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 A detested
African satrap and his family take refuge in the east
Malaysia,
Singapore and Hong Kong are becoming homes from home for Robert
Mugabe and his family. In Hong Kong the government is ignoring its
own laws to accommodate the despised African dictator.
While
Zimbabweans, once citizens of one of Africa’s most prosperous,
food exporting countries, suffer food shortages,
cholera epidemics and the world’s highest inflation (approx
5,000 percent) the country’s first family has been splashing
out on shopping and banking trips to Malaysia, Singapore and Hong
Kong.
Attention
to their travels was occasioned by an assault on a Hong Kong resident
press photographer working for the London Sunday Times by Grace
Mugabe and a bodyguard in Hong Kong. The photographer was taking
pictures of her shopping near the Shangri-la (Kowloon) hotel where
she was staying. This led to the news that the Mugabes’
daughter Bona, 20, had been studying at HK University since last
September under an assumed name.
Asia
Sentinel has now learned that this was a modest visit compared with
one last year by Mr and Mrs Mugabe and a huge retinue which occupied
two floors of the same Shangri-la Hotel. The hotel bill, running to
tens of thousands of US dollars, was paid in cash by a flunky. Under
Hong Kong law, such large cash transactions are supposed to be
reported to the police and investigated under anti-money-laundering
money rules.
But either
the hotel, controlled by the Kuok Group, failed to notify the
authorities, or the government decided to ignore the question of why
Mugabe and his family and retinue of bodyguards paid cash. (The
reason may well be that no international bank would accept the credit
cards of persons banned from entering the US and other major
jurisdictions).
According
to reports on Zimbabawe news sites, on this latest occasion US$92,000
in cash was drawn from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the broken
country’s central bank, prior to this trip, for spending on
hotels and Grace’s favorite activity – shopping. Grace,
who is 40 years younger than her 84-year old husband, has on previous
occasions attracted attention for her extravagant spending in luxury
shops.
Prior to
Hong Kong, she had been in Malaysia and Singapore with her husband.
They are very welcome in Malaysia where her husband was lionized by
former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. However, to protect
Malaysia’s own reputation and avoid local controversy, the
visit was kept low key. As for Singapore, according to Zimbabwean
media reports, this is the favored location for Zimbabwean ministers
and military chiefs to park their ill-gotten wealth.
In Hong
Kong the government and the University of Hong Kong say there is no
reason why Bona should not study there. Many sympathize. The sins of
the parents should not be visited on their children. However,
Australia last year expelled the student offspring of some of
Mugabe’s ministers and Britain has been contemplating the same
– which is probably why Bona left her studies in the UK to come
to Hong Kong and the protection of China, a good friend of Mugabe’s.
The fact that she was allowed to enroll under an assumed name in
itself is quite extraordinary and suggests some high level,
un-transparent dealings.
However
deserving Bona may be of an education, the fact is that her father’s
policies have ruined Zimbabwe’s educational system and forced
the few students who can afford it to go abroad. In Bona’s case
the cost to the nation is not just her board and tuition, plus any
gifts that might have been made to help her anonymous entry, but the
cost of providing for her mother’s demands while Bona is in
Hong Kong.
Hong Kong
is still investigating the assault on the photographer but charges
seem unlikely now that the culprits are out of town and Mrs Mugabe
anyway would claim diplomatic immunity. Mugabe’s political
thuggery in Zimbabawe is well enough known. His own reputation in
that respect was confirmed by footage of assault by a bodyguard on a
journalist who was trying to interview him in Cairo last year.
But thugs
and corrupt politicians remain welcome in Hong Kong, Malaysia and
Singapore so long as they bring enough money to be spent or
laundered.
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