with a surface area of approximately 10km square. Designed to secure Kuching's water supply for the foreseeable future, the dam will be only the second in Malaysia to be constructed using Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) technology, which offers a projected service life of 100 years. The package also includes ancillary buildings, infrastructure and associated works, and resettlement of the affected communities.

Press release:
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/7/24/business/18386034&sec=business
Tuesday July 24, 2007
Naim gets new project
KUALA LUMPUR: Naim Cendera Holdings Bhd told Bursa Malaysia that it has won a RM310.65mil contract for the construction of the Bengoh Dam in Kuching. – AFX-Asia

Sub-Contractor: Sino Hydro Corp. (China)
Sub-Contract cost: RM145m

Press release:
http://www.sinohydro.com/servlet/Report?node=56780&language=1
Sinohydro Corporation Won the Bidding of Malaysia Bengoh Water Supply Project
Malaysia Item Department2008-02-20
In February 2nd the Eighth Bureau of Sinohydro Corporation received the letter officially issued by the owner of Malaysia Bengoh water supply project, the total price is 145,000,000 Malaysia Ringgit (approximately 45,000,000 US dollars), which lays a solid foundation for the develpoment of Sinohydro Corporation in the Southeast Asia market.
Bengoh water supply project is the municipal administration public facility invested by Malaysia Federal State, which belongs to the international market non-water and electricity project. This project is located in the Kuching administrative area under the government of Malaysian Sarawak State, which is 42 kilometers away from Kuching urban district and the exterior transportation condition is good. The project is the inpounding and intake water project, mainly provides clean water source for downstream 30 kilometer place Batu Water Treatment Factory to solves the clean water source problem of Sarawak State capital Kuching city. The project includes a roller compacted concrete dam, intake water tank structure, upstream boat slope constructure and operating control office. The total excavation amount is approximately 305,000 cubic meters, the roller compaction concrete is 150,000 cubic meters and habit concrete 20,000 is cubic meters. The project is conducted by the way of primary contractor project, the total time limit is to plan to complete in 30 months.

Contract cost difference:
RM310.65m - RM145m = RM165.65m

So the difference go to where?
Piling jobs? Access road bridges jobs?

Wake up Bidayuhs, the leaders Bidayuh YBs MPs basically killed, robbed own Bidayuhs in broad daylight.

Anonymous said...

what the hell is that!. Yesterday i heard the promise from Dawos and Jerip. But now where they leave their promise. Can i say "membasuh tangan dari debu". Because they are walk to have a voice from our community but when they are receive their title they are leaving us. Stay at late! our bidayuh community is explicitly deprived because they have unseen YB,s.
Yesterday, i heard the Jerip talking to the Chee How about why should NCR for Bengoh kampong are taken without permission from villagers. But now , where is the Jerip. Before i going to pursued my study on SMK TAR, and now to local universty, he are promised to send me to their kolej cermai jaya, so, why he not send me to kolej cari jodoh. Thank you god because does not let me to continue my study at KCJ. Maybe Jerip was promised me a title of scholarship but he were just killing me softly because of money. Now they are conspiracy with our leader Manyin, and Dawos to battled us with the shit of Bengoh Dam. And at the future january 2009 they would slaugthered our 199 family to the shit of DIE MEDAN!
BULL! why not just given the compensation the budd of 20-30% to our voice of TBS and thus takikasung blogs rather than give it to DBNA, BGA and so forth.