Robert Wilson
New Member
Hi everyone. The longterm President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, recently celebrated his 89th birthday and has pledged to run for another 5 year term once national elections are called. What do you think of this? Do you think he should retire or should have retired long ago? Do you think he is a national hero or a criminal?
My personal opinion on the matter is that although Mr Mugabe has done a lot for his country it would have been best for him and for his country to retire in the year 2000 after 20 years in power. The western press, especially so in the United Kingdom and some in South Africa, paint him as some sort of mad man dictator. Now of course there are questions around recent elections but the British presses obsession with the land question and the tiny number of white settlers involved to me smacks of racism and nolstagia for the days of the illegal Rhodesia regime. I don't know but I think when one looks at the struggle against imperialism, the education system that he built (one of the best in Africa) and the fact that he did eventually solve the land question should give him credit. But then again his unwilliness to give up power, the election violence, his role in the ethnic violence in the early 80s, the ruined economy of the early 2000s might well have destroyed what could have been a good legacy.
Would be interested in what other people think.
(A bit of disclosure about myself I spent the years 1978 to 1983 as a primary schoolkid in Zimabawe. My parents were settlers from Northern Ireland and we lived in Bulawayo.)
My personal opinion on the matter is that although Mr Mugabe has done a lot for his country it would have been best for him and for his country to retire in the year 2000 after 20 years in power. The western press, especially so in the United Kingdom and some in South Africa, paint him as some sort of mad man dictator. Now of course there are questions around recent elections but the British presses obsession with the land question and the tiny number of white settlers involved to me smacks of racism and nolstagia for the days of the illegal Rhodesia regime. I don't know but I think when one looks at the struggle against imperialism, the education system that he built (one of the best in Africa) and the fact that he did eventually solve the land question should give him credit. But then again his unwilliness to give up power, the election violence, his role in the ethnic violence in the early 80s, the ruined economy of the early 2000s might well have destroyed what could have been a good legacy.
Would be interested in what other people think.
(A bit of disclosure about myself I spent the years 1978 to 1983 as a primary schoolkid in Zimabawe. My parents were settlers from Northern Ireland and we lived in Bulawayo.)
