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Tuesday 8 July 2008

SWAZILAND DEMOCRACY ‘A LIE’

News this week that the European Union (EU) will not be coming to ‘observe’ the Swazi elections later this year because Swaziland is not a democracy has been largely ignored by the local media.

Although the decision not to come was announced by Peter Beck Christiansen, the EU Ambassador to Swaziland at a media briefing, only the Times of Swaziland reported the story.

Despite the deafening silence elsewhere, the Times’ companion newspaper, the Times Sunday has said that the EU’s decision ‘ampli­fies the concern that we [Swaziland] are living under a lie, that we have a unique and workable [democratic] system’.

In an editorial comment, the Times Sunday this week (6 July 2008) said,

‘What the EU’s decision seeks to tell us is the fact that we should wake up from our slumber, and deal with the fact that our “democratic” sys­tem does not have the tenets that are accept­able to the rest of the world. Indeed we have a unique system, but doesn’t the EU’s decision show us that soon we will not be acceptable, or will lose out on some privileges that only accrue to democratic states.’

As I reported on Wednesday, the EU’s concern with Swaziland was that political parties are banned and the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers are not elected by Parliament. Christiansen of the EU said it was clear the ‘Constitution has some shortcomings’.

The Times Sunday said that the EU’s position was not unexpected and people had been warning Swaziland for years that the kingdom must become a democratic state.

The Times Sunday says,

‘But the unfortu­nate part is that such warnings have all along been ignored by those in power, and in particu­lar, the people, a majority of whom are unable to understand why it is important to push for changes.

‘This underscores the fact that there have been serious challenges in educating the people, in particular the rural folk, about the im­portance of governance of the people by the people.

‘They have only been indoctrinated to accept that decisions are taken for them - and that’s Swazi. Anything above that is unSwazi.’

The Times Sunday refers to the letter from the Commonwealth Expert Team I posted last Sunday (29 June 2008).

This letter from a team which observed Swaziland’s last election in 2003 said in part, ‘we do not regard the credibility of these National Elections as an issue: no elec­tions can be credible when they are for a Par­liament which does not have power and when political parties are banned. We would like to believe that the current draft constitution can yet be changed to provide for a transfer of power from the King to the Parliament and Gov­ernment, and for freedom of association.’

The Times Sunday described this recommendation as ‘clear and precise, but the advice fell on deaf ears.

‘Or should we say it was sent to people who would not like to see any change of the status quo. As for the latter part (freedom of association) yes­terday’s events [the breaking up by police of a rally by banned political party PUDEMO] in Manzini show that we still have major challenges.’

The Times Sunday says that the Commonwealth Expert Team also advised that the election of senior ministers and the unbanning of political parties ‘must constitute the key features of the agenda for further reform in Swaziland and therefore represent the main issues to be tackled by the government’.

The Times Sunday editorial says, ‘Even though we now have a constitution in place, none of the recommendations were guaran­teed. Freedom of association was provided. But as EBC [Elections and Boundaries Commission] Chairman put it, it is for football teams and not political formations.
‘While the EU has resolved to leave us to proceed with a sham election, it is also unfortunate that the team charged with overseeing them was also irregularly selected. So, like the other bad ap­ples of Africa, should we also expect to have an illegitimate government in the coming two months?’

See also
EU SNUBS SWAZILAND ELECTION
IS SWAZILAND’S ELECTION CREDIBLE?

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