STOP NEW PARLY BUILDING

By the time I pen the next instalment of this column, Americans would have decided whether to retain or replace Donald Trump they installed in the White House some four years ago as president of ostensibly the world’s remaining superpower and so-called champion of democracy and defender of the free world.

For Americans have a choice in tomorrow’s presidential elections to get serious by voting righteousness and moral integrity, as embodied by contender Joe Biden, back to power. In my last column I hazarded the need for declaring a state of moral emergency in this kingdom given the ascendency and enthronement of corruption, clothed in various garments, into power. After a racially divisive four years of president Trump in the White House, the US is probably also in need of its own state of moral emergency, following the nightmarish four years of divisive rule fuelled by ultra-racist tendencies and enthronement of a sub-culture of lying from the highest office in the land, should America choose to unite their nation around Biden.

Given, politicians are well known for their penchant for lying but Trump took this to another level. While fanning the flames of racial bigotry and marginalising migrants on the domestic front, while on the global scene he carved himself a niche, as a darling of despots, dictators and authoritarian regimes for not only pursuing them but by acting likewise. Yes, today Russia and China are more powerful militarily, economically and in global influence than they were four years ago when Trump was elected. The arms race is back on track and the world closer, than anyone can imagine, to another Cold War, all thanks to Trump. Perhaps the one positive that could come out of the Trump presidency is that the US could design a methodology with which to better screen the mental aptitude, capacity and otherwise of those who want to run for president given that country’s global leadership credentials role.

Issues

But alas, there are more pressing issues that need to be tackled on the domestic front, especially since I can freely ventilate my thoughts about Trump anywhere, including in the US itself. But I cannot do the same with our leaders here because we are supposed to regard and treat them as deities hence overt and covert censorship is the state’s informal but formal policy – that which they can publicly deny but have privately sanctioned – with dire consequences if you are in violation thereof. But the conventional media would rather be on the side of caution to safeguard its economic wellbeing and longevity. Such is the state of affairs in Eswatini. 

As I was writing this article I reflected on the huge pile of important national issues on the pending tray of the nation that the people cannot freely discourse on; the dead-end education system, land tenure, chiefdom boundaries and succession, national priorities apropos budget allocation, governance and political reforms, rule of law crisis and accompanying dysfunctional Judiciary, role and importance of the Constitution, etc.

Constitution

Each of these issues, and there is a long extended list of these, have birthed monumental problems that invariably impact ordinary folk. A macrocosm of this lately being the fashionable trend for State-owned entities to cancel tenders for their respective capital projects without as much as favouring emaSwati with explanations. The fact is not lost that the abortion of advanced tender processes is happening on the backdrop where money and materialism have become preoccupations of those charged with the stewardship of this country who wield the weapon of privileged entitlement occasioned by their positions to have a finger in every pie and are eager to have complete control of the economy.

It also has become pedestrian that some capital projects, in general, are not needs-based but rather are initiated for the downstream benefit of chosen construction companies. Hence it matters very little that some of these completed projects, while those either still under construction or being planned, are destined to become white elephants. Yet were this country properly governed there would be fewer, if non-existent, pockets of poverty and therefore no need for creating vehicles through which privileged individuals could portray themselves as champions of the people.

As I see, it would be in the best interests of the country and nation for their elected representatives, MPs, to stop the construction of the E1.7 billion new Parliament precinct. On the list of competing national interests a new Parliament building is at the very bottom even if the old building was crumbling. But can the people depend on and trust MPs? Your guess is as good as mine!       

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