Activists for democracy in Swaziland want to put freedom of information in the kingdom back on the agenda.
And they are considering writing their own draft parliamentary bill on the subject if the Swazi Government doesn’t put forward its own bill.
This emerged at the end of a week in which US-based lawyer Kevin Goldberg was in Swaziland advocating for freedom of information.
Goldberg, who was invited by the US Embassy in Swaziland, held a series of meetings in the kingdom to talk about the benefits that would come with a freedom of information law.
Talks about freedom of information legislation in Swaziland are not new. In 2007 a draft bill was drawn up at the invitation of the Swaziland Government by a consultant sent by the Commonwealth. A stakeholders’ meeting was held in March 2007 to discuss the bill, but no progress has been made since.
I have written before that there is no real commitment to freedom of information by the Swaziland Government. Swaziland is not a democracy and the kingdom’s rulers prefer to tell people as little as they can get away with. The culture in Swaziland is one of deference and generally people do not question those in authority over them, so there has been very little impetus from the grassroots for change.
The fact that there has been no progress on freedom of information legislation since March 2007 would come as no surprise to observers of Swaziland. This is a kingdom where those in authority like to pretend to the international community that democratic change is on the way. When the time comes for action, not much happens. You only need to remember that it took about 10 years for the Swaziland Constitution to be written – and even then the Swazi ruling elite had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the drafting table. Once enacted, the ruling elite has largely ignored the provisions of the constitution.
At one meeting that I attended with Goldberg and others this week a lot of time was taken up discussing whether the draft that the stakeholders discussed in March 2007 was a ‘bill’ or merely a ‘consultation paper’. The fact that the document clearly had ‘BILL’ written on it did not seem to matter. It probably doesn’t matter much to you and me either, but in the bureaucratic swamp that is Swaziland such things matter a great deal.
There would be a number of benefits to people in Swaziland if the kingdom had freedom of information legislation that required the government to level with the people and tell them what is going on.
In the recent past the press in Swaziland – largely the Nation magazine and the Times of Swaziland group – have been pressing to find out information from government. Among the topics that interest them are the scandal over awarding of government tenders, the ‘heifer scandal’ in which beasts were bought by government at hugely inflated prices, the cost of drugs for hospitals in Swaziland, the costs of the 40/40 celebrations later this year (2008), the expense to the taxpayer of running the Swazi Royal Family, the E30 million (more than 4 million US dollars) that is in the private bank account of an unnamed cabinet minister and the inflated costs of military equipment that is being purchased ahead of the 40/40 celebrations.
It is highly unlikely that we shall get to the bottom of these scandals without a freedom of information law. And it is precisely because those in power don’t want us to know the answers that the government will not truly support such a law.
Which brings me back to the democracy activists. Their frustration at the lack of progress by government has forced them to consider writing their own bill and perhaps presenting it to parliament as a private members bill.
Some people are already saying this is too difficult a task. I don’t think so, but to be done successfully there needs to be a change of mindset. The previous ‘bill’ was foisted on Swaziland by a consultant. She came to the kingdom with the document already written and simply asked ‘stakeholders’ what they thought about it. Not surprisingly the general answer she got was, ‘not much’.
To be successful the bill must be written from the ground up. We need to find out from all interested parties (not only media houses) what they think needs to be in a freedom of information bill. Only then should a document be written. This requires a fully participatory approach, something that is unheard of in Swaziland where ‘consultation’ consists of somebody in power saying ‘this is what we are going to do, what do you think about it?’
At the moment the activists are worried that to bring people together would be difficult and costly to organise. There is probably some truth in this, but if we really want to make some progress on this legislation, this has to be done.
As a first step I suggest that all those organisations that are interested in the possibility of a new bill should go out and talk about it. The media houses, NGOs, the US Embassy and others should (in NGO-speak) ‘sensitise their constituencies’ to the benefits of freedom of information. Once it can be demonstrated that there is genuine interest in getting legislation, I’m sure a donor organisation can be persuaded to put up the cash.
See also
SWAZI PEOPLE HAVE NO RIGHT TO KNOW
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION FIGHT
RIGHT TO KNOW DAY
No comments:
Post a Comment