There is an old cliche about three similar events making a trend. Well, it appears we have a trend in Zimbabwe, where, not coincidentally, there is supposed to be an election this year.
In recent weeks a young activist, Solomon Madzore, found himself in jail for likening President Robert Mugabe to a lame donkey. Not coincidentally Madzore is the youth leader for Prime Minister (and leading Mugabe foe) Morgan Tsangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Within a day or so police arrested Dumisani Muleya, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent for having the temerity to suggest that army officials might be willing to accept a Tsvangirai electoral victory later this year. That’s right — an editor went to jail for suggesting that the sitting Prime Minister (and official runner up but likely legitimate winner of the 2008 elections) might be tolerable to the military leaders over which he would preside. Welcome to the other side of the looking glass!
Finally (but almost certainly not finally) police arrested three activists for engaging in voter awareness education.
Zimbabweans are no longer experiencing the steady state of tyranny that characterized the middle part of the last decade. But in part that is because that tyranny was so very effective. Nonetheless, expect things to get much tenser and for the repression to increase in the weeks to come.