Zimbabwe and Singapore prove that all dictatorships are not created equal – Part 2
By Bishop Dave Chikosi
“In the end what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given? My life” – Lee Kuan Yew
The difference between the dictatorship of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) of Singapore and that of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe (RGM) of Zimbabwe is worthy of careful study.
Whereas Singapore has something to show, economically, for its 31 years of authoritarian rule, Zimbabwe has very little to show for 36 years of its own authoritarianism.
What greater good has been produced as a result of political repression in Zimbabwe? Is the citizenry better off after nearly four decades of being denied freedom of speech and assembly, of being brutalized by the police, of rigged elections, of a grisly genocide and wanton abduction of political activists? None.
Instead we have become the laughingstock of the world. When friends from places like Mozambique ask you, “So how is Zimbabwe?” with that tone of voice, you know we are in deep horse manure.
Our fellow Africans from neighboring countries know and bemoan the fact that we were once the envy of most of Africa. Stuff worked. There was an orderliness and cleanliness about Harare that gave you a good feeling even on a day that you woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
You walked tall as you strolled down those mesmerizing jacaranda tree-lined avenues. The streets were immaculately paved and First Street Mall was where “it was all happening.”
But now to say Harare is a shadow of its former self may be to overstate the case. But I digress.
Massive Success Could Have Drowned Out Voices of Dissent
Whereas political repression was the price Singapore paid for economic development and social stability, Zimbabwe’s homegrown totalitarianism has produced no such greater good or benefit for its people.
Indeed the only reason why Singapore’s first Prime Minister could get away with his despotism was because of the economic success that he was able to achieve and then present to his people as the trade-off.
It’s not rocket science. Massive success in any field of endeavor has a way of drowning out voices of dissent and criticism.
You can’t argue with success.
If you are Singapore’s LKY, and you grow your country’s economy eightfold within 20 years from independence, enabling your nation to have the 8th largest GDP per capita in the world, who is going to pick a political fight with you?
It’s remarkable that this tiny island state has more millionaires per capita than any G7 country.
Singapore is the 5th richest country in the world, ahead of the USA. Its economy is known as the “freest, most innovative, most competitive, and most business friendly” (McMullan).
Singaporeans’ average life expectancy is 83 years. No one is homeless. Virtually everyone has a job. The place is said to run “like a Swiss watch.”
Ideological claptrap does not feed hungry tummies
With that kind of track record, it’s not hard to figure out how LKY got away with all that repression. People will forgive your political sins and look the other way as long as their bellies are full.
However, if they are hungry, all your Oxford and Cambridge speech eloquence will not help. A hungry man is an angry man, and no-one understood this better than LKY.
He understood that ideological claptrap does not feed hungry stomachs. And therefore he ditched tired Communist rhetoric that is helping put foreign direct investment (FDI) to flight in Zimbabwe, in favor of pragmatic economic.
It is interesting to note how history credits Chairman Deng Xiaoping with developing China into “one of the fastest-growing economies in the world” and for raising the standard of living of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens.
But what is often not mentioned is that China’s paramount leader only announced his open door policy after touring Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore in 1978.
He saw how economic pragmatism, not ideological gibberish, had catapulted Singapore to dizzy heights of economic development and success. He went home a changed man, and China has never been the same since.
Fish Should Not Be Trying to Climb Trees
Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, we have failed to realize that a good freedom fighter does not always, or necessarily, make a good nation builder.
Freedom fighters are trained to kill and destroy, and yes there is a time and season for that.
But it’s wrong, to paraphrase Einstein, to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. If you do you will live the rest of your life thinking that fish are stupid.
The genius of a fish does not lie in climbing trees. If you want to see the genius of a fish, put it in water.
Unfortunately in Zimbabwe we have plenty of fish trying to climb trees, and it hasn’t worked. We have heroic men and women who were geniuses in prosecuting the war of liberation. When the war ended they thought that they could climb the tree of nation building just as well as they could navigate the waters of the armed struggle.
But the transition from plucking up and pulling down to building, planting and nurturing is not that easy for most. This is why we need fresh minds and hearts to tackle Zimbabwe’s epic economic meltdown.
Fortunately for Singapore, LKY recognized early on that running a country is too important a job to leave to idiots. And so he set about to recruit smart and skilled people to run the government.
But in Zimbabwe we have done the opposite. Instead of the government recruiting and retaining smart and savvy people to help run the country, it has run these same people out of town.
And now these same geniuses can be found everywhere in the diaspora running international institutions and heading successful corporations. Ko chiiko nhai?
Corruption – Zimbabwe’s New Religion
Singapore was blessed enough to have a leader who was tough on corruption. LKY authorized the government’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) to search, investigate and arrest persons accused of graft, regardless how connected they were to the system.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ZAAC) has been called a toothless bulldog especially after recently failing to arrest government officials accused of graft. And why no arrests? Political interference at the highest level.
Is it any wonder why Zimbabwe is ranked 150th out of 168 countries on the Transparency International index that measures levels of corruption? Pathetic.
The same Transparency International also says that the nation is losing around $1 billion per year to corruption, with police and local government officials among the worst offenders.
Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti once said that if corruption was a religion, ZanuPF would have several popes and bishops.
I say that with a bloated government of some 40 Cabinet ministers plus 20 deputies, you have enough popes and bishops to convert the entire country to this false religion.
But we must stop this religious cult before the entire populace is corrupted by its heretical and damnable gospel.
God help us all.
[Bishop Dave Chikosi pastors a nondenominational church in Michigan USA. He studied Business Ethics and Marketplace Theology at postgraduate level. He can be reached at [email protected]]
