OUR POOR RICH COUNTRY

Sir,

The leadership of this country ought to reflect on the following wise words by Confucius: “In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.” Evidently the Kingdom of Eswatini falls in the latter category - that is it is badly governed with the majority of the people living well below the international poverty datum line, which means they can hardly afford one decent meal a day. But is the leadership embarrassed by this, which is a manifestation of bad governance? The answer is a firm no!

 Had real political power resided with the people it is a certainty that the country would not be in the sorry state it is in right now. In fact emaSwati would be living the dream where a majority of the people would be living within the medium income bracket where poverty would be a novelty since the wealth would be shared equitably instead of being monopolized by an elite minority. But that will remain an elusive dream since the people have little or no say on critical issues of State. Everything is dictated from top down, typical examples being the multi-billion Emalangeni vanity projects from which the leadership is benefitting from the supply chain downstream. Nowadays it is difficult to figure out if these projects are motivated by the financial benefits downstream other than a need since most of them are not economically viable.

 Why government continues to pour hundreds of millions of Emalangeni into the military when the leadership is wont to boast to anyone who cares to listen of the peace that supposedly has become synonymous with this country is befuddling. Perhaps this is an indirect acceptance on their part that the peace they are talking about is superficial and that the reality of the situation is that emaSwati are paralyzed by fear for which the military machine is responsible. Otherwise the huge investments in the military would be better utilized to guarantee, among others, a functional health delivery system to save the lives of emaSwati that are daily extinguished prematurely because of insufficient medicines, drugs and personnel.

 If truth be told this kingdom is a poor rich country in which the masses live in poverty street while the ruling elite lives the high life in extravagant street protected by a political system that was specifically designed to promote and protect a class-based social order typical in a fiefdom.

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