POLL DRIVEN BY STOMACH POLITICS

Times of Swaziland

1 October 2008

Comment

Elections driven by stomach politics

By Vusi Sibisi

A coterie of grovellers, knee-bending sycophants and blind loyalists of the obtaining political hegemony are apt to criticise multi-party democracy as divisive and, therefore, not suited for a homogeneous society like the Kingdom of Eswatini.

As I see it, these supporters and loyalists would rather sing or manufacture non-existent virtues of the oppressive Tinkhundla Political System.

Yet when it comes to the nitty-gritty nothing could be further from the truth as mirrored by the recent legislative elections.

What is emerging from the recent legislative elections is the blinding clarity that the Tinkhundla is neither a political ideology nor a political vehicle through which to spur the political transformation and development of the country but a feedlot for those who excel in the art of praise singing and grovelling.

The new children on the block in the form of elected lawmakers have taken this much further by making the entire exercise one of poverty alleviation at a personal and not at national level.

For as I see it the desperation to get to Parliament is no more driven by a political desire to transform the Swazi polity by enacting laws that would be conducive to speeding the economic development of this country than to get out of the vicious cycle of abject poverty visiting the majority of Swazis even if it is just for five years, which is the term of office of the lawmakers.

That is what emerged when I lobotomised the legislative elections. Is it any wonder a good many cases ended up in court?

As I see it, the face of poverty manifested itself either way - in respect of the contesting candidates as well as the electorate. For the majority of the contesting candidates it did not matter much that they displayed a shocking display of intellectual and political malnutrition when it came to real issues that should be the bread and butter issues of a Parliament but were content on shelling out largesse, including financial payments, to buy the votes of the electorate.

And driven by hunger and poverty, the voters were predictable. They voted for those who paid, fed and promised to extricate them from the vicious cycle of poverty that has been bequeathed them by a largely corrupt political system once they are in Parliament. Which brings me to the question if the Tinkhundla political system can compete with the worst system elsewhere because there can be no worse system than this system.

As I see it, those grovellers, knee-bending sycophants and blind loyalists given to damning multi-party democracy even without any empirical evidence that it is the worst form of democracy, do so to ingratiate themselves to the ruling class.

After all, there are still many vacancies that need to be filled in government starting from the legislature itself up to Cabinet level.

So everyone of the soulless unprincipled and spineless individuals given to praise-singing and grovelling are positioning themselves to be easily visible to government so that they are considered for the vacant positions. Invariably this is irrespective of whether they have the skills, experience and most of all requisite qualifications for the positions they aspire to be appointed into.

After all in Tinkhundla territory if a donkey comes begging for a position it would certainly get it only if it has mastered the art of praise singing, grovelling and occasionally lying about some people.

Marwick you’re made for the task

I have grown to respect veteran lawmaker Marwick Thandukukhanya Khumalo as a matured and astute politician. He has in the recent past surprised many when he openly declared that Tinkhundla had failed and now was the time the country considered taking a new political path without as much as saying in as many words.

He capped his growing stature as head of the African Union Pan African Parliament observer mission during Zimbabwe’s general elections at the end of March.

While the Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer mission prematurely declared those elections free and fair, Marwick and his team were much more objective in their assessment and pronounced them to having not been free and fair, especially after it took a whole month to release results for the presidential elections. By breaking ranks, Marwick departed from the African tradition of hiding the truth behind a façade of unity.

As I see it, Marwick represents a new political breed, a generation that was going to transform Africa and just take it by the scruff of the neck and boot her into the 21st century, as Wole Soyinka rightly articulated, on whose shoulders we can safely entrust the future of this country. But to achieve such a milestone needed a million Marwicks to do this on a continental scale.

As I see it, we need about 30 or so Marwicks in the legislature of this the Kingdom of Eswatini to start the political transformation that he and similarly minded individuals would want to see happen here in order to extricate this country from the many man-made disasters it is in.

This is a challenge to Marwick as an old horse in Parliament to lead from both the front and the back to achieve this most desired political transformation to get this country out of the current rot.

The bones will speak on next PM

The Swazi News, the sister newspaper to this one, last Saturday threw down the gauntlet to anyone who cared to help His Majesty King Mswati III to appoint the new Prime Minister and Cabinet of ministers.

As I see it, that might be a little bit premature. This I have surmised from the fact that we are still awaiting the king to first appoint 10 lawmakers to the House of Assembly and 20 to Senate. Then perhaps can we knuckle down to the job of selecting who is who for whatever position?

Adding to this dilemma, as I see it of course, is the fact that only after the lawmakers have been appointed can we get down to the onerous task of consulting the bones on who should occupy the position of the PM first and foremost.

And it is not an easy task considering that often there are five names in the hat contesting for the position, four of which need to be eliminated from the race by day-break.

And this can take the whole night for the bone throwers to accomplish. Perhaps the Swazi News Editor will extend the time period during which we, the public, can assist in the appointment of the PM and make-up of the Cabinet. After all the PM consults with the king on the composition of the Cabinet.

In the meantime, yours truly can be gathering the best bone throwers for the night of the bones when the new PM would be selected.

Link http://www.times.co.sz/index.php?news=1832

NEW MPS WON'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Times of Swaziland

24 September 2008

Comment

New MPs on the block won’t change anything

By Vusi Sibisi

The people overwhelmingly voted for change in last Friday’s secondary legislative elections by rejecting the old guard in favour of new faces while the vote for a woman campaign collapsed catastrophically.

As I see it and judging by the electorate’s rejection of the majority of former lawmakers at the polls, the people are crying out for change in the manner they are governed. But can the newly elected legislators bring about the desired changes, is the gnawing question that should have all of us concerned with the worsening state of this the Kingdom of Eswatini.

While the recent poll was an epoch-making event in view of the fact that it was for the first time that the country held elections under a constitutional dispensa-tion since the state of emergency brought about by the King’s Proclamation to the Nation of April 12, 1973, not much has changed in the nation’s body politics. And true to the French saying, "the more things change the more they remain the same".

Disappointed

As I see it that the majority of the incoming members of the 9th Parliament of the Kingdom of Eswatini are new faces does not necessarily herald a new political philosophy or for that matter a paradigm shift in the manner this country has been governed since 1973.

The people will be disappointed that the new crop of legislators will also become rubber stamps of the executive arm of government primarily because nothing has changed in the manner the government of the day is formed.

The new constitution’s failure to transfer power to the people still means that it is the ruling class that appoints the government of the day. And by progression, this means it still holds that the government in power is still responsible and answerable to the ruling elite and not the people. Eventually the people would be disappointed to know that whatever changes they desired that had in turn influenced their choices, the legislature would remain under the thumb of the ruling class and impotent to transform the political fortunes of this seemingly God forsaken nation.

That, of course, is even assuming that the new crop of legislators are inspired by the challenges facing this nation other than hunger pangs and economic hardships that have made it impossible for the average Swazi to make ends meet. And as I see it, these elections had everything to do with the economic circumstances of individuals and little or nothing to do with national priorities, least of all by the zeal to transform the Swazi polity. And for the sake of this nation I do hope I am wrong in arriving at this conclusion.

Choice

In the event I am wrong, then the challenge to the incoming lawmakers is to convert the citizens from being stowaways into passengers in their spaceship the Kingdom of Eswatini in order to take full control of their and the country’s destiny.

And that can only be achieved by amending the constitution to empower the people to be responsible for forming a government of choice that not only comes from them but also is accountable and responsible to the people.

As I see it that is the only hope that we are left with to salvage this country from the ruins the ruling elite is hell bent in plunging it as attested to by the reckless spending that has become a daily feature when this country is faced with a multitude of socio-economic problems that are underscored by abject poverty, wide scale unemployment, HIV/AIDS pandemic, growing army of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs), non-functional health delivery system, dysfunctional education system and a prolonged drought.

As for the vote for a woman campaign, it was an idea whose time had not come judging by the dismal performance of aspirant female lawmakers.

Yet the recent population census tells us that the fairer sex by far outnumber us males. So one would have expected the women to work with and support each other and to be in the majority in Parliament. Evidently this is not so otherwise they would not have fared as worse as they did.

As I see it the whole idea was premature in relation to the monumental challenges facing this country. At this critical phase of this country’s history, we cannot afford to focus on gender equity but to concentrate in getting the best brains to extricate this country from the abyss it has been plunged into by the ruling class. It was the wrong time to even think about equity when nothing is equitable about this country. Yes, if the best man for the job is a woman then so be it, women must take the lead but not out of sympathy that they have been subjugated for this long but because they deserve it. Tokenism won’t take this country anywhere but backward.

As I see it what this country needs right now are courageous men and women with an affinity to the truth and nothing else but the truth.

We all know that this country is built and perpetuated on lies. And unless we liberate this nation from these lies that have become a sub-culture, there is no way this country can move forward and there is also no way the ruling class could stop taking the sort of criminal decisions that have become the order of the day. Women must occupy leadership positions because they deserve them and not out of pity!

Link http://www.times.co.sz/As-I-see-it/1635.html

SWAZI POLL OBSERVERS WHITEWASH

Times of Swaziland

17 September 2008

Comment

SADC observers here to legitimise elections

By Vusi Sibisi

So, just what it is that the various observer missions that have been sent here will observe in the Tinkhundla secondary elections slated for Friday?

This question is premised on the political perspective of the Kingdom of eSwatini. First being that the Tinkhundla political system is uniquely Swazi and cannot be compared or related to any other political system across the globe. And as it turns out the any other political system being the universally accepted multi-party democratic system that apparently is the nemesis of the kleptocratic government.

As I see it, there are no similarities or comparisons that can be found between the uniquely Swazi Tinkhundla political system to or with any other political system the world over. This in spite of the fact that the Kingdom of eSwatini is a signatory to all international conventions relating to people’s rights and freedoms. This country is also a signatory to electoral principles of among other organisations the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which norms are universally recognized and supported.

But of course signing and ratifying anything has no significance to the government that has no affinity with the rule of law. As I see it signing and ratifying some of these conventions and protocols was merely to placate the international community that is constantly pressuring the Swazi leadership to conform to the norms and practices of the rest of the civilized world. In turn these conventions and protocols are good for nothing within the fiefdom of the Kingdom of eSwatini because they are never really translated into practical legislation and if they are the ruling elite simply ignores them and do as they please.

Essentially the Swazi leadership cannot conform to the requirements of these international conventions and protocols simply because they are not prepared to cede any power, be it political or socio-economic, to the people. In turn they care less about accountability and good governance but care more about spending recklessly that which should be used to develop the country and uplift the lifestyle of the people.

As I see it the yardsticks used to determine if an election has been free and fair do not apply here simply because the system on which the elections are anchored is not democratic. And even if it was it has no impact whatsoever on the way this country is governed because the resultant government is responsible to the ruling class and not to the people. The people cannot call the government to account for its actions because it is not answerable to or accountable to them. So much for the so-called grassroots democracy that is nothing but a big lie.

Be that as it may, as for the SADC it lost its credibility when its elections observer mission hastily adjudged the March 29 Zimbabwean general elections as having been free and fair. Yet shortly after the observer mission had prematurely given those polls its stamp of approval, the results for the presidential elections were delayed for about a month during which the ruling Zanu-PF and its security agencies took possession of the ballot boxes from the partisan Zimbabwe Elections Commission.

No one dared to question what was happening to the ballot boxes during the period between the end of polling and the time the results for the presidential election were announced almost a month later. Even then SADC was only too pleased to accept the cooked results that gave Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 47% of the vote and Zanu-PF’s Robert Mugabe 43% thus occasioning a run-off poll between the two since none of them had garnered the 51% votes that could have won them the presidency outrightly.

Notwithstanding the power-sharing settlement that was chiseled out by South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, the SADC mediator to the Zimbabwe crisis, as I see it SADC’s approach to serious matters of the region, especially where it pertains to violations of its own conventions and principles, is that of not rocking the boat to the extent that the illegitimate becomes legitimate for as long as it favours the status quo. And it is precisely because of its propensity for promoting camaraderie amongst the heads of state at the expense of the truth and realities on the ground of some of the region’s troubled spots that are progressively and systematically making SADC irrelevant and your typical old boys’ club to the ordinary people of this regional block.

So, as I see it, the SADC observer mission is here to put a stamp of legitimacy on the elections and nothing else. Yet the very presiding body, the Elections and Boundaries Commission, has a crisis of legitimacy because its composition is not in accordance with the letter and spirit of the constitution. Ultimately it is all a whitewash!

Link http://www.times.co.sz/As-I-see-it/1460.html

NO CABINET INCOMPETENTS PLEASE

Times of Swaziland

10 September 2008

Comment

Cabinet should have no room for incompetents

By Vusi Sibisi

Now that the euphoria over the controversial resource-draining 40/ 40 Double Celebrations for the 40th independence anniversary and His Majesty King Mswati III’s 40th birthday is done and finished, it is now back to reality for this once promising landlocked nation that is now referred to as impoverished.

But of course with two-thirds of the approximated population of a million people living below the poverty datum line, not to speak of the impact of HIV/AIDS that at one time represented the highest infection rate in the world, the Kingdom of Eswatini is indeed one of the most impoverished nations on earth today.

And talking about the arrogant distortion of national priorities by the government brings me to the next big event in what should go down in the annals of Swazi history as a very eventful year, if not en epoch-making one, that is the Tinkhundla elections that have entered the last phase. Notwithstanding the many cases before court in which poverty-driven candidates are jostling for pole positions ahead of the secondary elections next Friday, it can be expected that Cabinet ministers will be sent home sometime this week to allow those who are in the running for parliamentary seats to campaign.

Accepted

As I see it, Cabinet ministers who are still in the running for elections have been enjoying unfair advantage over their competitors one way or the other, a situation that would render the elections unfair were they normal and in line with those of real democracies across the globe. But the Tinkhundla elections can never be adjudged in accordance with the universally accepted norms basically because the political system in use does not meet the barest minimum democratic values.

The electorate is used as pawns to legitimise the political status quo, yet in effect cannot control or bring into account the resultant government.

Although flawed as it may, had the government any respect for the people, the least it can do should be to appoint competent individuals into Cabinet. The beginning towards that end would, of course, be to do an appraisal of the outgoing Cabinet and looking at the catalogue of blunders that they are leaving behind as their legacy coupled to the many crises, including humanitarian crises, they either made themselves or failed to adequately address save only to pay lip-service to, none of them would deserve a recall. But then again under the Tinkhundla Political System it is not about performing a good day’s work towards alleviating the plight of the people that counts for anything.

As I see it, Wole Soyinka might have had this the Kingdom of Eswatini in mind when he wrote: "The enthronement of power as the birthright of a given sector of any human community evolves, sooner or later, into a privilege of mediocrity, logically still, into the quest for power by right, on the part of the mediocre. In the end even the mentally deficient grasps the real possibility – indeed, the absolute certitude – that his turn has come."

So we should expect, when the next government is formed, more of the same as in the past and that is nothing. And this has nothing to do with a dearth of talent because we have that in rivers as shown by some of the sons and daughters of the soil who because of their families’ lack of connections to government, have gone outside the country and excelled on their chosen fields.

Indeed, some became giants that they controlled budgets that are hundred times the national budget of this country. And anyone has to wonder why this country’s economy is stagnant when the economies of fellow Southern African Development Community’s (SADCs) are buoyant, over the apparent lack of fiscal prudence, the collapsed health delivery system and dysfunctional education system and the multitude of humanitarian crises.

As I see it, all those problems facing this country are a result of a grotesque political system that has placed government in the spotlight. Otherwise if the people were at the centre of everything, then there would be no question of if the outgoing Cabinet or any member thereof should be retained in office when the next government is formed.

Now that was an official stay-away!

Call it whatever you will but in all intents and purposes it appeared that the government was being vindictive over last week’s two-day stay-away organized by labour and political formations when it suddenly declared Monday a public holiday.

As I see it, the government was flexing its political muscle by declaring an official stay-away without as much as thinking about the economy it is doing everything to bring to its knees by not spending wisely or investing in a conducive, internationally accepted and sustainable political future. And that was but a display of the sort of arrogant behaviour of government when confronted by problems it helped to create.

It is not like this country is self-sufficient on anything, except perhaps in creating poverty and the requisite conditions to ensure it flourishes. And the last time I checked about two-thirds of the population of approximately a million people were dependent on hand-outs from international organisations and donor community to sustain life one day at a time.

But government is oblivious to some of these harsh realities and in arrogant fashion creates a holiday, which I strongly believe was a misinformed response to last Wednesday and Thursday’s stay-aways, out of the blue.

Even assuming there was a need for a holiday for imbali, as this was the official explanation given, government should have given ample notice to corporate Swaziland that is the driving force of the economy to make the necessary adjustments and logistical plans to minimise losses. But what does government do, shock both the corporate world and the nation with a surprise official stay-away on Monday when all along she had insisted that neither Friday nor Monday would be made holidays in view that Independence Day fell on Saturday, which was to be recognised as a holiday.

As I see it such behaviour by the government is further testimony of the arrogance and contempt with which it takes the people and over the way this country is governed. After all the thinking within government being that we should all be grateful for being allowed to stay here in their fiefdom without causing government any more troubles.

Well, with more stay-aways planned for next week and beyond, one has to wonder how many official stay-aways will government conjure up just so as to fix the protesting workers and political movements by showing them who is in control. And who knows, that may just be the catalyst and the shortest route to political transformation leading to the real political emancipation of the Swazi nation.

Link http://www.times.co.sz/Letters-to-the-Editor/As-I-see-it/1251.html