CAN’T WE DEFEAT THEM IN THEIR OWN GAME?

Let us learn to try other avenues

From a British colony, to being colonised by one of our own;lol. I guess you get what I am talking about. I will not even bother myself elaborating more on that; but just a tip-I am talking about the Tinkhundla system and the man or people behind it, that is where I will end. In my journey the youth activism I think I can not be surprised if one would say Swazis aredormant people. All they know is to lament and be masters in listing and or talking about the problems their country is faced with. The reason I am saying this is because each time I am in a space where we are together with colleagues from other countries, when listening to the different journeys they went through, the battles they have fought, the victories they have won in the fight against oppressive regimes like ours and in the fight for an open society, I cannot help but think – what have we as Swazis done?

I am currently from attending the Youth Camp 2013; themed participate 2013, where we were sharing our different struggles and experiences on the different countries where we come from as young people.  We looked at how we can use elections to ensure democratic societies and also how young people can take charge and own the political spaces. While listening to the contributions and the experiences that my fellow colleagues put forth, I began thinking about the issue of Swaziland. Basically there were two things on my mind;

1.   Have we done enough in trying to challenge the unjust situation? (Refer to my previous blogs for the unjust situations)

2.   Have we gone all out to fight the challenges that we claim to be faced with

What I realised is that seemingly the Swazi people or I should say we as the youth are so great in identifying challenges and complaining about things that are not going right. Grabbling with the aforementioned thoughts/questions I could not help my self but feel belittled with the submissions I had heard other colleagues share. Have we done justice in our country to challenge the current situation, and are we all out to fight the challenges that we are faced with. For the first time the issue of boycott went popular; through the social networks and live debates were awash with boycott vs participating.  For me that on its own was great. In this regard probably one should start by acknowledging and also congratulating “team boycott” for being able to spread the word across this year such that it was the talk of the days. It was a great step and I was at some point convinced that we will be doing it for real this time around; we will all be boycotting our coming elections. But along the way, after passing the boycotting message across, everything went silent. What I mean by silent is – what are the alternatives? I have been asking myself, what happened? In real sense, what are the side programes that will complement or enhance our boycott? What impact is boycott in our case bringing to the fore? What are the alternative plans that are going in line with the boycott or we boycott then what?

Are we willing to go through the same lane again like before, where some will boycott, and no one will know or even notice that  they were boycotting, and then everything continue as normal. Remember a successful boycott must have an impact.  I am talking about a situation where two hundred thousand people or less will direct and control the majority of the country and the rest. For how long are we going to be led by a minority group that has chosen to vote, not necessarily because they believe in the system, simply because their vote have been bought or they are protecting their territory.

For how long can a million people be dragged by a hundred people into the mud? I am sure that you will agree with me that in a constituency of about 5 000 people or more, only a 100 people or less can take an individual to the parliament with our election system and come up with a legitimate government. Legitimate because the rest of the world recognises them and they make laws that eventually govern the majority. So will I be wrong to say, choosing not to participate is participating? If you do not do anything you are allowing to be led by those who choose to do something.

Before I put my last full stop on this blog, allow me to share this words liked by my colleague “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, hoping to get different result”. Let us be aware and keep on checking if our strategies are working, if there is a need to try new strategies, let’s do that. If plan (A) doesn’t work, what do you do? Try plan (B). Let’s explore other avenues and stop being like a penis, which is only erectional instead of being proactive. Probably we can beat them in their own game.

Are we doomed or what?

Doomed youths, I guess

Is it not surprising and frustrating to see the youth of today insulting each other, fighting each other and labelling each other? At this critical time in the life of young people in the country (Swaziland) and probably in the world at large. Where most of the illnesses ad mistakes done by those in power affects young people. The youth being the largest population in the country, one would expect the youth to be playing a major role in shaping their future. One would expect the youth to be holding hands, walking side by side, males and females fighting against the unjust situations and involving themselves in ensuring that a bright future is created. It is hurting, frustrating and disturbing to learn that we are doing the opposite of unity. Today’s fashion among the youth is saying if I differ with your view, it means we are enemies and more than that you deserve an insult. Wow, amazing!

I was so lucky today to finish my daily task early at work, which is why I also had the chance to write down my thoughts. As I was thinking on what to do next, debating either to dash away from work or find something to do, “boom” it’s an email, notifying me about someone who has just posted something on our fb page. Ok, this might be interesting. I quickly read through, this guy is asking a very important question. Something that may assist everyone who may also have the same question, but this person does this in a mockery way and also shows clear signs that he is aware of what he is asking but it’s just that he decided to mock someone. The question goes like “Honest question what is Luvatsi? Is it a political party or a political party in disguise?” (Luvatsi – a siSwati name for the Swaziland Youth Empowerment Organization, an organization that is trying to create an enabling environment for youth participation), then I’m like an honest question my foot.lol, why then the two options if it’s a genuine question and interested to know? Anyways, we once saw a similar question before and responded to it professionally, faithfully and fully, but again along the way we discovered that we were just being taken for a ride, as we were then attacked for having offices, websites, hosting activities and basically for the work that we do.

Through this drama that has been going on for years and still going on today, the attacks, fights and everything, one wonders if our generation will be able to establish any foundation that will exist and address key issues in the country for our own benefit and the ones to come. Nelson Mandela says “Today we are planting a tree, which its shadow will be enjoyed by others”. We on the other hand are weeding off the seeds planted. We seem to focus more on undermining and pulling each other down whilst we boast about our own achievements and how long we have in the struggle. Facebook has now become a forum to harm the reputation of others. In Tunisia, Egypt and other countries have used social networks as one of the tools to fasten and strengthened their struggle. So in our case and in real sense is this what should be happening nowadays? Is the youth doing justice by all these crap? What kind of future are we hoping to reap through this? We tend to forget that we should be playing an active role in shaping our future. In any case if we choose to continue with the path that we have taken, we are giving the government and the rulling party all the powers to continue directing our country into the mess.

What happened to the Swaziland that we as young people dream of and vision in the next 5 – 10 years? The Swaziland that guarantees good governance, every graduate a job, access to education for all children, the elderly taken care of, a country with comprehensive health care at affordable rates, freedom of expression without fear of victimisation, access to sexual and reproductive health, you name it.

At the moment, as young people we have mismanaged our minds, ideas and time. All this time has gone to waste and will not yield any benefits. Therefore my appeal as I share these thoughts, one – differing in ideas doesn’t mean we are enemies or should be enemies, probably that is where debates should take place up until a soft and fine solution is produced, but again it doesn’t mean that everything should go through debates. At some point we should agree to dis-agree, that is not a sin and shouldn’t separate us.

Secondly – collective efforts have been seen, tried and tested in so many countries. It has worked in favour of the people, no matter what they have been facing. It is time we put aside our differences and try again working collectively, with honesty and dedication. SYA – (Swaziland Youth in Action) is ready as soon as we are.

Defending one of my own, just like I would do to any other creditable foundation.