IT IS NOT ABOUT REPLACING TINKHUNDLA WITH MULTIPARTISM

 

By Dumisani Hlophe waka Tembe 

The relationship of mistrust between the ruling authorities and the people is the main cause of political tensions in Eswatini. These political tensions are not necessarily motivated by a desire to establish liberal democracy and its parallel of multipartyism.  Rather, it is a manifestation of the chasm between the rulers and the ruled. 

The growing characterization of these political tensions as one between progressives calling for liberal multipartyism, and conservatives seeking to maintain the Tinkhundla status quo, misses the crucial element that this is actually a governance and leadership issue. Rather than an ideological issue, it is matter of a governance, and leadership regime that is centered on the wellbeing of the people. 

The dogmatic calls for unfettered liberal democracy and multipartyism, is  as shortsighted as the dogmatic calls for the unfettered preservation of the Tinkhundla system. Rather than the preoccupation with political dogmas, it is the values of the use of public power, resources, and the relationship between those that govern, and the governed. 

Liberal democracy maybe as elitist as the Tinkhundla system. Both benefit the elite that have the political and economic muscle to use them. Therefore, calling for the removal of one dogmatic system with another dogmatic system without unpacking the core requisite principle amounts to what Peter Tosh sang: “Jumping out of the Frying pan into the fire”. 

There are several countries in the world that are doing very well in the delivery of socio-economic public goods to their citizens, yet they are not politically liberal multiparty societies. These include: China with its variant of Communism; United Arab Emirates; South Korea; Iran; and perhaps one can add Rwanda and its variant of liberalism.  The challenge as the Cuban and international icon, Fidel Castro noted:  it is to learn from many other societies but design a particular governance system relevant to suit the conditions and context of own society. 

Those that are visibly protesting in the streets, and those that are protesting in silence away from the streets, are not necessarily steeped in systems of government, ideology, or forms of democracy per se, they are simply crying out for a people centred government serving leadership. In many societies, people want a government regime and leadership that: is responsive to their needs; is efficient in addressing the people’s needs; and it is efficient in the delivery of public goods. 

The  #JusticeforThabani Movement is gaining momentum because it is manifest mistrust over the state regime. Given that the police force directly interacts with the people, it provides a real measure of the regime’s attitude over its own people. The more crude treatment of citizens by the police officials without repercussions, the more the perceptions of a crude regime on its people. In any event, the police are the main institution of the state with a legal mandate to use force on its citizens. Therefore, actions of the police are  a clear manifestation of the attitude of the regime and its leadership to its people. 

Thus, a series of unfortunate incidences, will serve as the basis for mass mobilization, and calls for regime change. Whilst the regime itself, will see emerging leaders of mass movements as agent provocateurs, and thus use force to deal with them, and the protestors they lead. 

In this trajectory, Eswatini will increasingly become a security state, or a police state. That is, the use of force by the ruling regime will be the defining character of the relations between the regime and the people seeking change. This “force” will not be limited to acts of the police, and the army, but to other agencies such as the intelligence agencies, heightened restrictions on press freedom, and judicial biasness. 

The judiciary is likely to come hard on arrested protesters. This will include the issuing of steep bail fees and conditions. Already one student leader is reported to have been granted a bail of E50 000.00. Being found guilty than innocent will be a much higher possibility. This will be matched by lengthy jail sentences with limited possibilities of parole. The entire state machinery will be consolidated to preserve the status quo. This might offer the ruling regime a temporary reprieve, but not sustainable overtime. On the one hand, the mistrust over the ruling regime by those demanding change will be entrenched. On the other hand, the ruling regime will live in fear, both of the known and unknown. Consequently, it will deploy more and more state resources to suppressing any possible revolt, rather than on developmental agenda. 

Two elements are to establishing and building trust relations between the ruled and the rulers: One is a people’s serving, rather than a self-serving leadership. A people’s serving leadership does everything at the service of the people. But a self-serving leadership, does all it can for self-preservation and gratification. A people’s serving leadership prioritizes caring for  the people it leads. Whilst a self-serving leadership prioritizes on milking the most it can get from its people. Such a self-serving leadership has no affinity with the people it leads. Hence, it suffers two priorities: 

One is its own accumulation of resources, and the other is building a security machinery to sustain itself against protests. 

The second is, development, which in a way, is a consequence of the first. A developmental leadership is simply overly preoccupied with uplifting the quality of life of its citizens. In all it does, it is motivated, inspired, and geared towards doing what is in the greater benefit of all, if not the majority. Such a leadership dedicates more resources to developmental growth than on the police, army, and other security agencies. 

A peaceful Eswatini is hinged on sieving political propaganda from those that seek to preserve Tinkhundla system at all costs,  and those calling for unfettered liberalism, to a generation and consolidation of a value-based governance that centers at its core, the wellbeing of the people. It will depend on a governance value that directs the use of public power, leadership, public resources, and state institutions to maximize that which in the best interest of society. 

• Tembe is a Political analyst and Governance Specialist. Twitter: @KunjaloD