SWAZI ELITE ATTACKS US AMBASSADOR

As expected the Swazi Government has attacked the US Ambassador’s call for more democracy in the kingdom.

In typical style when criticised, the government first denies there is a problem at all and then says the accuser has got facts wrong.

We saw this most recently with the Amnesty International condemnation of Swaziland’s Suppression of Terrorism Act and a report from Millennium Challenge Corporation on the poor state of governance in Swaziland. And none of us can forget the frothing over the documentary Without The King.

The latest case emerged yesterday (21 January 2009) after media reports of a statement made by Maurice Parker, the US Ambassador to Swaziland.

Parker, talking after the inauguration of President Barak Obama, had said the US embassy would work with pressure groups in Swaziland to ensure that the fledgling democracy is fulfilled in the country. He said many pressure groups had trouble organising meetings, ensuring freedom of speech, or pursuing the right to assembly freely. He promised he would work with government and all pressure groups to ensure that the bottlenecks to free expression, freedom of association and full political determination are realised in the country.

The Swazi Government was quick to condemn Parker. Foreign Minister Lutfo Dlamini accused him of misleading people and claimed that President Obama hadn’t mentioned Swaziland in his speech, so the Ambassador must have made it up.

According to the Swazi Observer today (22 January 2009), Dlamini told a press conference, ‘It is disturbing that another country comes out to take sides. This was more-so when the ambassador put words into the mouth of his president.’

Dlamini was misleading the media because nobody had said President Obama had singled out Swaziland in his inaugural speech But the president did say, ‘To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history’. And that perfectly describes the situation in Swaziland.

Dlamini went on to claim that there was no problem about consultation in Swaziland. ‘As Swazis, from way back, we have consulted and have moved forward,’ the newspaper quotes him saying. This is of course nonsense as anyone following the cases of, for example, Mario Masuku and Mfimfo Nkhambule can plainly see.

According to the Times of Swaziland today, Dlamini said Parker’s comments ‘could be viewed as inciting the people of Swaziland against the government’. I suppose this means that the Ambassador will now be arrested and charged under Swaziland’s hated Suppression of Terrorism Act.

The Times quotes trade union leader Jan Sithole saying that Parker’s comments regarding Swaziland’s democratisation were ‘quite relevant because Swaziland needs outside help for it to transform’.

Sithole said the country had signed a lot of international conventions that bordered on democracy but had continued to violate them.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Times published today, Parker said Swaziland should get rid of the Suppression of Terrorism Act because it ‘appears excessive and unnecessary’.

He said President Obama made it clear in his inaugural address that there is need for a change of tactics in the fight against terrorism.

‘The approach of enacting terrorism laws has failed in the United States and it won’t work for Swaziland either,’ Parker said.

Parker has obviously rattled the Swazi Government. These are interesting times and we welcome a man of the stature of the US Ambassador to Swaziland who is prepared to tell the truth publicly about what is happening in Swaziland.