Talks: We have preconditions too

The die has been cast. All efforts to breathe life to the moribund relationship have suddenly been dampened. The big brother has once again placed preconditions to the re-engagement. All the EU’s pretence at commitment to the talks has flown through the window.
It seems there was even no reason to once again embark on the re-engagement efforts, as the European Union is evidently reluctant to concede any ground. Without budging, the group has once again regurgitated its previous position that Zimbabwe should meet some electoral preconditions before the EU could consider removing sanctions.
So what was the logic of inviting us for talks when they know that they are not prepared to grant us our wishes?
And why do we trouble ourselves sending delegations to Europe every year vainly trying to cajole the group into dropping its punitive measures against our country?
Surely we should by now have learnt that the former colonisers have no intention of building bridges but to foist a pliant regime upon us.
In a bid to continue accessing our resources and keep our economy under their grip, the Europeans want to depose President Mugabe and replace him with a submissive regime.
As they have always said, they have no permanent friends but permanent interests. Until their interests are fully met, they will not ease the unwarranted sanctions regime.
It appears, all the talk about re-engagement has nothing to do with honest efforts to resuscitate our friendship but to put pressure on us to create perfect conditions for the electoral entrance of a regime pliant to imperial whims.
The tragic experience of Muammar Gaddafi at the hands of the Europeans is instructive on why we should tread carefully when dealing with our former colonisers.
Gaddafi tried to appease the Europeans through a raft of re-engagement measures that even saw him reportedly doling out money to fund former French president Nicholas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign.
Pictures of the late Libyan leader shaking hands with Sarkozy in 2009 emblazoned over front pages of world newspapers symbolised the frantic efforts by Gaddafi to lure back the Europeans.
It was later reported that Gaddafi even had numerous meetings with Tony Blair, all in a forlorn attempt to patch up relations with the Europeans.
However, what evaded Gaddafi’s notice was that Europeans had permanent interests and their interests at the time were to ensure that he is toppled and replaced with a pliant regime that will ensure their unfettered access to Libyan oil.
The long and short of the story is that for all his unrelenting efforts to coax the Europeans, Gaddafi was waylaid and eventually lost not only his country but his life at the hands of the condescending Europeans.
The moral of the story is that our former colonisers are good at extending false hands of reconciliation and are not to be trusted. They are manifestly fork-tongued and double-faced.
Remember they once conceded defeat and begrudgingly handed us our independence only to go back and restrategise on how to continue siphoning our resources through a slew of neo-liberal political and economic manoeuvres.
We should therefore adopt a vigilant patois when dealing with such eternal political schemers and should never let our guard down like the imperceptive Gaddafi.
We should also never accede to any of their preconditions for they do not possess any moral latitude to dictate to us. Intriguingly, we also have a number of conditions we would want met before re-engaging with Europeans, but we have never demanded any from them.
Yes, we also have an inexhaustible list of preconditions we want our former colonisers to fulfill before we could consider building bridges.
Subject to international justice, we could demand that they withdraw their hegemonic NATO troops from their illegal military forays in Afghanistan. Similarly and in accordance with the Rome Statute we can demand for the prosecution of serial war mongers like Tony Blair before we consider patching our evanescing relations.
Nearer home, we could demand that the Europeans stay away from our internal affairs.
They should cease sponsoring regime change activities by local political parties and civic organisations before we try to patch our differences.
Above all, we could simply demand that they treat us as equals. We are not their subjects. We do not need any social, political or economic lectures, as we are fully capable of managing our own lives. So we say no to any lectures on homosexuality, democracy or rule of law.