IT is November 2008. The fiasco which commenced on March 29 2008 continues in Zimbabwe.
The process lumbers on with no end in sight and no relief for the struggling masses in the rural and urban areas. But visit the dollar shops in the smart suburbs of Harare and you might think you are in paradise. The middle-class blacks and the white diplomats and the white locals exude an aura which speaks “Crisis? What Crisis? There is no Crisis!”Africa has about 55 countries, of which maybe as many as five can be classified as not being dictatorships. Maybe three of the 50 can be classified as anti-Western dictatorships. The other 47 are pro-Western dictatorships. A similar situation obtains throughout the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia and South America. Zimbabwe is the foremost of the three African anti-Western dictatorships.This situation suits the West and China pretty well —— minerals and oil are available at knock-down prices. By means of direct presidential-level corruption, royalty payments and tax levels for international corporations are at very low rates. The fact that the people of these 47+3 countries are excessively poor, have no effective health or education systems, have limited freedom and human rights is of no great concern to this unholy alliance between the local dictator-president, the Chinese exploiters and the Western exploiters (disguised as diplomats and business-men).How to overturn this immoral applecart? Easy —— create a voting system which cannot be frauded by Mugabe, Kibaki, Obasanjo, Lansana Conte and Omar Bongo put together. Implement it in any country. From there on the ball rolls downhill, the Pandora’s box has been opened. The weapon of mass liberation has been unleashed. The dictator-presidents become yesterday’s men, forced to eke out a meagre existence in the top hotels of London, Paris, Miami, Saint Tropez, Mauritius and Kuala Lumpur. 50+% of the world’s population are liberated, they have hope, they have a future which promises freedom and prosperity.But it has been done. Two years ago I invented such a voting system designed for national (presidential and parliamentary) elections in the most difficult conditions in the third world.Why has the West not rushed to implement this? Why have China and Britain described the system as “dangerous”? Why has the pro-democracy organisation International Idea in Sweden stated that the system has “undesirable implications”? Why are the Carter Centre and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems hostile?Maybe Mugabe has got some of it right. Maybe the West are not what they seem. Maybe their public and their private actions are sometimes contrary.The voting system, or some variation of it, would have blown Mugabe and Zanu PF out of the water. A plus for the West, but the Pandora’s box would have been opened. The three anti-Western dictatorships in Africa would be de-materialised. But also would be the 47 pro-Western dictatorships. The accountants have been busy. They did their sums.More profitable to suppress this system and similar systems for as many years or decades as possible. What about the suffering masses in Zimbabwe and throughout the third world? They are not white. They are poor. They are expendable. The situation can be contained. We have done it before. We can do it again.
By Alex Weir: Harare-based freelance software developer. Find his voting system at cd3wd.com
