Tsvangirai Detained; Zimbabwe's Political Nightmare Continues

Zimbabwean Democracy further Impaled:
While the eyes of U.S. voters were firmly fixated on the closing act of the protracted Democratic nomination battle between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, half a world away, another act, with arguably as much relevance to the United States' political climate, was underway, as well.

Zimbabwean opposition leader and front-runner in the country's coming presidential run-off, set for 27 June, was taken into custody by police as his motorcade passed through a check-point early on Wednesday. Though since released, Tsvangirai's detainment illustrates the type of draconian measures long-time President Robert Mugabe has employed in order to retain his stranglehold on Zimbabwean political power.

Why, one might ask, does this hold relevance for voters in the U.S.? Well, in a globalized world, what happens in one country necessarily matters in others, though to varying degrees and in distinct ways.

However, when the Movement For Democratic Change leader was harranged by Mugabe's thugs, at the same time as he is leading opinion polls and quite possibly already garnered enough of his country's vote in the first-round of elections to secure the presidency outright, were it not for Mugabe's having made a mockery of the electoral process., it should become clear to Americans that the time to turn our nose at international travails such as these must end.

Millions of good, honest Americans express a profound concern with the ravages of poverty, disease, and inequality that plague the African continent. Well, I contend, as a counter, or, perhaps, challenge, to these well-intentioned folks that, right now, in Zimbabwe, a humanitarian crisis is underway, and the only way to start on the long path toward recovery is to ensure that a quick, orderly change of political power at the presidential level takes place on 27 June.

With Tsvangirai in government custory, this is, quite clearly, impossible. The American public must come to life and demand of its leaders, as well as those in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa and across the world, that they take a stronger hand on not spawning regime change directly, as this goes against the dignity of the Zimbabwean people, but rather ensuring that the millions of voters in that country have a real opportunity to voice their true opinion on 27 June, without the fear of impunity for having done so.

In Zimbabwe, the arrest of Morgan Tsvangirai should sound as a war cry for progressives worldwide. But our weapon of choice in this important battle is not a gun, knife, or stone, but rather the power of the heart, pen, and mind.