YOU OFFSIDE HONOURABLE MP

In simple and formal terms, the phrasal verb ‘point-scoring’, is described as ‘gaining an advantage over someone or a rival by making a clever or better argument’.

Informally, the above phrasal verb is described as the ‘winning of petty triumphs over a rival, to make others respect you or to please someone (usually someone of superior position), at the detriment of a competitor or adversary.

In politics, point-scoring is a common trend among most of the globe’s politicians. It becomes distasteful and abhorrent when it is used by its practitioners to a point bordering on being sycophantic or grovelling, especially in front of those in authority in order to gain cheap, political victories over rivals and to gain the favour of the powers-that-be, or worse still, to strike the fear of the devil in any would-be dissenting voices, in the process stifling freedom of expression and freedom to criticise - an act which has become an art performed with masterly distinction deserving an Oscar award, by our present-day politicians in this country.

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Politicians, in my books, are supposed to be people who should employ diplomacy or tact in their manner of speech and not be prone to rhetorical pronunciations or be susceptible to using their mouths to shoot from the hip or shoot first, asking questions later.
More often than not, the havoc some wreak with their careless talk is at times irreparable.

Since the dawn of creation the tongue has been and continues to be a very potent and dangerous organ if not used guardedly. It has the propensity to constructively build social relationships, quell strife, as well as shape characters. On the flip side, it has the uncanny ability to irrevocably destroy relations and instigate even revolutions, if flippantly used. Any careless slip or use of the tongue, just like a small stick in a box of matches carelessly used, has the power to destroy even large forests.

Above all, humanity employs the tongue to sing praises to the One who created them in His likeness.
It becomes worrying when mankind will use the tongue to invoke curses, imploring our loving God instead of their so-called ancestral gods, to strike dead those they perceive as their enemies.

Some of us were bemused, aghast and taken aback when we read of ominous and foreboding headlines carried by this publication in its last week edition, where it was reported that one prominent, local politician who (sadly), also happens to be a lawmaker, allegedly used a platform afforded him during a thanksgiving ceremony hosted for the country’s third most important leader to, according to the newspaper article, “warn that anybody who dares revolt against Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini will die.”

Strong and frightening words, don’t you think dear reader, coming from another human being who was created in God’s image? It is alleged that he even warned his colleagues in the chambers to “support and respect the head of government business in Parliament” because, according to him (lawmaker), God will ‘kill’ them if they ‘revolted’against the prime minister.

If this is true as alleged, then I give up! Now, now, now...hush, Honourable Member of Parliament, please hold your horses and allow sanity to prevail here!
All politicians in any functioning democracy are supposed to be accountable to the people, well, except of course in our kingdom’s unique and complex political hegemony.

accountability
The leader of government is open or rather, should be open to constructive criticism. Like all humans, he is fallible and prone to erring. I
n a representative democracy, he is accountable (or should be) first and foremost to God, secondly to the country’s higher authorities and to the legislature, which is supposed to be a watchdog for and representatives of the electorate. By allegedly issuing threats that those who revolt against the premier will die, I hope for God’s sake, the honourable legislator did not insinuate that the premier should be above criticism, even when he fails to account for any violation of, say, the Supreme law of the land – Constitution.
If this is what he subtly and in a thinly veiled threat insinuated, then let us all be afraid; be very afraid, especially for both freedom of expression and that of critiquing even constructively.
We sincerely pray and hope he was merely grandstanding in the camaraderie and joyous revelry of the occasion, scoring cheap political points in a bid to impress the premier or maybe, be viewed in a favourable light. If not and he was deadly serious about the threats, then those of us, especially members of the Fourth Estate must be afraid, be very afraid indeed.
Before I ramble on and maybe risk the exhortation and invocation of God’s ‘wrath’ upon yours truly, who may be called upon by those closer to Him to ‘kill’ me by commanding the ground to swallow me, just exactly like the biblical Ananias and wife, the legislator mentioned, for daring to write this article, which might be viewed as ‘revolting’ against those ‘ordained’ by God, let me shed some light on the definition of the verb ‘revolt’

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In simpler terms, to revolt means “to rise in rebellion”, especially against authority. The verb has many synonyms, chief among them being “to take to the streets in protests, to mutiny, to take up arms, partaking in an uprising and to riot.”
I am not sure in what context the esteemed legislator used this verb. If he used it in the above described context as defined, then I feel sad. Not in my wildest dreams can I envisage or imagine our honourable legislators, daring to revolt (that is, in the above described context) against our prime minister or any authority for that matter. No! Especially not this current crop of legislators who cannot dare bite the hand that feeds them. Past history has convinced the populace that our legislators are more accountable to the system of governance more than they are to the electorate who voted them into power.
The Word of God declares that: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.” - Isaiah 55: 8-9. Above all, not even one fallible human being can fathom God’s thinking, let alone exhort Him to kill people who may revolt or rebel against any authority. God is love and does not use His infinite power recklessly.
As much as God implores us to respect governing authorities, it does not give those earthly authorities, the power to do as they please, talk flippantly and carelessly off the cuff and to trample with impunity on the fundamental rights of others. No living, sinful human being has the divine authority to threaten other humans with God’s wrath, imploring Him to kill those who they view as against authority.

accountable
God is not like us evil-harted human beings who thrive on revenge, using our earthly and transient powers to ‘fix’ those whom we perceive as revolting or rubbing our egos the wrong way. There are numerous verses in God’s Word that give us an inkling of how God executed justice on those who trampled on His statutes. For all intents and purposes, no sinful or mortal man can be in a position to know how and when God executes justice,  except to draw conclusions on what biblical history records tell us how He  unleashed His wrath on those He viewed as violating His precepts. God is autonomous, immutable and acts unilaterally and is accountable to no man. (God can’t unleash death.)
No fallible human being has the right to threaten other people with death as if he knows the mind of God. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray daily and religiously to our God that “Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
There is just no way God can bow to our human demands or wishes to unleash death on those we may view as disrespectful or rubbing  our egos the wrong way. That act is God’s prerogative. Can any man tell God what to do or instruct Him who to kill or punish? - Job 21:22.
We are all sinful humans. No one is righteous - not even one. We all fall short of the glory of God. The sooner we understand that we are all accountable to God’s laws and statutes, the better - not the other way round. Wishing for revenge on our enemies will not bring us any salvation.
No ways! A day is frenetically approaching now and is hovering on the horizon when we shall all stand before Him and give an account of what we did - good or bad. Even those with evil intents who wished for others to die will not be spared facing the Judgement Seat. Shalom!

Alex Nxumalo 76058449

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