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Need for Political Competencies

18/08/2013 09:54:00 BY MUSA HLOPHE

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Last week I concentrated on the moral uprightness as one of the aspiring Members of Parliament to deserve your vote. I did that because so much has been said by different structures and institutions of political power that the next Parliament must be filled with righteous men and women.

While I am in full support of that call, I am, however, disappointed by the knowledge that in Swaziland, when we call for moral uprightness, in practice we have demonstrated that in fact, moral upright people are undesired by the country’s political power-brokers.

We have seen that the more one is morally corrupt, the more the authorities need such people to run our corruptive political project. I say this without any fear of contradiction, and I can give examples of upright men and women who tried to serve their country with truth and integrity, but lost favour with the country’s political elite.

Take the case of Reverend Absalom Muntu Dlamini, then minister of Labour in 1998. He led the national delegation to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend that year’s International Labour Organisation conference. After having listened to the accusations against Swaziland and the causes of those accusations, he stood up in the hall and told the conference that he now understood where the problem was - that the world body was in no way fighting the country, but that the country had violated its own obligations in terms of the Conventions it ratified. He sought and got help from the conference, which directed the ILO to assist Swaziland re-draft its labour laws.

He came home, said as much, and began the process of reforming our labour laws. But he lost his job! Another victim of moral uprightness who lost her job was former Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Stella Lukhele, ula Dlamini. Because she wouldn’t sell Crown land to politicians at discounted prices, she too lost her job. Should I say more? No! This is enough evidence that while political leaders call for morally upright people, in practice, they actually want the opposite of that.

Difference

But what I said last week, and will continue to say, is that you, the voter, can make a difference by voting for morally upright persons. But that was for last week. This week I am looking at the political competencies of those who have presented themselves to be voted into Parliament. First, what is politics? Politics has been defined as mobilising ideas and activities relating to gaining and using power in a country or city.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines politics as: ‘the science or art of government, political views, affairs and or questions’. The participant in politics is called a politician. This definition is very important in the case of Swaziland wherein the word ‘politics’, has been demonised as something evil and un-Swazi.

All the people who have been nominated either as Buchopho, Tindvuna teti Nkhundla as well as those who are standing for a seat in Parliament, are politicians, as also those who will be appointed will be. And this includes former Senate President, acting Chief of Ko-Ntshingila, (my place of birth) Chief Gelane Zwane.

She may not be a member of any political party, but she is a politician. This, she must learn to accept and stop demonising political parties and their members.
Those who have chosen to exercise their constitutional rights to associate through political parties are just as patriotic citizens as she claims to be. Hence when she told her ‘subjects’ on nomination day not to nominate people from political parties she does the very opposite of what she claims – she is in fact subverting the very Constitution and structures of governance that she purports to be protecting.

The sooner she accepts this truth, the quicker she will retain the respect we have all afforded her before she became a politician, and she deserves that respect.
Since politics is the exercise of political power to improve things, then the kind of politician we must vote for this time around is the one who has demonstrated political understanding of the challenges facing our nation. Considering that our political system is deliberately designed for individuals and not organised groups, it therefore becomes critical that you vote for some one who has demonstrated the ability to mobilise others behind a clear vision of what to do. And what are these challenges? They are too many to be able to count, but there are those that are obvious to every Swazi, no matter where she/ he is found.

Challenges

They include such challenges as the high levels of poverty (63-70 per cent) of the population, unemployment levels of more than 46 per cent of those who are eligible and willing to work, poor economic growth due to lack of investment, local or foreign direct; and the archaic feudalistic dictatorship of Tinkhundla political system.

While in the past, parliamentarians have concentrated on local development issues, and there was nothing necessarily wrong with that, but given the political structures of Buchopho and Tindvuna teti Nkhundla that are responsible to look after local development, it therefore means that Members of Parliament must now concentrate on making laws that will ensure that the country is able to re-harness the lost opportunities in any of the challenges I have mentioned above.
We need politicians who will be able to raise such questions as the following:
1. Why, after 45 years of independence, do we still have such high levels of poverty in the country?
2. Why have programmes or interventions, such as the Regional Development Funds, failed to reduce the levels of poverty in the nation?
3. How has the current political system failed to attract meaningful foreign direct investment?
4. What needs to be done, using political power, to reverse the impact of these challenges? In other words, how will Parliament use its legislative power to enact laws that will facilitate economic growth and poverty alleviation?

This ninth Cabinet boasts of having made tremendous successes. But do those successes include job creation strategies and reduction of poverty levels? The answer is a big NO! What then is this outgoing Cabinet gloating about? Is it boasting about their success in flouting the law, or defiance of parliamentary votes of no confidence?

It is clear to me that unless we can vote in people who understand the secret in the power of collectivism, we are still destined to end up with a Parliament of 95 individuals who will be easily manipulated by the Executive Arm of government. To avoid that, we therefore need to vote for individuals who have demonstrated the potential to unite others behind a certain objective or sets of objectives, in order to heal our nation.

The elections process proper begins on August 24, with the primary elections, when you vote at your imiphakatsi. Do not vote for those who have been winning and dinning you during this time since 4th August, 2013. Reject all those who have been bribing you and buying your votes. Vote for substance. Vote for political competence. Exercise your vote wisely, as the outcome of your vote will surely impact either positively or negatively on our future for the next five years!