WHAT HAPPENS WHEN POLITICS FAIL THE PEOPLE?

Sir,

A society always finds itself out of shape whenever politics fail to reconcile with the will of the people, for there is no doubt that the thread in the socio-political fibre of a nation is harmony between leadership and the masses at large. This societal imbalance is what I can term political failure.

 The people will always expect government to deliver all amenities necessary to their maximum welfare but it remains government’s choice whether to serve diligently or fraudulently. The choice on government’s side is determined by the quality of leadership within that administration. This is why service delivery in Africa is severely compromised, as endeavours of governance are wittingly compounded by self-serving interests and competing ambitions. We have a problem of poor leadership. Poor leadership creates the first crack towards political failure as it inhibits efficient state functioning that may entail jobs creation and sustainable economic growth, hence discontent boils out of a frustrated society.

The compromise of the people’s will by unwilling state machinery will either propel the people into revolting or cast them into suppression. We have seen how our leaders have invoked ethnicity, spared no corrupt effort and even killed to cling to power. It is a fact that leadership legitimacy ends the second you lose your people’s consent.

The subsequent development is governance balanced through the abuse of the legislative and judicial arms. From the compromise of the people’s will, political failure shifts a society into the compromise of the rule of law and integrities of other structures like Parliament and the electoral authority.

Political deliberations are frowned at, worst banned. Dissident action is visited upon, irrationally, by the might of the state that knows no rule of engagement and blinded by total disregard for public participation in socio-political issues. Draconian pieces of legislation are enacted to promote and protect the regime and its circles. A society goes down a series of misdeeds by the leaders in a bid to prolong their reign. It all rests in the question of time- for time will test vice of an illegitimate leadership against the amplitude of the wave of the voice of the people. History has it that the latter prevails.

The right mind-set, in the rise of political failure, should be to push for radical change of mechanisms regarding the relations of the people and the state, as opposed to careless and haphazard democratisation.
The only remedy to political failure is to allow people to talk, criticise constructively without fear of victimisation or marginalisation. Oh! Cry my beloved Swaziland. Time will tell. Constitutionally enshrined, the ability to express one-self is essential in harmonising the intents of the powers that be and people. What then happens, dear reader, when our mouths are taped and hands tied? Time will tell.

Neliso Dlamini

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