Obama and Tsvangirai: Victims of Organised Media Onslaughts?

Published on 22nd September 2009

Obama and Tsvangirai                   Photo courtesy
The political parties which brought economic ruin to Zimbabwe and the US are now unashamedly in the forefront of stifling progress through obstruction, misinformation and fear-mongering. The irony is that these countries are in dire need of sweeping reforms in order to stop further haemorrhaging. 

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President Obama both took office in 2009 inheriting gargantuan mess. The US annual Census Bureau report of 2009 showed that George Bush’s “economic legacy is failure on every statistic.” Similarly, Mugabe caused Zimbabwe to become the world’s worst economy ever, whose inflation (of over 500 million percent) set world record. 

With striking similarities, the litany of failures of George Bush and Robert Mugabe are mind-boggling. Never mind the enduring debate of illegitimacy emanating from stolen elections of 2000 (for Bush) and 2002/2008 (for Mugabe). Their obsession with power plunged the two countries into severe economic and political crisis causing untold hardships to ordinary citizens. With the approval of their Republican and Zanu PF stooges in Congress and Government, both men engaged in wars of choice in Iraq and Democratic Republic of Congo respectively, contemptuous of world opinion. 

The two nations are paying dearly to this day. US did not get the international support required, causing tremendous strain and pain. To date over 4300 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq with a corresponding cost of nearly $1 trillion. Zimbabwe’s death toll in the DRC adventure remains an official secret. The cost of the war caused a precipitous decline of the economy in 2000 while Mugabe’s ill-conceived policies that followed rendered Zimbabwe a pariah state. There is also the irrefutable evidence of war profiteering by the Military Industrial Complex as one of the driving forces in both cases. 

During his six-year tenure as governor of Texas, Bush (once dubbed a serial executor) approved 152 executions, the most in recent history. Some of the inmates on death row are being freed now as DNA evidence continues to exonerate them. Mugabe’s executions never needed any guise of law as he is the law himself. Towards the build-up to the falsified Iraq war, President Nelson Mandela described Bush as a “president who has no foresight — who cannot think properly — is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust” Likewise he described Mugabe’s rule as a “tragic failure of leadership.” 

In the US, misinformation is propagated by an irresponsible corporatist media and senior Republican Party officials bent on blowing away Obama’s political capital by any means. Rush Limbaugh, America’s most listened talk-radio host and Fox News’ Glenn Beck are considered defacto leaders of the Republican Party. American politics is largely influenced by the power of the media. 

This year alone Limbaugh and Beck called Obama a ‘Nazi’ and also labeled the Obama White House a “Nazi organization.” They have successfully made Obama an object of ridicule 24/7. They have helped organize massive Tea Parties to protest Obama’s reform efforts on healthcare and the economy. The biggest casualty has been public discourse which has suffered immensely as partisan politics ratcheted up. 

They have been highly successful. Day by day Obama’s poll numbers are plummeting while the people’s confidence in him is waning. It is quite paradoxical that those protesting Obama’s reform agenda accusing him of socialism and big spending were totally invisible during the Bush years as he deregulated Wall Street and racked up $1 trillion worth of debt pursuing a war of aggression against a country that had nothing to do with 9-11 attacks. 

President Obama partly has himself to blame for taking media wars for granted knowing well that US media is a corporatist monopoly with vested interests in the issues of the day. He dragged his feet in taking the media head on. For instance the Australian-born global media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox News (Cable), The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Weekly Standard among many others, is heavily criticized for being the power-base behind the Republican Party. He supported the Iraq War describing Bush as acting ‘very morally, very correctly.” 

Celebrating Obama’s recent misery, Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, one of leading critics, described President Obama as a mere mortal coming back to earth. “What has occurred, irreversibly, is this: He (Obama) has become ordinary. The spell is broken. The charismatic conjurer of 2008 has shed his magic.” 

Similarly, Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who survived brutal beatings and treason charges has always been under severe attack from State media and its surrogates. Zanu PF has wantonly frustrated hopes of instituting a fully-functioning inclusive government. They fear that a democratic Zimbabwe will expose their crimes against humanity, in addition to being a threat to their ill-gotten economic privileges. 

Likewise, in Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been exceptionally indulgent with Zanu PF even as the party continues to violate key terms of the inclusive government’s GPA. PM Tsvangirai was hoping that the regional body, SADC, was going to call Mugabe to order. So far SADC and the African Union have proved to be deceivers bent on entrenching Mugabe. MDC has proved that it has the interests of the people at heart, hence the unprecedented efforts to stay the course in spite of Zanu PF’s bullying tactics, selfishness and unequivocal intransigence. 

President Obama summoned a joint session of Congress to confront the rumors and lies related to the contentious efforts to reform the healthcare system. “Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics.” Hoping to firmly dispel the myths, President Obama stated that “Some have dug into unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise. Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge. And out of this blizzard of charges and counter-charges, confusion has reigned.” Insurance and big pharmaceutical companies are sponsoring the resistance through the Republican Party. Essentially, ordinary people are fighting against their own interests! 

Realizing that he was squandering his chances to lead, Obama has gone on a strong offensive dismissing ‘death panel’ rumors that his healthcare plan sought to kill seniors. President Obama dismissed them as “A lie, plain and simple”. The media fanned the rumors just like many other delusional conspiracy theories which portrayed Obama as a Muslim and someone who was not born in the US. With the help of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, the Birther Movement is hysterical about the falsehoods. They are searching for false birth certificates to prove that Obama is not a US citizen. 

 Just as the Republican Party accuses President Obama for pushing a socialist agenda, Zanu PF has continued with its unfounded allegations that Prime Minister Tsvangirai is an imperialist agent seeking to undo ‘sovereignty.’ They have improvised labels and lies which seek to paint Obama as unpatriotic, unfit to lead, weak, un-American and a Nazi. True to Goebbels’ playbook, they have mastered the art of slandering. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” 

Those familiar with Republican Party’s Karl Rove, dubbed George Bush’s brain, from his days as Governor of Texas right through to the White House, will testify to Rove’s slash and burn politics. He is best known for planting fictitious stories that slander political opponents. Rove’s operation successfully decimated John McCain, a formidable opponent of George Bush in 2000 whom he accused of fathering a black child. Karl Rove was the invisible hand that ripped John Kerry to shreds by ’swiftboating’ and painting him as a dishonest and dishonorable Vietnam Vet ‘unfit to be president’ thereby securing a fresh presidential term for George Bush. 

Didn’t we see the same dirty tricks employed by Zanu PF? As Zanu PF gets ready to re-embrace it’s own Karl Rove/Joseph Goebbels, Jonathan Moyo, his colleagues in Zanu PF were quick to exalt him. “He has done so much for the party. I hope that his application would be favourable. I worked well with him, as you know. He made immense contribution to our fight against imperialism and neo-colonialism. He ranks among the patriots.” Said Chinamasa referring to Jonathan Moyo, a conveniently enthusiastic admirer of Mugabe. 

He is an evil schemer, who calculated exactly how to fool Zanu PF once again. For that he deserves being rescued from oblivion, he campaigned hard for it. However he has satisfied the curiosity of the public. But this is a rude awakening for MDC. It’s a perfect political storm that is brewing. Jonathan Moyo’s recent diatribe exposed the hollowness of Zanu PF. Over the years he has barely disguised his personal resentment for Prime Minister Tsvangirai. 

But of course, the people of Zimbabwe are scornful of the ‘evil professor’ who in essence has always been a Zanu PF operative in the shadows. Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe’s former propaganda minister and attack dog, wielded unprecedented power over TV, Radio and Press. He helped secure the ‘Emperor’s throne by spewing hatred and vitriol, telling half-truths and outright lies, through misinformation and disinformation, all disguised as national enlightenment, just like Goebbels did to the Germans. 

Joseph Goebbels must feel flattered in his grave to learn that there is an African political party (Zanu PF) which continues to emulate his German Nazi Party decades after he is long gone. MDC must be on high alert to counter Moyo’s deceptions. Could it be a coincidence that H-Metro is a Jonathan Moyo project and that Moyo is rejoining Zanu PF? 

Fascist demagoguery permeates the entire Zanu PF establishment. It is not uncommon to hear Mugabe mimicking Goebbels with the slogan “Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans” similar to “German for Germans”. Zanu PF continues to use political myths and borrowed terms like ‘imperialism’, ’sovereignty’ and ‘neocolonialism’ to label MDC so as to divert attention from its colossal failures of leadership. Zanu PF stooges have given him all the support he needs in part because the fear the consequences of falling out of favor with Mugabe. 

 Similarly, the Republican Party leadership is steadfast in its efforts to ‘break’ Obama. Jim DeMint, a Senior Republican Senator from South Carolina eloquently summed it up recently when he stated, “If we’re able to stop Obama on this (healthcare), it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” Rush Limbaugh was unambiguous from the onset when told the nation that he “wants Obama to fail.” Similar attacks are being directed towards Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Steve Anderson, a pastor and sympathizer of the Republican party openly prayed for Obama’s death recently. 

The US Republican Party provides many sobering lessons that help us debunk Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF party. Just like the Zimbabwean scenario, Republicans refuse to be part of any meaningful reform initiative championed by Obama’s Democratic Party because passage of such reforms is tantamount to aiding re-election of Obama in 2012. Paul Mangwana delivered a ‘class act’ that revealed more about Zanu PF mentality and its determination to obstruct constitutional reform and many other national obligations. Against a backdrop of a series of tricks, contrivances and stratagems continuously employed by Zanu PF, and in spite of MDC’s unwavering commitment and good intentions, Prime Minister Tsvangirai has finally consoled many of us when he issued an ultimatum which sent an unambiguous message that the GNU is after all reversible. 

By Dr Paul Mutuzu

Co-Founder, National Vision Institute.


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