Botswana is a markedly different from China in terms of norms and political system. We are a multi-party democracy and as such we elect our leaders. We get a chance every five years to judge their performance, vote them out if necessary and get new guys in. Our system guarantees and is anchored on individual liberty and freedom of expression. We also have basic guarantees of freedom of religion and conscience. Under our system , citizens are free to dissent and not necessarily bow to political leaders including the president of the country.
One can say with a certain level of confidence that our judiciary is independent and rules without fear or favour. It even rules against the government. In fact the courts have ruled against the state on many occasions. One such notable occasion was when they ruled a few years ago against Ian Khama and forced him to appoint to the bench, an accomplished lawyer he had initially and inexplicably, rejected.
Because of this belief system, the people have grown up free and cherish these rights. They do not want to be servants of any human being. And they do not look at government as their God. So we are more attuned to Western values of democracy and freedom.
And what about China? It is a mirror opposite of our society. It is a one party dictatorship and therefore no other parties other than the Communist Party are allowed to exist. Their political system is such that the citizens do not choose their leaders and are barred from commenting freely from the goings-on in their country. One cannot and is not supposed to say anything about Hong Kong, Taiwan and human rights abuses in western China. Foreigners are also not expected to say anything about these issues. They are cajoled to stay out of China’s “internal affairs”. The Chinese do not have general elections like we do in the democratic world.
The Communist Party is at the forefront of every facet of life. It appoints local level leaders, mayors and legislators. The legislators and judiciary are but rubber stamps of the Party. Their so called business leaders such as Jack Ma for example need the continuous blessings of Communist Party masters to stay in business. Moreover their leading firms have such opaque ownership structures and any claim of being truly private and independent firms free from the influence of Communist Party ring hollow. This is why the US and UK have kept Huawei out of their 5G network.
The Belt and Road initiative is but a tool through which China buys the political patronage of poor and desperate Third World countries, the majority of whom are in sub -Saharan Africa. In return, these countries provide voting fodder for China at the United Nations. And not surprisingly China won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. Yes, Human Rights Council!
Moreover, the opaque Belt and Road is a trap for poor and already highly indebted African countries because China unlike transparent lenders such as the IMF and World Bank, has no interest in their ability to repay the loans. China does not care that the debt burden will turn African states including Botswana into Zambias. Zambia is effectively a client state of China. But because we are Botswana and not China, President Masisi governs on our behalf, and is duty bound to account and justify why we have to be part of a scheme whose overriding motive is China’s world dominance and not our debt sustainability.
