RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: A TICKING TIME BOMB

WHEN Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini announced, in December 2016, that government would ban other religions except Christianity from being taught in local schools, one had assumed it was the usual whimsical and flippant foot-in-the-mouth gaffes associated with politicians when they have nothing to say.

Given its incendiary nature, the idea initially appeared to be one man’s opinion and that, if Cabinet acted as a collective as we have often been made to understand, it would thrown out with the force it deserves in caucus. 

But alas, it has now come to pass that government has indeed outlawed the teaching of all other religions except Christianity in local schools, both public and private.

Government’s position on the matter is bound to spark controversy albeit muted, given that the nation has been forced into a culture of silence. Consequently, the issue, as with many other critical national issues, might pass without any interrogation because people have been programmed to think that questioning authority was tantamount to dissent and, therefore, unSwazi. Typically, the Byzantine Tinkhundla political system frowns upon dissenters whom it perceives as disloyal, unpatriotic and enemies of the State.

The tragedy of our times is that the good and morally upright of our society have also been coerced into a manic culture of silence thus entrusting our futures in the hands of individuals with questionable moral pedigrees.

As I see it, in a normal country where people are free to exercise their inalienable rights, many would want to publicly express an opinion on the matter but cannot. People are afraid of being classified as dissidenters and their lives turned upside down by a highly politicised security establishment.

Notwithstanding, one remains perennially optimistic that the enforced culture of silence occasioned by the oppressive political environment does not impact on the nation’s scholarship and, indeed, intellect either at individual or collective levels. For if that were to happen it would further bankrupt a country already weighed down by an obnoxiously retrogressive political system.

But even without robust debate of government’s position on the matter at hand, is it necessary for Cabinet ministers to be reminded that they cannot dictate to the people willy-nilly like they did prior to 2005 without being guided by the national Constitution. The advent of the Constitution means we are no longer living in a vacuum.

Unless of course government is confirming the truism that the Constitution was enacted merely as a ruse to ease the pressure from and placate the international community demanding democratisation, otherwise it has no intention of respecting the national charter whatsoever. This conclusion is informed by empirical evidence derived from the regularity, too lengthy to enumerate on this column, with which government, indeed the leadership collective, has trampled on the Constitution. The bottom line being that government does not care about the rule of law but puts emphasis on rule by the law.

While it would be naïve and puerile to imagine that it would be easy for constitutionalism to take root on these shores within such a short period of time since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2005, it has been our expectations that government would lead from the front in inculcating a culture of constitutionalism. Initially this entails respecting the Constitution.

The religious conundrum, as it were, reminds one of how the powers that be forced lawmakers when enacting the Constitution to reverse their initial decision appointing Christianity as the national religion of the country in order to accommodate other religions. This decision was influenced by the kingdom’s then newly-adopted ‘look east’ foreign policy to escape the pressures to democratize coming from the kingdom’s traditional allies from the West.

Now government, with the usual impunity, is going against the letter of the Constitution by marginalising other religions. Yet the era of constitutionalism disbar government from dictating to the nation without any reference and conformity to the Constitution. That people may not challenge government’s decision does not mean what it has done is right or constitutional.

While a majority of compatriots were brought up under the auspices of the Christian religion, that does not necessarily mean it should be shoved down the throats of everyone. Additionally, the Swazi nation is no longer homogenous but a pot-pourri of different nationalities from a mixture of cultural and religious perspectives thus impacting on traditional belief systems. 

As I see it, given the reality of the demographic, cultural and religious transformation of the Swazi nation over the decades, it is about time we examined and questioned old concepts, values and systems, to quote Steven Bantu Biko from his ‘I write what I like’ political piece. “Having found the right answers, we shall then work for consciousness among all people to make it possible for us to proceed towards putting these answers into effect.”

Indeed the answer apropos religious education may be Sunday schools, churches, mosques, synagogues, etc. and be divorced from the school syllabus. After all, is the objective of teaching any religion in schools to convert or make pupils to follow a particular religion?
 

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