Elementary Terrorism

When the SBIS ( Swaziland National Brodcasting Service) studios first burned down, it was condidered an act of negligence on the part of the employees. In the second attempt it was reported that the fire was actually the result of arson. It is, of course possible that radical forces were involed in the attempt to subbortage the radio station.

However, certain questions remain unanswered. For example: "Why would a government not increase security at the studios after it had been gutted down twice before ." Moreover," if people are able to evade security at the studios then it is possible that the culprits are actually people who have daily acess to the station." These are the questions that need to be answered before anybody can sincerely take the idea of a terrorist burning down a building and then leaving behind evidence that will incriminate his/her organisation.

With a court case still pending on the PUDEMO members that were arrested when arson first became a trend in the country, it could be that some agent provocateours are intent on causing alarm within the country so as to give the state support in the event that it decides to enforce the very dubious "Terrorism Bill" that parliament has been ordered to approve.

A Government Caught in it's own trap

The reason why progressives in Swaziland must make an attempt to participate in the up-coming elections is not so much so that they can win parliamentary seats but because they need to test the validity of the claims within the constitution. The clause concerning political parties' rights to camapaign for elections is still not cleared. It was hoped, one can imagine, that progressives would simply boycott the elections thus leaving the government with no real reason for clearing the air on that particular clause. And indeed that might have been the case were it not for the fact that the same progressives are seeking their rights to be respected regardless of whether they will make use of them or not.

However, the most important reason why the government has taken a tough stance towards political parties by declaring itself against their participation is because it fears the possibility of a popular vote for the country's reformists. These have clearly adopted a programme for the forth-coming elections and their exisiting membership in the current parliament is reason to believe that they might score quite a number of votes.