TAIWAN AND SWAZI BIRTHDAY BASH

As the 40/40 celebrations to mark both the 40^th birthday of Swaziland’s King Mswati III and the kingdom’s independence from Great Britain get ever closer invitations are being sent out to heads of state across the world.

An invitation to the Zimbabwean despot Robert Mugabe has already caused anger in the Swazi media and elsewhere.

Now news emerges that the president of Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou is also on the invitation list.

As we know Taiwan and Swaziland are close ‘friends’, even though it is a friendship based on expediency. Taiwan wants to get into the United Nations and is giving development ‘aid’ to countries that will help it to achieve its goal. There is one condition however – if you want cash from Taiwan you mustn’t support Taiwan’s arch enemy ‘mainland’ China.

The invitation to Ma hasn’t gone down well in all sections of Taiwan.

One newspaper columnist Johnny Neihu, writing in the Taipei Times yesterday (2 August 2008) suspects that King Mswati III has only sent out the invitation to Ma so the king can tap Taiwan for more money.

He writes, ‘Should Ma attend, the king will probably turn round as everyone is leaving and ask Ma to help pick up the bar tab, or hit him with a request to help pay for some new gold brocade cushion covers in the presidential palace, or even worse, buy new shoes for all of his children and grandchildren.’

Neihu goes on to warn the Taiwanese president to lock up his daughters if he takes up the invitation to visit Swaziland. Or better still, leave them at home.

It seems King Mswati’s reputation for the ladies has preceded him.

Neihu writes, ‘according to entirely reliable Internet sources, Mswati has 14 wives and 23 children — impressive stats for someone so young.

‘But even those numbers pale in comparison to his old man King Sobhuza II, who apparently had 70 wives at the time of his death in 1982 and left more than 1,000 grandchildren.

‘“I find very little time with my family most of the time. I normally work until 11pm ... and this makes me feel stressed because I’m being over-worked, but I have to do everything possible to satisfy my people,” Mswati told the British Broadcasting Corporation in a 2001 interview.

‘No prizes for guessing what he does to relieve the stress.’

Neihu goes on to discuss the way King Mswati chooses his wives and the king’s attitudes to HIV and AIDS. To read the full column click here.

See also
TAIWAN ‘BRIBES’ SWAZILAND
THE TRUTH TOLD FROM TAIWAN