Africa-Press – Eswatini. The recent sentencing of the two former members of parliament, a topical matter across the political spectrum, concludes a winding process of investigating, interrogating, allocating and weighing responsibilities for the destructive 2021 political riots.
A strong, vibrant and fair rule-of-law is one of the cardinal pillars needed to provide conducive conditions for the economy, human rights, development and democracy.
Political violence has the unfortunate impact of paralysing the rights of the larger society, including infringing on such basic activities as the right to participate in economic activities for the livelihoods of both individuals and families.
A vibrant, effective and fair rule of law provides the overarching atmosphere that should make the choice for political violence difficult and less attractive.
But the entire necessary framework for incentivising political violence must be in good working order all the time, a situation where other factors lag far behind the rule-of-law creates perceptions of weaponisation of the justice system; these perceptions have serious repercussions for the country especially in a progressive world that is becoming increasing intolerant of conservative values.
There`s no debate about the necessity to disincentivise political violence but the need for our country to be even more pragmatic in creating agile preventative measures cannot be overemphasised. Our noble efforts to disincentivise political violence could only retain their nobility when they are found to be fair and just, and our investment in preventative measures would lend more credibility to our efforts.
The costs inflicted on the economy by political violence are huge, but they are even more astronomical for our country given our modest size and heavy reliance on imports.
These conditions dictate that the country demonstrates stronger commitment to preventative measures to protect our modest economic gains, which could be reversed by just 48 hours of political violence as we witnessed in 2021.
Critical leadership areas such as a strong ethical culture in politics and the public service, vibrant public debates and engagement, transparency, tangible commitment to indigenous businesses, and a responsive government are some of the preventative measures that must be in place to disincentivise political violence, we explore this critical areas today.
Tangible
commitment
to indigenous
businesses
The still unresolved fallout between government and the Federation of Eswatini Business Community, an organisation committed to represent the business interests of indigenous enterprises, remains a serious rebuttal to government`s commitment to this sector.
The organisation is a critical stakeholder in the economy and it is really strange that the government has not prioritised efforts to restore a good working relationship with it.
This failure by government has led to the persistent perception/belief that the government is more concerned with businesses owned by non-Emaswati, is so widespread that one of the mushrooming political parties even has the punchy tag, ‘Swazis First’ in its name.
The cumulative effect of these negative perceptions is exactly what foments political frustrations that often result in destructive political violence. Government recently enacted a very important piece of legislation focused on indigenous businesses and this important legislation must be part of the broader visible commitment to this sector.
The prime minister needs to set a timeframe by which he should have resolved their differences with FESBC as there is no other competent stakeholder to represent the SMME sector in the country. We know part of the frustrations rom this fallout were expressed in really worrying violent terms by some members of FESBC and this is regrettable but inevitable in the context perceptions of a pro-foreign business people government stance.
Building a
culture of ethics in both politics and public service
The public perception that politicians, public servants, royal appointees could do literally as they please are yet another source of growing public discontent.
The presence of some regulations in Parliament and other institutions relating to declaring one`s business interests appear to be largely cosmetic as more public servants continue to be associated with companies that do business with government.
Public servants and politicians need to make a choice between either running their businesses fulltime or forego doing business with government for the tenure of their term in public office.
The current practice of poor control implies that the government is yet to build and entrench an enforceable culture of ethics, which needs to be rectified as soon as possible if we are to win and retain public trust.
We recently witnessed a company that was a subject of serious allegations and subsequent investigation for corruption, donating drugs and medicines to government. Clearly, this whole gesture wrecks of manipulation and lack of ethics in government.
Government ought to have clear guidelines on how to deal with companies that have compromised integrity especially as it relates to doing business with government, tax matters, child labour and unfair labour practices, etc.
Royal appointees who serve in commissions, committees, boards, and government must seriously reconsider their business interests.
The political reality is that Royal appointee’s misconduct and impunity reflects badly on the appointing authority.
At the heart of the anti-establishment politics is the claim that the role played by our traditional authorities is undesirable as it is crisis or scandal-prone.
The proper conduct of royal appointees is the only potent rebuttal to that claim. Commitment to ethical conduct across the public sector and politics would go a long way in ensuring that the need for sensationalism wherever ethical failures occur is diffused.
Creating a
culture of vibrant public debate
It is becoming all too common to see half-cooked arguments on social networks peddled by populists who command a decent online audience.
This development has added a new layer on our weak public debate culture. Institutions of higher learning are supposed to help us with facilitating these debates, which would go a long way in clarifying issues and providing sensible justifications for choices and decisions made by government.
The issue of the country being a non-party State presents many opportunities for debate as still too many of our young people have questions about the motivations for the current political configuration.
Multi-party proponents could hardly be the best spokespersons for the arguments behind the Afrocentrism of the post-independence era, which manifested in a range of ways after the rejection of the imposed independence constitutions.
The local manifestation was a desire of a system that would not create divisions and unnecessary strife, our elder brothers attests of the serious tensions that existed between them as sons of Imbokodvo founders and their cousins as sons and relatives of the founder of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress – this captures divisions and strife at the micro level.
These tensions were new and unknown just as the political party system itself was new and unknown. This fundamental fact is often ignored by multiparty proponents.
The lack of understanding the party politics system demonstrated by our forebears both progressives and conservatives, simply meant the system was unsuitable – but even more tragic, the conduct of contemporary multiparty proponents still display the same misunderstanding of the party system.
Too many of these proponents are just too pleased with having a system that will widen their chances of accessing public office with the least amount of canvassing for support at the grassroots. A vibrant public debate culture will serve as both educational and empowering in terms of an in-depth understanding of our political culture and the kind of practical interventions possible.
Certainly, our commitment to the rule-of-law is of paramount importance, but this commitment must be accompanied by efforts to create an enabling environment that allows the democratic expression of all or most forms.
A stringent rule-of-law in the absence of such democratic spaces as debates, protests, a responsive government, etc lends itself to accusations of draconian rule.
The fear that courts are being used to settle political scores should not be allowed to persist as it would paint the country badly in the international community.
We must work on winning the confidence of both internal and external stakeholders and those who are tempted to opt for violence must be dissuaded from such a heinous choice through creating conditions that disincentivise political violence.
Our adamancy to embrace our own Afrocentric political system must be matched by our commitment to good governance and democracy, the fallacy that our traditional systems and institutions are mutually exclusive with democracy must be dismissed with the contempt they deserve.
Source: observer
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