HE CAN'T be accused of poking a "pink nose", as was Tony Blair, in other people's business. For, as Jamaicans would be aware from the recent visit to the island of Dr. John Sentamu, he is visibly black.

Moreover, the Archbishop of York, the second-highest position in the Church of England, was born in Uganda, where he practised law and tussled with former dictator Idi Amin before emigrating to Britain and becoming a priest in the Anglican Church.

A week ago, during an interview on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) domestic television channel, Dr. Sentamu dramatically cut his clerical collar to pieces, saying he will not wear one again until Robert Mugabe leaves office as President of Zimbabwe. Last week too, days after Archbishop Sentamu's symbolic act, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party endorsed Mr. Mugabe, 83, as its candidate for next year's presidential election.

Should Mr. Mugabe win - an extremely strong likelihood given the ruling party's more recent history of intimidating opponents and rigging elections - he will be nearly 90 when his term is up. But worse, the people of Zimbabwe will be forced to endure several more years of a beggarly existence, economically and politically.

The shame of Zimbabwe and Mr. Mugabe is that they represent a betrayal of hope and potential, especially for people in the African Diaspora who invested heavily, emotionally and otherwise, in the country's liberation from racist, white minority rule in what was then called Rhodesia.

While Mr. Mugabe was perhaps a good and strong guerrilla fighter, he has been dismal as a democratic leader, forging ruinous economic policies and emasculating institutions to glue his hold on office. His cynicism is deep.

Two decades after he came to power, with his hold on power threatened by an organised opposition, he sanctioned the push of white farmers from land in favour of supposed veterans of the civil war. A legitimate issue of land distribution, which Mr. Mugabe had allowed to lie fallow for more than 20 years, became a blunt political instrument. It was also the start of the deep downward spiral of the Zimbabwe economy, which, this year, has seen inflation of well over 1,000 per cent. Zimbabwe is an now an economic basket case.

Mr. Mugabe's only response is to vilify his critics and to throw about racist slurs. It is time that Jamaica and its partners in the Caribbean Community, who have a stake in a good future for Zimbabwe, clearly tell Mr. Mugabe that his people deserve better.

Hopefully, Archbishop Sentamu, who knows the ways of dictators and the mysteries of divine intervention, will resume wearing his clerical collar in short order.

Exit Donald Buchanan?

It has been announced that Danny Buchanan is stepping down by year end as general secretary of the People's National Party (PNP). This can only be a good move for the PNP.

When he got the job, we warned in these columns that he was the wrong man for the job. He was worse than we expected.

Mr. Buchanan's juvenile politics helped to give resurgence to an obsolete politics that did no favours for his party. Jamaica deserves better.