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BEING MP HAS BECOME CHILD’S PLAY

03/08/2018 02:33:00 By Martin Dlamini

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THE nomination stage of the 2018 national elections has played itself out and presented a mixed bag of results that gives us a rough idea of what people are thinking (or not) about the future of this country.

Some will say at this stage it is too early to say what the new Parliament will look like, but it must be said that the previous Parliament has done the country great disservice by leaving office without finalising, among other things, the politician’s code of ethics.
This is the least it could have done in an attempt to repair its tattered image as a respectable institution. Now we have to contend with a nation believing that just about anybody fits the profile of Member of Parliament, if our nominations are anything to go by and I say this with the greatest respect to all candidates.
We cannot take away the people’s democratic right to nominate and vote for people of their choice. However, the protection of this right should rest in the integrity of the politicians we choose.

This right is accompanied by the trust that the elected will serve the interest of the voters by seeing to it that the oversight role provides the transparency and accountability we need to develop this country. Turning a blind eye to this places our rights and the prosperity of this country in danger. It is fair to say that is exactly where we are today.

This is not unique to Eswatini or Africa. Efforts to redeem the reputations of parliaments the world over, are underway. Last year, one of the research papers titled; Codes of conduct for national parliaments and their role in promoting integrity: an assessment’ delivered by Jacopo Leone from the office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), during a Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum in Warsaw, Poland, provided interesting highlights. We could draw from some of these as we seek a better understanding of the importance of the role played by parliamentarians.

The paper sought to analyse the contribution parliaments can offer in combating corruption and strengthening integrity within democratic institutional systems. It focused on a specific aspect that has received strong attention in recent years: the adoption and enforcement by parliaments of codes of conduct.
This is being done to regulate parliamentary behaviour and ethical standards as an essential element to regain public trust in the efficacy, transparency and equity of democratic institutions. The paper revealed the findings of the latest Eurobarometer survey (European Commission, 2016), where the majority of EU citizens continue to distrust their respective national parliaments, with a level of trust on average at a mere 32 per cent.

It was also revealed that figures were much more troublesome in selected countries, with trust in national parliaments below a mere 10 per cent in the majority of Southern European and Balkan countries. Similar findings are registered by other measurements, like for instance the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer (Edelman 2017).
What would such surveys find with the people of Eswatini, one wonders? The general perception locally is that our Parliament has failed the nation given the current state of the economy. As a percentage, it would register below two, no doubt.

It then becomes critical to ask what level of trust (if any) have we placed in the new nominees to reverse our economic predicament.
Given the calibre of some of the nominations in some areas, it becomes obvious that the electorate has put trust and the future of this country aside to vote for their friends, pastors, popular figures, musicians, soccer stars, etc, to such an extent that we are seeing the same old faces being raised with no delivery to show for it.
One gets the sense that the voters are no longer serving national interest but personal and social ones. One voter is reported to have said he wants somebody who will buy him alcohol. Who can blame him?

The previous MPs have done nothing else to change his livelihood. This speaks to a serious need to restore the reputation of our Parliament for it to regain the respect it deserves. Being an MP has become child’s play.

Jacopo concluded his paper by noting how codes of conduct for Members of Parliament are proving to be valuable and increasingly adopted instruments by national parliaments in Europe and Asia as they are able to provide a clear set of rules and integrity standards for Members of Parliaments, as a response to declining levels of trust among the public in parliamentary institutions and, in some cases, to damaging political scandals.

“The upcoming years will tell us more clearly whether such codes of conduct will ultimately be able to promote greater integrity and fight corruption among members of parliaments, ensuring the public interest above all else,” he stated. So when do we begin to fix what’s left of our Legislature?