In the past, their mistakes were either overlooked or easily forgiven.
It was an article of faith, timelessly honoured by both the media and, indeed, the public that opposition parties had the nation’s interest at heart, that each one of them had to be given a chance to prove their worth without ruthlessly tearing them asunder at the slightest sight of any mistake.
Invariably, each of the parties always enjoyed what lawyers like to fondly call “benefit of doubt”.
That has since changed. To pretend and behave like its business as usual would amount to denialism.
Where the public used to be prepared as to be willing to give benefit of doubt, there is now a strong passion on the part of the voters to insist on each opposition party proving their true worth before any public trust can be forthcoming.
It would seem like the change in public mood is a result of opposition parties taking public opinion for granted.
The BCP thinks it can go it alone. The leader says his party can no longer put up with the bickering that has characterized opposition negotiations.
Coming from the BCP, that was to be expected. It is entirely keeping in kind. Any public debate that brings uncomfortable issues to the fore goes against BCP’s culture of infatuation with serenity. It unsettles them badly. Not so much because they lack intellectual depth to forcefully state their case but because internal confrontations always pose the risk of busting bare the fake control threads that keep the BCP edifice held together.
The BCP got to where it is by forging a carefully crafted aura of unity.
A continued fa├ºade of that unity seems to be an overriding factor in everything that they do. More a product of public relations and suave marketing, the BCP’s exaggerated levels of coherence have, however, often been a result of hidden behind the scenes dictatorial tendencies and a compulsive emphasis of image over substance.
Remember how against her will Anna Motlhagodi was forcefully nudged off the contest for deputy leader to make way for Lepetu Setshwaelo. It was public relations at its best, purposely designed to assuage Setshwaelo’s pride after a party he had single-handedly built and toiled for over many years was submerged under the BCP omnibus! Had she been allowed to contest, Motlhagodi’s ambitions risked undoing the very coronation that ushered in the current leadership.
Motlhagodi’s barring was, however, not the worst thing. A much later decision not to be a part of the umbrella mix has been truly calamitous.
Then there is the Botswana National Front, that doyen of Botswana opposition politics.
The BNF does not as yet see any value of internal stability. After 20 years of continual instability, the Front likes to see itself as still on a march to state power, the same way that it was when it won Gaborone South parliamentary by-elections in 1984. The BNF has to accept that its fifty-year-old uninterrupted hegemony as BDP’s definitive alternative has run out of road. The sooner this painful reality is accepted, the better it will be for all those involved in creating a united opposition.
The BNF name is bigger and richer in history than it is in real terms. Which makes it not so much different from the Botswana People’s Party; only the BPP’s descent into extinction has been going on for much longer.
While in public they like to portray themselves as sworn rivals, the truth is that both the BNF and BCP are consumed by similar demons; intolerance, unyielding insecurity, compounded by a debilitating contest for supremacy that consume the leaderships of each of these two outfits.
And then there is the BMD, or at least a faction of it that remains nostalgic of their days at BDP.
At all levels the BMD has to stop behaving like BDP cheerleaders. They will forever be looked down upon as a scion of the BDP, in much the same way that the BCP is inherently a scion of the BNF. But a reluctance by BMD to accept that their days as part of the ruling party are gone for good is causing confusion among potential followers looking for a distinct message.
Many members of the public are finding it hard to accept that some key members of the BMD have continued to keep open their options of going back to the BDP. Persistent rumours that some negotiations with the BDP could be going on behind the scenes are not helping BMD stability.
Such rumours also do little to help ongoing efforts to connect with their BNF partner, who, it must be said, have already made enormous sacrifices to accommodate BMD’s often infantile theatrics and unsustainable demands.
The groundswell of public disinterest against opposition politics is a clear reminder of just how steadfast the public could be if they feel taken for granted. Such public disaffection is more telling not least because it happens even as revelations of cronyism and endemic corruption continue to heap around the BDP throne. The public has lost interest in the opposition not because they are now interested in the BDP.
The public would much rather continue with the devil they know than take a big gamble in the dark.
Votes are still up for grabs. A lot can happen between now and 2014. Opposition has a chance but they will have to change their ways.
Political scientists can retain the luxury of why it has turned up that way; what has become the air of optimism that met attempts at opposition unity barely a year ago? Who among the opposition parties is really to blame? Where did it all go wrong?
Whatever the answers, it’s clear to a naked eye that the BDP has not all of a sudden become any more attractive, only the opposition has gotten less and less so.
