Times Of Swaziland: INTOLERANCE RESULTS IN CONFLICTS

INTOLERANCE RESULTS IN CONFLICTS
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The Editor on 22/07/2018 08:01:00


Sir,
One of the most negative, insidious and deadlist of humanity’s frailty, which
has brought untold misery to the human race since the dawn of creation, has been
and still is intolerance.
Those who know their Bibles (not the spiritual pick pocketing tricksters who ply
their trade under the guise of being men of God) can testify to the fact that
intolerance began in the covetous and depraved mind of that serpent of old -
Satan the devil - who became intolerant of God’s divine and sovereign right to
rule over
His creation, rebelled against God’s authority and was thrown out of the
hallowed halls of the heavenly courts, together with a third of his
cohorts - demons, now calling themselves ancestral spirits.
permissive attitude
Tolerance is described as a fair, objective and permissive attitude toward those
whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins etc, differ from
one’s own.  As you and me are quite cognizant of this fact and have been
victims of this infernal of human flaws at one time or another, none of us is
immune from this Achilles’ heel of human weaknesses. Intolerance has resulted
in numerous conflicts between individuals, nations, families, has been
responsible for ethnic violence and a host of other miseries around the globe.
Come to think of it, I have even observed animals displaying intolerance on each
other - an imperfection I thought was exclusively reserved for humans.  For
instance, if you watch documentaries on wildlife on television, have you noticed
how for instance, lions growl, threaten and become aggressive towards each
other, especially to their young during feeding time after a kill?
I am currently reading the history behind one of the most brutal and tragic
effects of intolerance which resulted in the horrible massacre of close to 800
000 people during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. It is said in a period of 100
days, Rwandans mostly of the Tutsi tribe, brutally lost their lives at the hands
of members of the Hutus after a plane carrying president of the time Juvenal
Habyarimana was shot down above Kigali Airport.
The current president Paul Kagame, was a rebel leader of the Rwandan Patriotic
Front at the time.
discrimination and intolerance
It is suspected he and his rebel group were responsible for the incident, but it
was never proven. During the genocide, it is alleged bodies of massacred Tutsis,
who it is
claimed have Ethiopian roots, were thrown into rivers by the killers who said
they were sending them back to Ethiopia!
What brutality in the name of intolerance! Blame it on the discrimination and
intolerance of the Tutsis was put on former colonialists, the Belgians, who
regarded them superior and educated than the Hutus. After independence in 1962,
the tables turned and Hutus became dominant - and intolerant of the previously
advantaged Tutsis. The assassination of their president triggered a brutal chain
of spine
chilling events which sadly culminated into the now historical genocide.
The reader might be scratching his or her head over what I am up to with this
narrative about a dead and buried Rwandan history. It is an open secret that in
this beautiful and scenic country of ours, one of the sickening national traits
that run in our veins is intolerance, especially on the political landscape.
Brilliant minds
Dissenting voices are viewed with contempt and some of these voices have been
incarcerated and put behind bars for exercising their freedom of expression;
some of our brothers and sisters are in exile because of standing for what they
perceived as truth. Brilliant minds like those of Judge Thomas Masuku are
raising the judicial flag of foreign countries; brilliant academics and
intellectuals are making it big in foreign countries because their skills were
not tolerated, were a threat to those who got positions through grovelling.
The seeds of intolerance have even been planted in our future generation - our
youth. Last year we incessantly warned our leaders of their folly of being
intolerant of the rights of students, but they stubbornly turned a deaf ear. The
result? Near anarchy in tertiary
institutions. We see ongoing and looming labour unrest, simmering under the
facade of and illusionary peace. On the surface, our authorities may think all
is blissful and rosy, but scratch beneath the veneer of calm, people are
resentful at the lack of tolerance by our leadership to their cries of distress
for meaningful progress in their lives.
Let us as a nation heeds the lessons of Rwanda and more recently Zimbabwe. Let
us be tolerant of dissenting and differing views. Let us bring back our exiled
sons and daughters who fled to neighbouring countries because of fear brought
about by lack of tolerance by our
leadership. I am envious of Rwanda because as I read of their unity after the
scars of the genocide, of their fledgling and vibrant economy which is becoming
the envy of their African neighbours. Their strategy?
- Alex Nxumalo 76058449