Tuesday, March 31, 2009

SADC: violating election results is only OK if you're the incumbent

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has, in an unprecedent move, suspended Madagascar from the group until constitutional order is restored and ousted President Marc Ravalomanana, who was booted from power by former radio DJ Andry Rajoelina, is returned to power.

It doesn't take a genius to notice that SADC did nothing of the sort when Robert Mugabe was busy stealing an election through violence last year.

The moral of the story is, if you're an anti-colonial national liberator and -- more importantly -- you are currently in power, your friends in SADC will support you. If you're an upstart trying to remove an existing leader from power, not so much. Especially after watching the SADC leaders steamroll Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC in Zimbabwe during the unity government negotiations last year, I think it's clear where this group's political loyalties lie.

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