MPs’ Cowardice Deplorable

Phew! That was some debate. The debate on the Election Bill surpassed all the other debates of the Ninth Parliament, and rightly so, as this touched on the bread-and-butter issues close to the honourable members.

I mean, some of the clauses viewed contentiously have a bearing on whether our honourable members in the two Houses would have another term or not. That vying for elections as MP means that failing to impress the electorate would disqualify you for a Senate seat is horrendous.

So was the clause that if you have a past conviction and have served your sentence, the state would still want you punished further by barring your running for Parliament for five years. This is draconian to the point of infringing on the rights of citizens. Why the ‘double jeopardy’ here? I mean, after people have served their punishment or sentences, why does the state want to impose more sanctions upon them by interfering with their freedom to participate in the shaping of the country’s political landscape?

The debate should not have been too difficult for the House of Assembly really, as the scales of justice were tipped in their favour; especially with their numbers. That they failed to overturn the Senate’s ill-conceived and unfortunate amendments says that they were not committed. I mean, the truth was on their side here; all they needed to do was ring in a victory using their majority! This is my reason for saying they demonstrated extreme cowardice and, as a consequence, failed this nation.

To show they had overwhelming support for their cause was demonstrated by the quartet in the likes of the Senate President Zwane, Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini, Minister Chief Mgwagwa and Speaker Prince Guduza suddenly recollecting that His Majesty had actually conveyed a message pronouncing his position on some contentious clauses.

Why it was left so late to convey the message to the House, I don’t know? My only assessment is that this may have been a last-minute stunt to quell dissenting voices against the contentious clauses; and it worked! In my time, I have always known that the King’s name is protected by not dragging it into controversial matters such as this; and this quartet, being schooled in Swazi culture and etiquette, cannot be said to have erred in this regard. On that basis, we have to assume that maybe the message was, indeed, conveyed.

Derailing

The only lingering question would be how come this happened so early in the debate, to the point of harming and derailing the parliamentary process, since the King has the opportunity to raise any issues at the time of assenting to Bills? It is at that stage he could raise those issues and still refer Bills back to Parliament.
Communicating the King’s position on the bill before the debate was exhausted by Parliament unfortunately had the impact of intimidating the MPs and throwing them into confusion.

Another factor was the level of intimidating, dictatorial and chauvinistic behaviour demonstrated by the Senate President in the debate. This smacked of arrogance and insolence of office. MP Robert Magongo, on his part, experienced first-hand what he had alleged was happening to the Senators; and I believe he is not going be blaming Senators for being coerced into anything any longer.

This attitude is bad for the country’s leadership and brings shame to this nation as no one is expected, in this day and age, to ‘rule others’ - as she had it - with such high-handedness. Dictators in any shape or form have no place in society.

Why? Because citizens end up the losers in such cases, as it happened here, because now we have Bills that are not representative of the will of the governed possibly being enacted into law. This reminds me of another textbook story we had at primary school, where there was this contest in a certain community where it was to be determined who the strongest creature was around.
All creatures, including human beings, engaged in a show of force and in the end the woman ended up the winner as she battled everyone and was seen chasing a man with a wooden spoon (ingcwembe). She won the contest, but what of the damage arising from the brawls?
Abandon
Chauvinism, whether male or female, also has no place in our society.
MPs let us down rather badly by choosing to abandon the debate or walking out, as in the end we lost a good fight here. Again, you ask yourself how 65 Members of Parliament lost the debate when they were up against 30 Senators?

It can either be that they were not committed to their cause or simply lacked the conviction of what they were proposing. Again, we are told, some absented themselves; but for that I believe we have a remedy. Let’s have their names published so that we will remember them come election time, as we cannot afford re-electing people who are not up to the job.

The MPs of the Ninth Parliament will go down in history as the most cowardly, having lost so many battles against Cabinet - no wonder the Prime Minister is on record saying they were up against an invincible Cabinet that was smarter than them. But I beg to disagree there, as it seems to me Cabinet was up against a weaker lot instead!

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