{"id":432003,"date":"2011-05-29T07:21:27","date_gmt":"2011-05-29T07:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/"},"modified":"2011-05-29T07:21:27","modified_gmt":"2011-05-29T07:21:27","slug":"mugabe-in-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/","title":{"rendered":"Mugabe in Denial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\"Zimbabwe<\/a><\/p>\n

27 May 2011<\/p>\n

\n

opinion<\/p>\n

IN Freudian psychoanalysis being in denial is a defence mechanism by a person or people faced with an unpleasant situation too uncomfortable to accept or too ghastly to contemplate. The person therefore rejects reality and insists it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence confronting him.<\/p>\n

Denial – which involves thoughts, actions and behaviours – takes various forms. Simple denial involves denying reality of the unpleasant altogether. In minimisation the person admits the fact but denies its seriousness (rationalisation). When it comes to projection, the person admits both the fact and its gravity but denies responsibility.<\/p>\n

President Robert Mugabe is in denial. In fact, he is now crossing the line and borders on being in denial of denial.<\/p>\n

If ever more evidence was needed that Mugabe is in dangerous denial, it came in the form of an interview with the Southern Times last week. It was a revealing interview and provided the clearest evidence yet that Mugabe has lost it.<\/p>\n

Whether he was talking about the North African situation, UN and Libya, International Criminal Court (ICC), Sadc, sanctions, Arthur Mutambara, elections or Zanu PF succession, his approach was simply deny, deny and deny again! The whole interview was a stream of denial.<\/p>\n

“I am not old. I am 87 but my body says the counting doesn’t end at 87, at least you must get to 100,” Mugabe claimed. This is what he said when confronted with the self-evident reality that he is now too old to effectively run government.<\/p>\n

Mugabe denies he is plagued by old age and illness. He refuses to accept the obvious fact that he is no longer able to meet the strenuous demands of running a government. But that is why he sleeps in meetings and walks dragging his feet. It’s mainly because he is old and inevitably ailing.<\/p>\n

Mugabe must accept certain realities. You can’t defy the laws of nature. Lee Kwan-Yew, Singapore’s celebrated statesman, finally came to terms with this reality 13 days ago when he finally retired at 87. Lee is five months older than Mugabe.<\/p>\n

Despite his huge success as a leader, Lee had to accept he was old and had to go. During his three decades in office, Singapore grew from a poor developing economy to one of the most developed nations in the world, with a small population, limited land space and lack of natural resources.<\/p>\n

Although Lee has been criticised for being authoritarian and intolerant of dissent, his overall legacy is splendid.<\/p>\n

Mugabe is refusing to let go. Instead of retiring on account of age, illness and his catastrophic failure as a leader, he is offering all sorts of excuses. Last week he repeated the true but self-serving justification that he would not quit now because Zanu PF would disintegrate.<\/p>\n

“Well, well, well. The party will find someone but you don’t leave the party amidst problems and in a situation of crisis such as we have,” the president declared. “You’ve got to get the party out of the crisis and then you can retire,” he said in an attempt at justification. So in other words everybody in Zanu PF is hopeless except Mugabe?<\/p>\n

Instead of showing he has learnt something from the North African uprisings, he chose to blame Europeans for the revolts against tyranny and poverty. His remarks about the ICC, UN, AU, Libya and Sadc demonstrated how delusional and detached from reality he has become.<\/p>\n

The interview was a tale of denial, rationalisation and justification. For instance, Mugabe pretends he is not aware of state-sponsored violence and human rights abuses by security forces. Can he tell us then who has been behind all these acts of intimidation, violence and killings of civilians since 2000? Who killed Talent Mabika and Tonderai Ndira? Who killed people at Chiweshe in 2008? Who tortured Jestina Mukoko and others? Who is responsible for all the maiming, disappearances and killings since 1980?<\/p>\n

Who savagely assaulted Morgan Tsvangirai at Machipisa in 2007? How about Gukurahundi? Were the security forces not involved there? Why have the culprits not been arrested or held to account?<\/p>\n

On Gukurahundi, Mugabe has been playing delaying tactics; the deadliest form of denial. He has avoided dealing with the issue, a denial of justice being done. Instead, he always offers excuses to shirk responsibility, but alas the issue won’t go away.<\/p>\n

Actually, Mugabe denies responsibility for all his failures during his disastrous 31-year rule. He shifts the blame to others but the truth will find a way out eventually!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nMore News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n

AllAfrica – All the Time<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

See more here:
\nMugabe in Denial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27 May 2011 opinion IN Freudian psychoanalysis being in denial is a defence mechanism by a person or people faced with an unpleasant situation too uncomfortable to accept or too ghastly to contemplate. The person therefore rejects reality and insists it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence confronting him. Denial – which involves thoughts, actions and behaviours – takes various forms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nMugabe in Denial - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Mugabe in Denial - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"27 May 2011 opinion IN Freudian psychoanalysis being in denial is a defence mechanism by a person or people faced with an unpleasant situation too uncomfortable to accept or too ghastly to contemplate. The person therefore rejects reality and insists it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence confronting him. Denial - which involves thoughts, actions and behaviours - takes various forms\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Mugabe in Denial\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-29T07:21:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/\"},\"wordCount\":769,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/\",\"name\":\"Mugabe in Denial - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-29T07:21:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mugabe in Denial - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Mugabe in Denial - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"27 May 2011 opinion IN Freudian psychoanalysis being in denial is a defence mechanism by a person or people faced with an unpleasant situation too uncomfortable to accept or too ghastly to contemplate. The person therefore rejects reality and insists it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence confronting him. Denial - which involves thoughts, actions and behaviours - takes various forms","twitter_image":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Mugabe in Denial","datePublished":"2011-05-29T07:21:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/"},"wordCount":769,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/","name":"Mugabe in Denial - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg","datePublished":"2011-05-29T07:21:27+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/29\/mugabe-in-denial\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/zimidependent180.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}