Times Of Swaziland: LET THE TIRED REST

LET THE TIRED REST
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By Martin Dlamini on 25/05/2018 09:14:00


ELECTION registration numbers so far suggest that there is an impressive turnout
at the registration centres with potential voters eager to elect new Members of
Parliament.
The numbers were sitting at around 100 000 early this week. Depending on which
side of the political fence you’re on, these numbers could mean several
things. One is hoping that electing tired, backward thinking, overly
conservative and recycled non-achiever candidates, is certainly not one of them.
Tired refers to the likes of legislators who do not see the need and could not
be bothered to form a quorum to pass the much needed Sexual Offences and
Domestic Violence (SODV) Bill, while violence against women and children
escalates. It refers to those who forget that it could soon be their own
daughters, wives or relatives on the receiving end. This is a Bill that has
taken almost two decades to get through Parliament simply because senators
refuse to allow common sense to prevail.
Some legislators are either too tired or too stuck in the past to appreciate the
value and contribution of women in leadership that they would even suggest they
need permission from their husbands to serve the country, just because they
would have to spend nights in hotels. Others seem highly opposed to the ‘vote
for a woman campaign’ because their tired minds can only see a threat to their
means of livelihood instead of appreciating possible contributors to the
meaningful development of this country by a previously marginalised group in our
patriarchal society.
These tired minds dominated Cabinet thinking resulting in, among other things,
the short-sighted rejection of the obvious benefits of legalising our marijuana
(dagga) for medicinal purposes. By the time we wake up from the slumber, our
highly rated herb would be useless as countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia have
jumped at the medicinal and economic benefits it provides.
Zimbabwe has also declared that it wants to regain its status as the bread
basket of Southern Africa. What have we been doing all along? Nothing but
slashing the Agriculture budget while almost 200 000 citizens remain in need of
food aid. We have been busy with increasing expenditure for the security forces
as a solution to poverty alleviation.
No wonder the current lot of politicians leave a nation up in arms over the high
cost of living and litany of taxation being proposed through the Finance Bill,
all because they were too tired to think of creative ways of diversifying the
economy. Such taxes have been unanimously rejected by the citizens and
deservedly so.
Our politicians have been too tired to read, heed, strategise and implement the
numerous recommendations at their disposal on how best to improve our landlocked
and sparsely populated economy. How does one explain failing to remove our
dependency on the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) over four decades?
Put these together, it is obvious that the current level of thinking in
government has passed its sell-by date. The results of this can only yield a
collapse of businesses, cash-flow challenges, starving children in schools, high
unemployment, drug shortages, lack of service delivery, etc. These failures will
forever characterise the term of our Tenth Parliament which was too tired to
provide the required oversight role.
The promising numbers turning up at registration centres should, therefore,
count for something; and that should be for electing an enterprising group of
citizens who will have the energy to keep up with the high pace of development
that is now being driven by the ever innovating world of technology. We now have
science, technology and biotechnology parks which are targeted at leveraging
technology to boost economic growth.
These facilities require a new level of thinking. Young innovative and highly
competitive minds are what we need to derive maximum benefits of this
investment, unless we are keen to turn them into white elephants. A young
video-graphic ‘stuntman’ can best describe how backward the current thinking
is. He posted a video of his work online but instead of receiving plaudits for
his creativity, he was seen as a threat to society by law enforcement. The
hypocrisy of it all is that the same cops allow their children to watch this
stuff on TV every day! We laugh, but this is the extent at which we are lagging
seriously behind in adapting new technologies to drive this economy.
The fourth industrial revolution is fast becoming the new world order. We are
all well aware that industries were first driven by water and steam, then
electric power, followed by electronics and ICT. Now the digital revolution is
upon us. Simply put, cars are now self-driven. So where does that put us as a
country in the next 20 years? Nowhere if we elect bomkhulu to Parliament who
have no idea how a computer works, let alone what it looks like.
We have a young King who is highly exposed to the developed world and very
forward thinking. His drive towards transforming this country is, unfortunately,
not matched by the tired minds dominating the political landscape. The 100 000
registered voters and others to follow, should not - even for a second - allow
their minds to be infected by the tired and lazy-to-think  mentality at this
point. All we need to think about is how best to inject a new lease of life into
this country.