Times Of Swaziland: AS I SEE IT: 60-day detention may be catalyst for change

AS I SEE IT: 60-day detention may be catalyst for change
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Vusi Sibisi on 12/11/2008 00:00:00


Two years ago the king of little known Bhutan imposed democracy in his country,
an act of benevolent leadership that might have secured for posterity the
existence of the institution of the monarchy of that Himalayan kingdom perched
between India and China.
Not only did the king of Bhutan impose democracy on his kingdom that reduced the
status of the monarchy to a ceremonial constitutional one while real political
power evolved to the people, he also abdicated the throne in favour of his
28-year-old Oxford educated son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Mangchuck, who last week
assumed the Raven Crown of Bhutan as king.
As I see it there are a lot of lessons we in this the Kingdom of eSwatini,
particularly the ruling class, can learn from Bhutan because while we may appear
to be worlds apart we still share certain specific peculiarities. Until two
years ago, like the Kingdom of eSwatini up to this day, the Kingdom of Bhutan
was ruled by an absolute monarchy that is credited for being responsible for
unifying that country some 100 years ago. Of significance is that even before
the Bhutan king imposed democracy two years ago the Bhutan monarchy remained
enormously popular because of its benevolent leadership.
With a paltry population of 635 000 people – almost the two-thirds of this
country’s poverty stricken population that is now dependent on handouts from
the international donor community – five decades ago Bhutan was a feudal,
medieval place with no roads, proper schools or hospitals and scarcely any
contact with the outside world. Yet today education and health care are free,
and life expectancy has risen to 66 years from less than 40.
Conversely, the Kingdom of eSwatini with a population of about a million people
– or about 400 000 more than that of Bhutan - has for the past 40 years been
ruled by an absolute monarchy. The country has not developed exponentially or
disproportio-nately to the wealth outlay that has largely enriched the ruling
elite hence a majority of capital projects such as roads and other
infrastructure have been built with debt money leading to an almost total
mortgaging of this country.
While education and health care are free in Bhutan, our education system remains
dysfunctional to the point that after 40 years of independence we do not know
which system works or does not work.
And 40 years later we are still experimenting with education models while at the
same time nudging Swazi graduates – not withstanding the relevancy or
otherwise of the current domestic education system to the expectations and needs
of the global community - to look outside the country for job opportunities.
As for this country’s public health delivery system, it is non-existent
ostensibly because, like education, it is not a priority of the ruling class
that has access to better health facilities outside the borders of this country
while life expectancy is in the region of a paltry 33 years or thereabout, which
is approximately half in relation to that of Bhutan.
As I see it Bhutan’s achievements in 50 years is an embarrassing indictment of
the Swazi ruling family that has presided over the cosmetic development of this
country and the people for the past 40 years. This is bellied by the fact that
most of the development the leadership usually brags about has not been paid
for. In turn this begs the question of what has happened to the wealth created
by the nation over 40 years of independence when there is very little we can
boast about that has been paid in full and is of direct benefit not to just a
few but to the nation at large.
As I see it the one poignant lesson to be learned from the Bhutan experience
besides the prevailing people-centred benevolent dictatorship until two years
ago, is that that country’s benevolent leaders were gifted the wisdom of
learning something from history.
And that lesson is that securing political power through the use of force has a
very short life as attested to by the many monarchies and empires that were once
the dominant political powers and mode of governance across the world that have
since diminished if not perished of their own making. And yes, a cursory
reflection of what happened to the monarchies and empires will show that they
became feared monsters and reigned terror on their citizens. In time the
citizens grew tired of being terrorised and subjugated by institutions they had
no control over and overthrew them at times with horrifying consequences to
those in power as attested to by the French Revolution.
As I see it our ruling class is treading the same path by embracing a policy of
kwekhamana so as to instill fear on the citizens instead of engendering a
culture of dialogue by engaging all – not just those blind loyalists and
bootlickers without any moral bearings - Swazis irrespective of their political
beliefs. Yes, in time they will achieve the objective of being feared but fear
always has an attendant bride, and that is hate. And yes, the ruling class would
be feared just as they will be equally hated. That, unfortunately, always
signals the beginning of an end.
And talk of resuscitating the ruling elite’s weapon of choice, the 60-Day
Detention Order, may just fast track the long-overdue desirous political changes
and who knows what else could become a casualty of that force. It matters very
little that that piece of draconian law may be at odds with the constitution
since nobody really cares about the constitution considering how often the very
ruling elite have transgressed the supreme law since it came into force on July
26, 2005.
As I see it the 60-Day Detention Order or any other law legislated to shore up
the obtaining dictatorship would most certainly be a catalyst for the total
political emancipation of the people. In the end would those behind the revival
of this law be judged as heroes for protecting the institution of the monarchy
or as villains for having preempted its demise? History will be the judge!
There’s room for dialogue instead of kukhamana
Even though dialogue among the differing political schools of thought has
officially been severed in favour of kukhamana it was refreshing to come across
a confirmed stalwart of the obtaining Tinkhundla political system in one of the
shopping malls in deep conversation with another confirmed opponent of the
system, to be specific a member of the People’s Democratic Movement (PUDEMO)
and an out-on-bail suspect in the petrol bombings of government installations.
As I see it, that the ruling class has now officially adopted the kukhamana
policy does not in any way mean that they were ever disposed to dialoguing with
those advocating for multi-party democracy among the Swazi nation.
All along the ruling class was pretending as if the Tinkhundla system enjoyed
unequivocal support of all the people on the premise that foreigners were
forcing multi-party democracy down the throats of the people. It followed,
therefore, that if the ruling class was not awake to and acknowledged the
reality that part of the nation was advocating for multi-party democracy, there
was absolutely no need for them or the nation to discourse over the country’s
political future.
The crux of the matter is here were diametrically opposed political opponents
debating political issues of the country. They were not throwing bombs at each
other, they were not trying to gore each other with spears and they were not
throttling each other, bebangakhamani, but dialoguing civilly. I bet this sort
of engagement comes from the acceptance and understanding that they share more
than their political differences to be constantly on each other’s throats. It
also comes from the appreciation that they stand to lose a lot if they expend
their energies throttling each other instead of attempting to narrow the
political divide so that they are able to harmoniously co-exist with each other.
As I see it that we, as a nation, are able to engage each other in dialogue at
micro level but fail to do the same at macro level is an indictment on the
ruling elite’s failure to unite the nation for a common good. This situation
has recently degenerated to the level where the ruling class has declared war,
akukhanywane, against those opposed to the obtaining political hegemony to the
extent that the king is now king to some and not to all of the people. As it
turns out the king is now the king of those who are pro-Tinkhundla system and
not of the proponents of multi-party democracy. And this is certainly not of the
making of the people but of the ruling class!