Times Of Swaziland: HAS GOVT QUIETLY ABANDONED FIRST WORLD VISION?

HAS GOVT QUIETLY ABANDONED FIRST WORLD VISION?
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Editor on 13/10/2021 07:56:00


Sir,
Many experts and ordinary people were amazed about the First World proclamation
and most were skeptical that we wouldn’t be anywhere near a First world
country, with some even joking that unless the definition of a First World
country changes, we were decades away from such a status, but nevertheless, our
leaders kept on harping about this vision albeit with no tangible
goals/milestone put in place. I liked this vision because at least it gave us
direction and a sense of purpose as a country.
Vision
The silence in respect of this vision from the current government is deafening.
I’m not sure what the reason/s for this government going mute in respect of
this vision. Has this government realised that it is a nightmare and not a
vision? There is a fine line between a vision and a nightmare; or has government
realised that the vision was not achievable or has it totally abandoned this
vision and resigned itself to having our country languishing in the doldrums of
third world misery?
Visions are by their own nature essential to the survival of any institution; as
the Holy book says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” It was
indeed encouraging that the Head of State came up with the vision and to some
degree it was inspiring that as a country, we were willing to imagine and plan
for our future. From the outset, our politicians were rhetorically referring to
the vision at every given opportunity without any tangible plan of how do we get
the desired status, they seemed to think that skyscrappers and other vanity
projects would make us achieve First World status.
Failed
This government should not be dejected by the fact that their predecessors
dismally failed in doing anything in respect of moving the nation towards the
vision, they only paid lip service to the vision and I’m tempted to think that
beyond mentioning the rhetoric, they either had no clue what they were talking
about or they never believed in this imagined journey towards this vision.
Leaders who don’t share in a vision cannot be expected to effectively execute
tasks and activities that they don’t have faith in.
Create
This government should come up with a plan and create an enabling environment in
terms of policy that will inter alia; attract foreign direct investment; drive
massive investment in infrastructure, drive massive investment in quality
education; drive massive investment in quality healthcare services. It cannot be
expected to carry out such monumental tasks on its own, it needs the private
sector and the nation behind it.
If we give up on this vision, we will essentially be failing to imagine and plan
for our future, and history tells us that nearly everything starts with an
imagined future and you put up a concrete plan to achieve that imagined future.
If we fail to have a vision, future generations will decry that they had us as
their forefathers as we would have failed them.