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ARE POLITICAL PARTIES REALLY NOT POPULAR?

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COULD the outcome of the latest Afro Barometer survey, since elevated to prominence by United States Ambassador Lisa Peterson, that political parties were not popular in the Kingdom of eSwatini the end-game for proponents of multiparty democracy?

Ambassador Peterson used the Afro Barometer survey outcome to illustrate that political transformation was not an event but a process that was unlikely to happen overnight. This was during an interaction with the country’s editors during which the American diplomat touched on a number of issues, including the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), an American legislation that opens the vast US market to duty-free largely textile and apparel imports from African nations.


As I see it, Ambassador Peterson’s take on the population’s negative reception of and perhaps perceptions about political parties should give proponents of multiparty democracy food for thought. That should include interrogating the very findings of the survey itself on this subject matter. Years back, I ventilated my negative opinions on the outcomes of a similar Afro Barometer survey. But that does not necessarily mean outcomes of these surveys should be ignored completely – no, they may in fact form a basis from which proponents of multiparty democracy could devise strategies to broaden their public appeal.


Diplomacy aside, I still disagree, as I did then when I initially ventilated my views, with the outcomes of the Afro Barometer survey apropos the disposition of the majority of the people towards pluralistic political parties. The reasons for this are manifold but the immediate one may be a lack of appetite to a segment of the populace to understand and appreciate what political parties are. Yes, that may be too simplistic and even myopic a posture, yet it is very germane to the issue. It is imperative to get the people’s impressions on what they believe political parties are and what should or ought to be their functions before coming to the crucial question of choices between competing political systems. 


An understanding of what political parties are and their roles would form a backdrop and context from which the people can be engaged on the subject in order to make informed decisions and choices. The context the surveys in question have been undertaken is, on one hand, blighted by ignorance of the subject matter about political parties since some sections, not all, of the people – born post-1973 King’s Proclamation to the Nation that outlawed political parties and essentially criminalised political activity - do not have firsthand experience of living under a multiparty democratic dispensation. Additionally, people have over the years been systematically and progressively indoctrinated into believing that multiparty democracy sought to overthrow and end the hegemony of the monarchy, which of course is an outright lie.


Consequently, people involved in political parties and activities without the express approval of the leadership post-1973 Kingdom of eSwatini were both prosecuted and persecuted. The State created a ruthless machinery backed by obnoxious Afrikaner-inspired laws that coerced people into a conspiracy of silence out of fear of the unknown. This fear permeates the nation to this day leading to fanatical bootlicking in which the truth has become a casualty. This indeed is that time of deceit where telling the truth is a revolutionary act George Orwell was talking about. People would rather peddle lies to insulate themselves from political persecution, as well as to curry the favour of the leadership in the hope of an upward social and economic trajectory. Hence nowhere else but in this country is the truth relative, which is and could be disastrous to surveys and pollsters. This acquired art of lying convincingly has culminated into a national malaise, in which the people now have a tenuous relationship with the truth.


The point is no one, even among the sections of the people who are articulate about the subject matter, would freely talk about their political hue to anyone, least of all a stranger. Even if they did chances are they would lie and talk only of that which they think the authorities would approve of just to stay out of harm’s way. Assurances about the surveys being non-disclosure of identities of the people sampled are not good enough to elicit the truth from individuals. People cannot talk positively about political parties out of fear of alienating themselves, since it is common cause that the leadership loathes political parties. This country has a noticeable trust deficit hence people are always suspicious that those doing the surveys may be agents of the State on a mission to expose so-called political enemies of the ruling class.


As I see it, the political climate, and indeed environment, is not conducive for undertaking objective surveys and polling because people are afraid of their leaders, given their propensity to sanction those who do not toe the lie. Exacerbating this is the absence of freedom of expression from Swazi polity, with Parliament providing perfect empirical examples of this, hence lawmakers are routinely censored and even threatened for utterances that are thought to be offensive to the senses of the leadership. In short, the elected representatives of the people are themselves not free to criticise the shortcomings of the obtaining political hegemony. Even if freedom of expression can be guaranteed overnight, this would not immediately dissipate the fear enveloping the nation today. This can only happen over time. In the circumstances the statement that political parties are not popular ought to be qualified because it may well be off the mark since people, anonymously or not, are afraid to speak openly just about anything and everything.
  

 



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