The Hindu : Commonwealth games

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 11, 2003

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Commonwealth games

THE WITHDRAWAL OF Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth has bared the scandalous manner in which three countries — Britain, Australia and New Zealand — dominate and set the agenda for the 53-member association of former British colonies. Against the wishes of several African nations, which along with countries in Asia make up the bulk of the group's members, the "big three" aggressively insisted on and succeeded in extending the 2002 suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth for its failure to meet international standards of good governance and democracy. Their refusal to see the wisdom of the African viewpoint, that it might be better to engage Zimbabwe than to isolate it, consumed the just-concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Abuja, Nigeria. This was at the cost of constructive discussion on other more pressing issues such as HIV/AIDS, illiteracy, hunger and poverty that the member-countries face. The fiasco has rightly provoked questions about the relevance of the Commonwealth and the benefits that member-countries get out of it beyond the privilege of association and the dubious sentimental bond of a shared colonial past.

The entire episode is all the more shocking because of the smell of double standards emanating from it. For this reason, Zimbabwe can hardly be blamed for its pre-emptive walkout from the grouping before the decision to extend its suspension was read out. Britain and Australia were two of the countries to spurn international norms when they joined the United States to invade Iraq without the backing of the United Nations. The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, played a major role in ratcheting up the keep-Zimbabwe-out campaign but his conduct in relation to Pakistan, the other bad boy of the Commonwealth, has been a study in contrast. Pakistan was suspended in 1999 after the military coup that saw President Pervez Musharraf seizing power. Though Pakistan has fallen short of Commonwealth expectations on the return to democracy and remains suspended, Mr. Blair was reportedly campaigning to have it re-admitted this year as a reward for its cooperation in the "war on terror". In fact, Britain's diplomacy with Pakistan, if not the failure of the war against Iraq, should have been adequate evidence that isolation and punitive action are counter-productive. It can be argued that the international community's policy of engagement with Pakistan more than anything else has led to General Musharraf's steps towards restoring democracy.

There can be little doubt that President Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence from white rule in 1980, has let his country and people down. Once in the pantheon of African liberation heroes along with South Africa's Nelson Mandela, he degenerated into an authoritarian stereotype. He has suppressed Zimbabwe's democratic opposition and the independent press. Mr. Mugabe also failed the challenge of land reform. The distribution of appropriated land to "weekend farmers" among the party faithful rather than to the landless, and the absence of post-reform institutional support have pushed agriculture to the edge of the precipice. The country's suspension from the Commonwealth last year followed his controversial re-election, widely alleged to have been rigged. South Africa and Zambia, President Mugabe's closest allies in the region, have all along contended that the best way out for Zimbabwe is to engage it through "silent diplomacy". The leaders of the two countries were in talks earlier this year with the 79-year-old Mr. Mugabe to persuade him to step down in favour of a new leadership. The Commonwealth would have served its interests and that of the people of Zimbabwe better by supporting these constructive efforts to find a solution instead of pushing Mr. Mugabe into his current isolation.

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