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Zimbabwe Report

Confrontation or collaboration?

by Ben Freeth

April 28, 2003

It appears to me that there are only two reasons why people do not confront evil men and evil regimes:

1. They are doing very well financially out of the regime and it is in their business interests to keep the regime in place. (There are not a few very influential individuals in this position).

2. They are terrified of what confronting the regime might mean.

The first factor is based on greed and the second is on fear. Neither greed nor fear are particularly noble attributes.

The alternative to a confrontational approach is:

1. To do nothing and look the other way and pretend that it's got nothing to do with you (out of greed or fear), or

2. Have dialogue with the evil men or the evil regime and pretend that they are going to be lenient if they are appeased.

The people that go the second route have the most to answer for as far as perpetuating the acts of the evil men or the evil regime. This is because they legitimise evil by talking to it as though it is reasonable and legitimate. Bad company corrupts good character.

Nearly 3 millenniums ago God gave 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. Roman Dutch law and all codes of decent human behaviour are based on these. The first four deal with the individual's relationship with the Creator. The fifth and seventh deal with relationships in the family and the remaining four commandments deal with the individual's legal code in society for the individual and the society's own good. These are:

  • "You shall not murder": Apart from the 20,000 murders in Matabeleland how many have there been since then?

  • "You shall not covet your neighbour's house or anything that belongs to your neighbour": The whole "land grab" exercise has surely been based on jealousy and covetousness.

  • "You shall not steal": Actually going out and physically stealing houses, irrigation systems, cattle, tractors and crops is stealing. Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by it.

  • "You shall not give false testimony": Propaganda lies come into this category and they are expressly against the will of God.

If we do not confront these issues and believe that we can save our skins by looking the other way or having dialogue with the perpetrators of these evil acts, we will have far worse to come. The history of man tells us so. In the Eastern Bloc it took up to three generations and millions of deaths before people woke up and realised that they had to confront evil if they wanted to end it. To not confront it is to collaborate with it. Are you a collaborator? It's not too late to change.

All letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of the submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice for Agriculture.