Glory be to the Almighty God for having seen us through yet another year of democracy coupled with sophisticated deeds which, at some point, almost seemed to threaten the stability of the state.
Whenever a democracy experiences revolutionary manifestations, a lot of questions start to roll within the mind of every democrat or any citizen who has the welfare of his or her country at heart.
Botswana is a democracy still at its infancy although it has seen the rise and fall of the sun for the past 44 years. There are a lot of tests that our democracy have to go through before we can all lean back and declare with confidence that we are a great democratic nation.
What really matters for us now if we are really committed in solidarity to the growth of our democracy is that we need to venture into self introspection and may be pose the question; are we really democratic enough or maybe we are just too democratic given the events of 2010? One of the greatest Scottish professors of history, Alexander Tyler, who lived around the 1700s, had this to share regarding democracies:
“Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.”
What is of fundamental importance to our developing democracy given Professor Tyler’s caution is that we have to be aware that great nations rise and fall at some point and our obligation as citizens and patriots in the democratic process should be to guard against the perishing of our democracy.
Mind you if citizens do not get their voices heard in the nurturing of a democratic process, chances are that a democracy can turn into a tyranny as it assumes the absolutist style of rule. In order for democracy to triumph, all citizens should pledge their allegiance to the functions of the democratic process and guard jealously against any misdemeanors or politically bogus actions which could jeopardize the smooth running of the wheels of a democracy.
Mind you, once the functions of the wheels of the democratic process are tempered with, Tyler warns that a nation will fall into bondage and it is this very bondage that we do not want to see in Botswana at least during our life time.
The year 2010 has been pregnant with a lot of interesting as well as some bizarre deeds surrounding our democracy. One of the historic moments has been the raging factionalism within the ruling BDP. Who would have imagined that at some point in the history of this democracy especially under the BDP rule, we would see political disputes driven by ideological differences plunging a party into divisions?
Well, ideological and philosophical differences have always existed within people and political organs but our country made history in 2010 when factionalism within the BDP led to the birth of Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) or Bhudha Mu Domi as some of the Bakalanga jockeys would like to call it.
Although this appears to have been a painful moment in the history of our glorified shining example of African democracy, to some degree this is a development which should be welcomed with some ululations because it sends a signal that indeed Botswana is a mature democracy which is accommodative of the emergence of other political movements.
Freedom and liberty within any democracy are shown by various manifestations of tolerance and ours is a case which shows that in as much as it appears as though we are a troubled democracy, we are still tolerant to some degree.
Under barbaric and or dictatorial governance, the emergence of new political movements would certainly earn some people a license to meet their marker, but thanks be to the Almighty that we are still tolerant to some levels although the need to improve cannot be overemphasized.
The emergence of BMD brought in some shock waves within the ruling BDPs corners to the extent that we experienced the funniest moment of politics-flip-flopping or koi as we saw some members of the BDP defecting to BMD for a few minutes and then going back to the BDP at the wink of an eye preaching a gospel of reconciliation.
Man, I love this democracy, did you see that moment in BTV News broadcast when some old folks in one constituency literally cried upon the return of their prodigal son MP? I mean this was like some really good stuff in the history of this democracy and to even see the flip-flopper himself crying and asking for forgiveness made me feel like “wow! democracy is so beautiful-it can give politicians time to cry publicly.”
2010 really had some interesting comedy displayed in our democracy. I really love this year, can you guys out there please cry publicly once again in 2011? A little bit of more crying and flip-flopping won’t hurt.
It’s good to see some elderly politicians cry on television, after all this is a democracy.
Oh gosh! I almost forgot this other juicy development regarding the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MOESD), Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) and Teachers’ Trade Unions. As Tocqueville has observed within the game of politics or within the functions of a nation, nothing occurs by itself without the free actions of particular men. The Ministry of Education and Skills Development, BEC and Teachers’ Union issue was really not abstract from its humble beginnings.
It was a straight forward matter, the poor and underpaid teachers needed the betterment of their remunerations during the invigilation period of the exams and unfortunately their demands were seen as misguided and too ambitious. Consequently negotiations reached a deadlock which led to the Unions declaring their intention to venture into industrial action of some sort.
I think I just like their technical word on this-go slow and can you imagine how things would look like if teachers were to embark on industrial action on a go fast kind of tactic? The whole system would definitely be in shambles. The go slow revolutionary stance threw Botswana’s national examinations into utter chaos, the worst ever national examination crisis in the history of this democracy.
Botswana is indeed a story of democracy with its own shortcomings of course. The good thing is that as we experience and testify to the death of 2010, we can all celebrate one thing that our nation has not been engulfed in the frightening dangers of tyranny and totalitarianism although there are some frightening moments of course.
Let us continue with the consciousness of jealously safeguarding our democracy and our inherent freedom and liberty in 2011. As we continue to partake in the democratic discourse in 2011, let us remember the words of the second President of the USA, John Adams who said:
“Democracy…while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
*Dr. Jotia is Democracy and Education Scholar at the University of Botswana
