Mugabe is losing favour
June 26, 2008
Not that that’s exactly news, of course — since he steered the economy of Zimbabwe into the ground and begain a racist program of driving white farmers off of their land, Robert Mugabe has earned himself a laundry-list of detractors and opponents around the world.
But Queen Elizabeth II seems to be especially displeased:
The Associated Press LONDON - The Queen has stripped Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of his honorary knighthood.
The highly unusual move is meant to show Britain’s displeasure over alleged human rights abuses by Mugabe’s administration. The Queen acted Wednesday on the advice of British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
Miliband says Mugabe should have the honour revoked because of widespread violence and intimidation of Zimbabwe’s opposition ahead of a presidential run-off vote scheduled for Friday.
I suppose one could ask the question of why this was not done sooner, but perhaps it can be taken as a signal that the British government has more or less given up hope on the Mugabe regime, whereas before they had been attempting to effect change in the nation by working with him. But since he appears to have stolen yet another election in order to retain power, perhaps now the British Foreign Office are throwing up their hands and saying “to hell with ‘im.”
(The Queen, though she has the power to revoke the knighthood of anybody without having to consult the government (at least as far as I understand the process), typically won’t make such an overtly political statement, or undertake such an overtly political action, absent the behest of the British government.)
Regardless, it’s a welcome development. One can only coddle dictators for so long — after a while, only de-legitimizing them, both in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of their people, will work against them, either to force them out of power or to force them to change their policies. The British know as much, for this was how — by way of Poland — Margaret Thatcher (along with the U.S. and especially the Pope) approached the issue of breaking up the Soviet Union.
