TRUMP’S POLICIES EXPOSE DONOR RELIANCE

THE world as we know it has changed quite dramatically in a very short space of time under the Trump administration. Courtesy of his controversial executive orders and policy statements, virtually every part of the world feels indeed that there is a new sheriff in town. Geopolitics have shifted in so many fronts in less than a hundred days than they have in a hundred years.

President Donald Trump, in his second term of office, is very decisive and he wants every citizen of the world to see and feel that. His executive order to cut aid for scores of countries that have been benefitting from the United States of America since the Bush administration has abruptly and unprecedentedly left many countries the lurch. Millions of Dollars that were assisting many countries support their HIV/AIDS response and other humanitarian programmes, through the agency of USAID, have been cut off with immediate effect.  

Catastrophic

Poor Eswatini has not been spared. It will be, no doubt, catastrophic for a donor-reliant country like ours. With the anticipated closure of The Luke Commission and other health facilities, which many emaSwati were now dependent on for quality health services, things are really not looking good. Besides the job losses and the many households which be affected, the health system will likely collapse under the pressure of the anticipated high demand. We have been exposed as a country as well as the community of countries, predominantly in Africa, to whom another country, in the United States (US), had become our reliable Santa Claus. 

Decades of poor planning and bad governance will manifest in crises never seen before. Gains in the fight against malnutrition, HIV and other diseases will be seriously compromised. Even big economies in the region such as Big Brother South Africa, set to lose over E8 billion in aid, are going to feel the pinch. There are many ways of analysing this turn of events. Other commentators have focused their energies on criticising President Trump for his salvo of executive orders and their attendant repercussions on smaller nations. The elephant in the room though is how as countries we have allowed ourselves to depend on one nation to this extent.  

Duty

America is a sovereign State. The duty of its leadership is to cater for the needs of its people. Anything else it does for peoples of other nations as part of its foreign policy is purely out of its benevolence, unless one is still a believer in the tired colonialism debt notion. In as far as the policy on aid is concerned, what the Trump administration is simply saying is that those billions that have been streaming our way for all these years could be better used taking care of the needs of the American people. They owe us nothing after all. International co-operation is no doubt essential and without it, it is inconceivable how the world can deal with global challenges and achieve common goals.However, it is the duty of every sovereign country to provide quality services and fulfil its citizens’ human rights.

Leaving that to other countries is tantamount to abrogation of a government’s primary responsibility. Looking at the way our fiscus is funded, it would seem that is exactly where we stand as a country. I do not want to imagine the headache the minister for finance must be having ahead of the budget speech given the situation with the US funding. With his team of technocrats, they may likely want to expand the tax base by digging even deeper into the pockets of already suffering taxpayers in order to try bridge the gap. This, obviously, will be counter-productive and will put a huge financial strain on emaSwati. Never have we needed wise leadership than we do now if we are to survive these four years and beyond.

Leadership

Our leadership needs to wake up and smell the coffee. The party is over and we need to wear our man pants and take bold decisions for the benefit of our people. It really can longer be business as usual. These gravy trains in the form of bloated delegations during international trips must come to an abrupt end. We can no longer afford this under the prevailing situation. In fact, we never did but the reality has never been more stark. Year after year, pronouncements are made on the need to deal with corruption, which has become second nature for us, but nothing has been done. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) remains a white elephant that keeps feeding us with unfulfilled promises of dealing with those who profit from graft.

Years after its establishment, we are yet to see heads roll. We also need to take a hard look at ourselves and decide if the ever-rising  costs of national ceremonies is sustainable and if, in their current form, they outweigh provision of services such as health care and education in value and importance. It is disingenuous of us as a nation, to beg with one hand and splash money with the other. With the European Union speaking of ‘Making Europe Great Again’, there is no telling if the help we are getting from that part of the world can still be expected to continue in the foreseeable future. 

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