Times Of Swaziland: CONTROVERSIAL MPS’ CHINA TRIP

CONTROVERSIAL MPS’ CHINA TRIP
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By Vusi Sibisi on 25/08/2019 22:00:00


WHAT appeared to have been an innocent and innocuous trip to Mainland China,
officially called the People’s Republic of China, by a small coterie of
legislators became a political hot potato with government, the Executive to be
precise, and Parliament following in rapid succession, to distance and
disassociate themselves from what became a controversial subject.
But why would a simple trip cause such consternation from the Eswatini political
establishment considering that those involved were lawmakers, which made them
politicians? After all it is politicians who are charged with making political
decisions that would include foreign policy.
Ordinarily the trip would probably have never been news let alone press
headlines in any normal country. But to answer the above question one needs to
understand Eswatini polity within the context of the Tinkhundla political system
in all its dualistic glory and how national policies, including foreign policy,
are conceived and determined. Under this scheme of things decision-making is not
the purview of politicians whose role is to rubber stamp decisions taken
elsewhere.
Ties
As I see it, perhaps the singular reason that thrust this particular trip onto
the Tagenda is because it involved the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
whereas the Kingdom of Eswatini is, since independence in 1968, enjoyed
diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) or simply Taiwan. As it
turns out Eswatini is now the only country in Africa with diplomatic ties with
Taiwan, which the PRC regards as its renegade province. While pursuing
diplomatic and other pressure points to reunite Taiwan to the mainland, the PRC
has not ruled out using military force in the future to achieve its stated
objective.
One of the pressure points the PRC is leveraging on for traction towards
achieving its objective is the total isolation of Taiwan at all levels,
including international organisations such as the United Nations and its
agencies at the macro level. At the micro level the PRC is desirous of ensuring
that Taiwan’s diplomatic ties with other nations are severed so that it is
totally and completely isolated in the hope that these measures would coerce the
island nation’s leadership not just to consider but opt for reunification with
the mainland.
Peeled
The next layer that needs to be peeled for a better understanding of the issues
is how domestic policies are conceived and determined within the Eswatini
polity. To do that it is imperative to come to terms with the reality that
whereas this is supposedly a constitutional democracy but all power, Executive,
Legislative and Judiciary, is vested in the monarchy.
The principle of separation of the three arms of government under this
dispensation is an illusion. This exclusive monopoly on power means that
national policies, including foreign policy, are conceived and determined at the
level of the monarchy. In time, especially in the past two decades, this
architecture of the Eswatini polity has manifested in the emergence of a
sub-culture of apotheosis of the institution of the monarchy.
This would explain why government spin doctor Percy Simelane and Speaker in the
House of Assembly Petros Mavimbela were hyperventilating in their haste to
distance the Executive and Legislature respectively from the four Members of
Parliament (MPs) who had undertaken the PRC trip in the face of the diplomatic
relations between the kingdom and Taiwan.
But, as I see it, the four MPs who later explained that the trip was a
familiarisation tour of the PRC were within their rights as Tinkhundla
politicians to participate in the contentious trip in their individual and
private capacities.
Approval
To do so did not require approval from any authority. In years gone by the
Government of the United States of America used to fund similar familiarisation
visits to that country that included all levels of government and civic society
and this did not cause any controversy whatsoever. In no way did the PRC trip
undermine the diplomatic relations existing between the kingdom and Taiwan. In
fact the diplomatic ties between the two nations does not preclude Eswatini
pursuing trade relations with the PRC and in real terms there are more products
from the PRC on retail shelves in this country than there are products from
Taiwan. This has not ruffled Taiwan’s feathers as did the MPs’ trip to the
Eswatini political establishment.
As it were the real world is dynamic and diplomatic geopolitical realignments,
which are informed by evolving national imperatives of countries, happening all
the time. Thus it is natural for a nation to periodically assess its
geopolitical relations to ensure strategic positioning for the benefit of the
people. After all, diplomatic relations should not be for the exclusive benefit
of individuals in leadership but for the people and to this end Taiwan has never
failed this kingdom.
However, we are in no position to compare whether or not emaSwati would have
benefitted more by aligning with the PRC instead of Taiwan. And these matters
need to be spoken to and interrogated openly and periodically for this country
to maximise on its geopolitical alignments and international relations.
The PRC is definitely on a fresh diplomatic charm offensive to win over African
nations and has rolled out billions of Emalangeni in grants and loans for
infrastructure and economic developments towards this endeavour.
This phase followed that of the 1990s decade in which the Chinese gifted African
countries modern stadia and airports from which eSwatini missed out as she is
also missing out in the current wave of Chinese largesse owing to her ties with
Taiwan.
But everything considered, should eSwatini opt out of her relations with Taiwan
in favour of the PRC? Whereas it is mystifying how Eswatini, rich in mineral
resources, has failed to achieve the same level of development as Taiwan in the
51 years of friendship, it would not be in her interests to sever ties with
Taiwan.
While at this juncture the PRC may shell out billions to win eSwatini over any
relations would not be sustainable in the long term essentially because the
world’s second largest economy does not need tiny eSwatini for any strategic
purposes. It follows, therefore, that as soon as eSwatini is persuaded to cut
ties with Taiwan – in the event she does – she would immediately become
irrelevant in the PRC’s bigger scheme of things.
While retaining Taiwan as an ally, the Kingdom of eSwatini, which is relatively
the size of a village, ought to ask the question why in the 51 years of
friendship she has not developed as fast as Taiwan that has no known mineral
resources.