Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 16 Apr 1980

Vol. 94 No. 1

Zimbabwean Republic: Motion.

Professor Keating

I move:

That Seanad Éireann welcomes the emergence of the Zimbabwean Republic, congratulates all the people of Zimbabwe in their successful democratic resolution of their internal differences and pledges full support and co-operation with the new State.

On Friday of this week, two days hence, we will see the formal establishment of the liberty of a new nation. Its emergence, of course, started a long time ago and I am very proud that this House of the Oireachtas should be debating a motion to welcome that emergence, and should be expressing its welcome. It is appropriate for us because, though now consolidated we are ourselves a relatively new nation with an experience of oppression in our history and—though the term is unfashionable I use it quite deliberately—we have an experience of imperialism. We know what it feels like for the people of Zimbabwe because we have many experiences similar to theirs, short of the obscene experience of the differentiating among people on the basis of colour. That we did not have but very many of their other experiences we share and that gives us a great sense of empathy with them. It certainly gives me an enormous sense of admiration for what they have done.

There are two aspects to the experience of Africa that Ireland has. Many people have gone and are going open-heartedly with love and to be of help. Some Irish have gone to participate in a process of exploitation and in a process of racism. I want on this occasion to reiterate my abhorrence, that of my party and, I trust, of the whole Seanad at the practice of racism. I want to express also my abhorrence of the actions of the illegal regime of Premier Ian Smith, and the actions of those countries and great companies which sustained him through that illegal regime.

We have to say in our joy on this occasion that the struggle against racism and oppression in Southern Africa is not over; with this amazing victory it has entered a new phase.

While history is not made by individuals, the people of Zimbabwe in their political leadership in the Patriotic Front are lucky to possess such a strikingly able and admirable individual as Robert Mugabe. I want to express a sense of admiration at the things they have achieved. It required an extraordinary strategic skill to have seen with such clarity the road to their present degree of liberation. It needed an amazing tactical skill at the Lancaster House Conference in London to see that the time had come for what looked to me then, I confess, as compromise, but which turned out to be brilliant tactical skill and the seizing of an opportune moment. We must admire, too, their wonderful organisational skill, not just the skill which sustained a long guerrilla campaign and the organisation of their movement in conditions of brutalisation and murder, but the organisational skill necessary to keep their leadership physically alive in the face of that murder.

My greatest sense of admiration is reserved for the amazing magnanimity, nobility of character and the absence of bitterness that has been shown in the moment of victory. What a good thing for Zimbabwe and all of the persons there, regardless of colour, what a good thing for Africa, for the whole world, that the people of Zimbabwe did not learn the attitude and the manners of their oppressors. They have shown us what magnanimity and nobility can be. Over recent months up to and since the elections we must express our admiration for the extraordinary political maturity of the people.

The dangers remain immense for this new country. There is the obvious danger of people trying to return to a white supremacist Ian Smith type of status quo. They are not out of the wood, far from it. They have made an extraordinarily brilliant start to building a society where there is not oppression, either by colour or by the power of wealth or privilege.

For me it is a matter of great pride to be able to salute them across thousands of miles, to wish them well, to say what a great sense of admiration they have already engendered in us, and how intensely we wish through the decades to see them building a society in Zimbabwe that embodies the equality of all human beings and the abolition of the shameful divisions introduced from outside Africa. by people who in terms of kith and kin are close to us. We are ashamed of that past oppression. We applaud their brilliant start and wish them well.

Mr. Harte

I do not think it would be true to say that only the Labour Party welcome the result of the general election in Zimbabwe; everyone of us welcomes the result of it, particularly because it paves the way for a peaceful transition to the country's full independence. We see it as the beginning of Zimbabwe taking its place in the world of free nations. There is a little bias, however, in the fact that I and most of my Labour Party colleagues would particularly salute the victory of the Patriotic Front and the appointment of Robert Mugabe as Prime Minister. We do so not because he was leading a revolution but because during the 15 years of the white minority rule the people of Africa led by people like Mugabe were asking for help to set them free from bondage. They were not able to wait long enough for the word "yes" from the brigand authority in power and consequently they inevitably had to turn to the same type of methods that most countries, like Ireland, had to use.

It is greatly appreciated by us that Mugabe has had an overwhelming electoral victory. It means that Zimbabwe can move in the direction of creating a just and equal society which we hope will be based on socialist principles. That is the Labour Party bias. The formal achievement of independence gives rise to a lot of problems; it is just the beginning of the road for them. I believe there is appalling poverty outside Salisbury and they face many other social and economic problems.

We in the Labour Party would urge the Government, as soon as possible, to give diplomatic recognition to and establish full diplomatic relations with that country. Zimbabwe will play a very important role in the future and evolution of Africa as a whole. Ireland has given them very practical aid in the past through priests and missionaries and so on. Now we need to give them technical assistance. I know that we can give this technical knowledge because I was in an American-based factory yesterday and I was astonished to learn that the Irish people have introduced things that the Americans have not been able to introduce in their own country. We should do the best we can in this area. There should be a review of cutbacks in Government aid to see what we can do to help them.

Not every country in the world would be as anxious to help them as we who have a similar sort of history of trying to gain independence. Other countries may be willing enough to help but they may put impossible conditions on that help or try to infiltrate by influence, which would not be the case in the case of Ireland. We feel this is a welcome development and the whole question of racist Africa must now be opposed more than ever by most of us who cherish the principles of democracy. I am delighted that we were given the opportunity to speak on this motion today and I would like to thank the Leader of the House, Senator Eoin Ryan, for the way he has facilitated us, not only now but on many occasions in the past. We also thank him for extending this particular courtesy to us here today.

Ruairí Brugha

Ba mhaith liomsa cuidiú leis an rún seo agus comhgháirdeachas a dhéanamh le muintir na tíre seo Zimbabwe agus a rá go pearsanta go bhfuil an-áthas orm, agus is dócha orainn go léir, gur éirigh leis na pleananna agus na seifteanna a cuireadh i bhfeidhm le cúpla bliana anuas agus go bhfuil rialtas neamhspleách, daonlathach bunaithe sa tír, agus go bhfuil seans ag an náisiún beag seo dul ar aghaidh i saoirse as seo amach. I find myself agreeing with many of the remarks that have been made. There is a great feeling in this country of happiness, a strong feeling of compassion for the people of Zimbabwe who have suffered the sort of discrimination, ill-treatment, lack of freedom and deprivation that has been the lost of so many people around the globe. I myself feel a sense of shame for those of the white race who have been involved in this kind of thing over the past couple of centuries but, as a small nation which is trying in its own way, as Ireland is on the European scene, to bring peace and a sense of stability into the affairs of nations, as a nation which suffered in the past, suffered discrimination and lack of freedom, we must be very satisfied that the trend of events in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, has gone along the lines that it has gone.

There is a great deal of credit due to the discipline and courage and the faith in themselves of the black leaders, in particular, people like the new Prime Minister, Mr. Mugabe, and Mr. Nkomo, which can only be described as a faith in something greater than themselves. I believe it is a very good thing, not alone for the people of Africa but for the people of many other areas where discrimination is still practised in one form or another, that the former white rulers in Rhodesia have had the wisdom to accept what was largely inevitable. But nevertheless they have had the wisdom to accept what is good and to abandon the form of discrimination, the form of ascendancy, imposition of power and lack of freedom on the black people of their country. I sincerely hope that other people in similar situations around the world would have the wisdom and the foresight to realise that situations of injustice which do exist and have been the cause of different kinds of wars, are the things which promote strife, aggression and war and that they ought to be ended. Unfortunately, it is very often not in the power of those who want to see settlements unless some gleam of reason can penetrate the minds of those who have been in positions of great authority which has been used wrongly against other people.

I congratulate the people of Zimbabwe and wish them a future of peace, stability and development in economic terms so that they will be able to provide for their people what they are entitled to, the right to work, to marry, to have families and to live their lives peacefully in their own country.

Mr. Cooney

I had the privilege of spending two weeks in Zimbabwe in the fortnight preceding the recent election as one of a team of observers from this country with two colleagues from the Oireachtas, Deputies Quinn and Molloy. There were observers from all the western democracies present at the invitation of the UK Government to observe the election campaign and the election procedures with a view to forming an opinion as to whether the campaign was free from intimidation and the procedures were fair and democratic. It was the unanimous feeling of that large corps of observers that the election was conducted in a way that gave a fair reflection of the views of the people of Zimbabwe. There was no doubt in anybody's mind that the procedures for the election itself, the rules concerning polling and the counting of votes to ensure secrecy, were excellent.

It is only proper that one should pay tribute to the Government of the United Kingdom because, so far as we could observe, no expense was spared and no administrative effort was avoided to ensure that the elections would be as free and fair as possible. That expense and effort were rewarded. I think it is only right that the government who arranged it should have that publicly acknowledged. All the observers who visited the country formed a great affection for Zimbabwe. The environment and above all the friendly and efficient Zimbabwean people, both black and white, contributed to a memorable visit. There was considerable apprehension on the part of many of the white population that Robert Mugabe would win the election. I think that apprehension resulted from the propaganda of their own establishment which, understandably, during the length of the war had presented its opponent in the bush as a Marxist ogre and the white population, to some extent, were victims of their own propaganda. It is equally true that that delusion is being quickly removed and sensible people must come to see that the people of the country have elected an outstanding leader, a man of patent ability and patent magnanimity.

The steps towards reconciliation were already taking place during our visit there, notably in the integration of the guerrilla armies with their former white opponents. A Belgian colleague told me that he witnessed what he considered to be an extraordinary scene where in one of the assembly camps a guard of honour composed of white Rhodesian soldiers and black guerrillas was formed to be inspected by General Walls and Mr. Nkomo and each of them made speeches to the assembled troops telling them that the fighting was finished, it was in the past and that reconciliation was the order of the day. It was quite an extraordinary scene and, indeed, one that we in this country where we still tend to fight the divisions of over 50 years ago could take a lesson from.

I think that spirit is going to inure in Zimbabwe and that any bitterness on the part of any elements of the white and, indeed, the black population who would have reason to be bitter for personal suffering they may have had to endure during the war, will disappear and there will come to be a recognition of the potential of the very beautiful country, very rich country in terms of its resources, a country that even at this stage of its development is efficient and well run, is spotlessly clean and represented to somebody coming from this island in the winter, a very pleasant contrast. I have no doubt that those people are realistic enough to realise that they are living in a country with a great potential where all the people can develop and where they can have very full lives.

I hope that democracy which has been in the past a very fragile plant in some emerging African countries will flourish in Zimbabwe. I think there is a will on the part of the majority party ZANU-PF to ensure that it does, in the way that a coalition between all the erstwhile conflicting parties has been so readily formed. We should not be surprised in the western world if we find that their democracy differs from ours in the sense that it may not be a multiparty democracy and that the democratic parties may work within a single party. The landslide victory of Robert Mugabe was so great that the other parties may inevitably—and not through any positive action of his—wither for lack of popular support and it may become a one party State but I would be confident having spoken not to Robert Mugabe himself but to senior members in his party that even if that were to happen the principles of democracy would still be available and practised within a one party State. There will, of course, be a minority white opposition party but, hopefully, the ideal would be integration between all people in a political way.

I have every confidence and every optimism that Zimbabwe will go from strength to strength and that the people in it will have a way of life that will be the envy—not merely of the Continent of Africa—but of the Continent of Europe as well and I have great pleasure in supporting this motion and offering our congratulations to the new nation.

Mr. E. Ryan

I would like to join the other speakers in congratulating the people of Zimbabwe on achieving their freedom, their freedom from colonial domination, their freedom from the domination of one section of the community by the other. What has been achieved really is more than one could have hoped for a few years ago and the fact that it has been achieved with little or no bloodshed or upheaval over the last few months is something for which we must all be extremely grateful.

Having regard to the restraint which has been shown by the new Government, as Senator Keating said, the magnanimous views which they have expressed, there is every hope that not only will it be a free country but it will be a country in which the divisions of up to now will fairly quickly be put to one side and there will be a united country as well as a free one, which certainly could be a great example to the other countries in South Africa and Africa generally. As a member of the anti-apartheid movement for many years past, it is particularly gratifying to me to feel that this part of Africa is no longer a problem area, that it will no longer be an area in which-apartheid will operate. It is very satisfying to know that it will no longer be a problem area, an area of concern and I hope the developments in that country will hasten the day when apartheid will no longer be a problem in any part of Africa.

I would like to think that the anti-apartheid movement in this country and in other contries has played even a small part in achieving what has been achieved in Zimbabwe in the last few weeks.

Dr. West

I would like to join with all the other Members of the House in supporting this very timely motion and congratulate those Senators who proposed and seconded it. The fact that this country has emerged after bloodshed and discrimination leading to, eventually, a peace conference in London and because of the very divergent views, a difficult peace conference, is important. It has got off to an excellent start and sets a headline showing that, after the bloodshed, differences can be settled in conference. The outstanding statesmanship of Mr. Mugabe and the leaders on his side, after his election victory, not only gives a chance for development in Rhodesia along the lines which we all would like to see but also gives another definite chance for a reasonable transition in Southern Africa as a whole. It sets a headline and an example which we hope will not be lost on the other leaders whose countries should be moving in this direction.

As Senator Cooney has said, the people in the States who helped in the birth of this new nation also deserve our congratulations, not least among them being Lord Carrington who conducted the negotiations in London. Because of the many Irish contacts with Rhodesia, both in the past and hopefully in the future, we will feel that we ourselves as a nation are committed to helping the development of this new nation in many ways through aid, through our development organisations and through the many personal contacts which in the end can prove to be the most important and most fruitful and I look forward myself to long and deep relations developing between our nation and the new Zimbabwe.

Professor Conroy

I too would like to join in supporting the motion and in welcoming the development in Zimbabwe. It is one of the most hopeful international political matters that has occurred for many years. It is very pleasant indeed that it should happen at a time when so much ill in the international situation, as we ourselves tragically know, is occurring throughout the world. It is very, very pleasant to see a peaceful solution of a conflict which even a few short months ago seemed almost totally insoluble. I think it gives great hope for Southern Africa as a whole. Here we have a situation in which a Government of the people of Zimbabwe has been democratically elected, the democratically elected leader has behaved with great statesman-like attitudes and has succeeded both in satisfying the rightful aspirations of the majority population of Zimbabwe and yet at the same time seems also to have succeeded in the almost irreconcilable task of ensuring that the technically advanced white population of Zimbabwe is apparently willing and glad to stay on, as far as we can judge at this stage, and here we have a hope that there will be a country in Africa when, no matter what the colour of your skin, you will be accepted and you will work for the nation as a whole. Could this possibly happen in the Union of South Africa?

We in this House have rightly condemned apartheid which is an affront to the dignity of man. We, in this House. have condemned the situation in our own country of intolerance between one group and another. Let us not forget that in Southern Africa we, in this country. have also supported at one time, and quite rightly supported, the Boer settlers who now, unfortunately, are practising this appalling doctrine of apartheid but we did support them when they were looking for what was then regarded as a rightful form of independence. I would hope that the majority of them will now see the light, take this lesson from Zimbabwe and that, in the not too distant future, instead of the appalling bloodbath which seemed inevitable in Southern Africa we will have a situation where all people, the Boers, many of whom, let us not forget, had been there since 1600—before many of the settlers in the north east of this country—and the majority population who have been so discriminated against, will work peacefully together for the prosperity of what has rightly been described as one of the most beautiful parts of the world. I wish them very well and I am very happy to join in this motion and congratulate the mover.

Mrs. Robinson

I am glad to have the opportunity to join in the warm welcome expressed on all sides of the House for the achievement of independence and democratic government in Zimbabwe. I join in particular with my colleagues in welcoming the victory of Robert Mugabe and his party and the manner in which he has assumed the responsibilities of office. My remarks can be brief because I agree so basically with the views expressed and the endorsement of the real achievement in Zimbabwe which was an achievement for humanity everywhere. We have so many incidents of tyranny and suppression of people and oppression of individual human beings and whole races of human beings that I welcome this opportunity for a spontaneous and warm endorsement of the political achievement in Zimbabwe. Like Senator Harte I do not underestimate the economic and social problems and the challenges, challenges, for example, in relation to land ownership and structure in Zimbabwe. We must follow up our warm expressions of support and encouragement by practical measures, at Government and formal level by early diplomatic links and bilateral and European Community aid through the Lomé Convention or other means and also by informal nongovernmental aid and assistance of a technical nature. Indeed, we should also watch very closely what happens there because we may have some lessons to learn for ourselves in what takes place.

I agree with the Leader of the House that this is something that the anti-apartheid movement in this country and in other countries can look upon as the real victory against racism because racism itself is still prevalent in that part of Africa and the greatest answer to it is response of black majority rule coming out of a long and bitter conflict and the magnanimity and humanity shown by the present leaders in Zimbabwe. This must encourage further pressure, political pressure and economic pressure on South Africa until there is a change in the structure of Government and the attitude there.

There have been references to white supremacy and to the evils of racism. I would like just to pay a tribute to an Irishman who has stood out with such moral courage and integrity for many years for his people of Zimbabwe and that is Bishop Donal Lamont. It gives me particular pleasure to pay such unqualified tribute to a Catholic Bishop from Ireland. It is not often that I feel quite so enthusiastically inclined in that regard but I think that Bishop Donal Lamont had great moral courage, fortunately a very good sense of humour and a very good personal balance and integrity to carry him through very difficult times. He paid a very high price for his principles. He paid the price at times of being ostracised by some other members of the white community in Rhodesia at the time and he always identified with the people of Zimbabwe. I am glad that he now sees them emerge as an independent nation and I share his joy in their independence and I join with other Senators in wishing that country every success in the future.

There is just one thought that occurred to me and that is that it would be, I think, a nice gesture, if it were possible, that the report of this debate, which has shown such agreement and warmth on all sides of the House, should be conveyed to the authorities in Zimbabwe. They know of our Irish history, our past and our aspirations and this is partly why we respond with such enthusiasm and warmth to their achievement and in particular in so far as we offer further help and support in what they are seeking to do that it will be desirable that they know as soon as possible of this expression of opinion from representatives of the people in this House of the Oireachtas two days before they actually achieve formal independence.

Mr. Staunton

I want to join the proposer and seconder of this motion in extending a very warm welcome to the new State of Zimbabwe in Africa. It is difficult to speak at this stage because all that could be said has been said. I think we are instinctively very sympathetic in this country because of our own background and colonial dominance, a small country and a small country which has had a very strong missionary sense with the extent of Irish missionary and nursing and medical participation in developments on the African continent and to a very large extent in the country of which we speak.

I strike one jarring note in relation to the present development aid going to the African continent from this country. This has been criticised greatly by leaders in the development aid movement. Our country, along with other countries in the African continent, in our state of underdevelopment needs aid from the developed world although in recent years we have achieved a remarkable status in world politics and on the world scene, for a country of three million people. We have achieved such status as such a small country in a large globe because of strong moral positions rather than through leverage or dominance and there should be a consensus in this country, in so far as development aid is concerned, for keeping it at a much higher level than obtains at the present time. The lack of prosperity here is an entirely relative issue in comparison with what is happening in what is described as the Third World and Fourth World. I must say some words of criticism because our credibility in the world community is at stake.

Getting back to the motion on which we are speaking, I pay a very warm compliment to the person who I think was absolutely instrumental in this peace being achieved. I am pleased to be able to pay it to someone from our neighbouring island. The history of Anglo-Irish relations is such that we do not very often have the opportunity to speak in this way. I believe that the success of the Lancaster House agreement was due, to a large extent, to Lord Carrington and the British Government. Granted, there was co-operation by the participants, but it was a tremendous personal success for Lord Carrington. I say that in the most bi-partisan sense. He deserves the warm congratulations of the free world and the countries in the EEC for this tremendous achievement.

We were fortunate in this country in having three excellent representatives in the observer force in Zimbabwe in the persons of Senator Cooney, Deputies Molloy and Quinn, along with Mr. Townsend of the Foreign Affairs Department. It is heartening to see this type of co-operation between Britain and ourselves. The mind boggles at what might be achieved on this island if the present British Government chose similarly to deal with the events and the problems that have been intractable to date—but no more intractable than the Zimbabwean problems had seemed before the Lancaster House conference. If the British Government could raise the status of the debate on the problems concerning Northern Ireland and, indeed, all this island and give the responsibility for this huge task, from the British perspective, to Lord Carrington, we might work our way out of problems which would seem to be no less intractable than the Zimbabwean problems might have seemed to be before the agreement.

Whilst we welcome this tremendous democratic achievement of the peoples of Zimbabwe under the leadership of Mr. Mugabe, the affairs of the African continent will never be satisfactory, in so far as western democracies are concerned, until such time as racism and apartheid are abolished. There will always be trouble on the African continent until the last State practising racism falls and this country has a significant role, as a small country, to play in that.

I join with the other speakers in extending a very warm welcome to this new State and congratulate the Prime Minister, Mr. Mugabe, while realising that they must have the most horrendous problems on the horizon for all kinds of reasons that have to do with the state of their economy and the formation of their population. We wish them well in working their way out of their difficulties in joining the nations of the world.

Professor Keating

I shall be extremely brief. I ought to add my voice to that of Senator Harte in thanking the Leader of the House for making time available for this debate and, indeed, pay tribute to his own commitment down the years to the anti-apartheid movement. I take Senator Robinson's suggestion that the contents of our debate should be brought to the attention of the new Government of Zimbabwe as quickly as possible. What I really want to convey is, first, that this occasion represents the greatest expression of unanimity that I can ever recall in either House of the Oireachtas in my time. I wish the people of Zimbabwe to know the extraordinary unanimity of support that exists for them and wish to echo the theme mentioned by a number of Senators that these expressions of joy and goodwill are meaningless—and, indeed, worse than meaningless—if we do not honour the pledges of material and other aid and of solidarity with the new State. If our words have real meaning, they will be expressed by aid of different kinds under different auspices, in relation to diplomatic recognition and, indeed, in relation to the sustenance of this new State through a time which all sides of the House have recognised as being a time of great promise but also of great difficulty in the coming decades.

Question put and agreed to.

The Seanad adjourned at 7.40 p.m.sine die.