Chronicle Editor
IN Things Fall Apart, the late veteran African novelist and intellectual Chinua Achebe offers some insight into Okonkwo the protagonist in the novel whose memory was still haunted by his father’s death and his near failure to comprehend the situation around him. He would therefore take things personally and start being jittery even when they are mentioned figuratively and even when they are not directed at him.
Okonkwo had the problem of tying such things to his own personal situation and start panicking and Achebe, the gifted writer glued words into a meaningful statement to describe Okonkwo’s actions. He said: An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.
The source of the old woman’s uneasiness according to Achebe emanates from taking things personal and thinking that whenever they mention dry bones, they would have referred to her whatever connection she may have with dry bones. The proverb has become contextually relevant in the country’s recent legal and political developments where Parliament and Senate passed the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Bill which has commonly been monikered the Patriotic Bill because it is going to punish citizens who “willfully damage the sovereignty and national interest” of Zimbabwe.
The Bill also “criminalise the conduct of isolated citizens or groups who, for self-gain, co-operate or connive with hostile foreign governments to inflict suffering on Zimbabwean citizens and cause damage to national interests.”
The Bill now awaits the Presidential assent for it to become a law. It however, has to be reiterated that although the Bill contains several changes to existing laws, such as penalties for illegal drugs which menace the country is grappling with, mandatory sentences for rape, and measures on the abuse of authority by public servants, it is the changes relating to political activities that have grabbed public attention and that have made those like Okonkwo uneasy.
It was passed in Parliament by a vote of 99 to 17. It also sailed through Senate a few days ago, and the President is expected to sign it into law in due course.
Political analyst Mr Jowere Mukusha said there have been a number of misinterpretations of the amendment with those that have been capitalising on the lack of the legal framework governing how far one can demonise and injure the interests of the country crying foul and taking the Bill personal. He said the passing of such a law was long overdue.
“They have gone on a morally corrupt crusade where they are preaching the false and misleading gospel that the Government is shutting out people from criticizing it and yet they are simply traitors that are sniffing peril at the coming in of the amended law. They have abused the gap for too long and they forget to tell those that care to listen that there is a similar piece of legislation in the self-anointed prefect of world democracy – the US, that was passed over two centuries ago – the Logan Act of 1799.” The Logan Act forbids private citizens from engaging in unauthorised correspondence with foreign governments.
The Logan Act was in response to the US statesman George Logan who travelled to France in 1798 as a private citizen to meet with government officials in that country to starve French aggression on the US. Although he successfully concluded a pact whereby France ceased all detrimental actions against U.S. merchant ships, he was criticised upon his return to the United States. Political opponents called his acts treasonous because he did that without authorisation from the US government. On January 30, 1799, the Logan Act was thus passed by the U.S. Congress to prevent any individual from corresponding with a foreign government without permission from the U.S. government and from then, it has been in existence with no criticism from those criticising Zimbabwe’s Amendment Bill.
Mr Mukusha said those that called for Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zidera) under which sanctions fall and continued with their ‘sunga one sunga dozen’ politically injurious mantra where they will be singing for supper at the doorstep of the country’s erstwhile colonisers should be dealt with legally and should not be allowed close to the country’s political corridors.
“We are aware that there are private citizens who have been working with various adversarial NGOs and embassies to injure the country’s sovereignty and reputation and letting the majority suffer while they enjoy. Political leaders who capitalise on their closeness to foreign embassies and foreign governments to sell the country’s interests to massage their personal political egos while affecting lives of the majority have proven that they are anti-Zimbabwe, anti-development and anti-people. They rejoice in the misery of others and cannot be leaders,” he said.
He added that the country should reject such political tomfoolery where opposition political parties and their leaders get used as pawns in a political chess game to inflict pain on the country’s citizens and fuel disharmony instead on unity, economic instability and de-investment instead of economic prosperity.
“Things are surely falling apart for the traitors in this country. They have tried to spread lies about the Bill but to no avail. Its provisions are clear and any sincere citizen would not lose sleep over it. In fact, we should be happy that the national interests are being protected. Those that find themselves unease at the mention of dry bones know how they are used,” he said.
The Bill says if someone invites you to a meeting arranged by or involving a foreign government or agency, and you find out that sanctions may be discussed in there? Walk away. According to the law, you are committing a crime if you willfully take part in any meeting where there is “consideration of or the planning for the implementation or enlargement of sanctions or a trade boycott against Zimbabwe”. Going to a meeting – in Zimbabwe or abroad – that plans, or even considers, sanctions, will give one up for prosecution.
And according to the Bill sanctions are when a foreign government or agency bars its people “from investing in Zimbabwe or from engaging in any economic activity in or with Zimbabwe or with any entity of Zimbabwe”, if that investment benefits the economy in any way.
It is also clear on people discussing military intervention that if one goes to a meeting where they know, or you have “reasonable grounds for believing”, that there will be talk about any military intervention in Zimbabwe or “overthrowing or overturning the constitutional government in Zimbabwe”, they will be charged. According to the Bill if the meeting discusses about military intervention, it will be treason and the punishment is a death sentence or life in prison and if the meeting is about overthrowing the government, that’s jail for up to 20 years. If it is about sanctions or a trade embargo on Zimbabwe, it’s a fine of (at the time of drafting) Z$200 000 or jail for 10 years, or both.
Mr Mukusha added that the need for an Act criminalizing such acts should not find condemn in the minds of any right-thinking citizens, adding that only those with a penchant of making their living out of selling out were panicking as they were sniffing peril, they were counting their days.
Online Reporter