We are witnessing something formidably dramatic; a nation torn apart by corruption that neither the party in Government nor the official opposition would want to engage the public on, much less honestly talk about.
At the ruling party’s National Council the biggest scandal tearing the nation apart would not even make a footnote to any of the big speeches by the top officials.
On the floor of the council hall, delegates are seemingly beaten to the pulp, afraid to even bring the matter up for discussion.
Outside the hall the mood is somewhat different.
Assailed by the leadership inside to turn a blind eye, the ordinary members of the ruling party are outside rebelling against their leaders ÔÇô speaking out, albeit in hushed tones against what they see as deliberate attempts by the leadership to sweep the swamp under the carpet.
It’s a paradox of sorts.
On this matter the ruling party is not alone. They have been pleasantly surprised on the kind of assistance recently given them.
At least on the issue of corruption, there is not much demonstrable ideological difference between the ruling party and the leader of opposition.
When it comes to taking the public into confidence on corruption allegations that the nation is currently grappling with, no measurable disagreement can be detected between the two camps.
In parliament on Friday the leader of opposition went against his own party, against his opposition colleagues from other parties and voted with the party in power against what efforts were being presented to start a meaningful public dialogue against corruption.
The assumption has always been that given a choice between the ruling party and aspects he did not agree with from opposition benches, a leader of opposition would abstain rather than actively argue in favour of the party in power. Abstain rather than oppose has always been the axiom.
By voting with the BDP on such a key national matter, the leader of opposition has forfeited his claim to being the custodian of an alternative realm.
It has been a gift that has not gone unnoticed.
Still gloating from the endorsement her party had received from the leader of opposition, the chairperson of the ruling party’s women’s league later on described the leader of opposition as reliably loyal.
She might have been exaggerating, but she was not too far off the mark.
Batswana are notorious for their short attention spans.
There is no evidence of coordination or collusion, but the strategy for the two camps is the same; play a long game, and the issue will with time and on its own die away and eventually get off the public attention.
By rejecting calls for a Commission of Enquiry, the leaders are adopting long-termism as possible cover for misdeeds.
Long-termism should not be allowed to provide them with cushion against their scurrilous behaviour.
While the sleaze is having a paralytic influence among the leadership, at the ordinary man’s level its galvanic impact cannot be mistaken.
The public is fired up. They want due process. A commission of Enquiry would shine some light on what really happened.
In the eyes of the public, arguments against a Commission of Inquiry in so far as they relate to presidential powers are as detached and aloof as they are academic ÔÇô totally unhelpful as to amount to obstruction of justice.
The groundswell of dissatisfaction and despair among ordinary members of opposition parties cannot be underestimated.
While some of their leaders are openly trying to stifle the dialogue, ordinary party members are way ahead in their demand for answers to what they see as stealing of national assets including even by some their own leaders.
The end result is that political parties are now riven, as is indeed the entire country.
With particular reference to the Umbrella for Democratic Change, the party will enter the elections next year at best neurotic and at worst fully impotent.
The National Petroleum Fund has exposed one thing.
We are a nation without a moral anchor.
What criticisms are often hurled at the ruling party by leaders of opposition are hollow pontifications of hot air.
Corruption at the Petroleum Fund has exposed a grave dearth of moral leadership.
A failure by opposition to seize this clear opportunity has confirmed that ours is a nation of small men.
Admittedly, corruption at NPF cannot be allowed to become a platform for image making by politicians.
But the artificial stasis created in parliament on Friday when the leader of opposition joined hands with the ruling party will go down into history as possibly the worst abdication of moral authority.
The debate in parliament on Friday has opened a totally new public discourse.
For the foreseeable future any attempts by opposition to call out the ruling party on corruption will be rightly dismissed by the public as cheap political point scoring airy-fairy.
This is the context in which the campaign for General Elections next year is opening.
In the public psyche, the debate has at best taken away from opposition a moral authority to be voices against corruption.
At worst that debate has thrust the opposition into accomplices in corruption against public finances.
It’s a case of foxes being called to keep guard over hens.
