Some people have blatantly told me to my face that they do not read my articles any more because I am negative and full of hatred. My response was that they are entitled to their opinions and free to choose what they read. But the truth is that they do read them which is why they often send text messages to me to register their protests and bark at me.
You see I enjoy writing opinion pieces but I hate addressing issues that make me angry because anger makes me become very hostile and spiteful towards those who I comment on. Bear with me good reader, I am a very cultured and respectful someone, but even the best behaved, most humble and meekest of persons find themselves in a situation where they have been baited into getting angry by irresponsible and distasteful things said or done by people we regard as honorable or very important persons.
However, I refuse to be swept off my feet by small-minded-shallow-self loathing-good-for nothing people who take pride in their unparalleled ability to take everything on face value. Thus, I will continue to write the ‘nonsense’ that will keep them off their feet for the next decade. Anyway, that is all about lazy bums!
This article seeks to examine the Botswana honors and awards. Every year in September, we hear about His Excellency the President of the Republic of Botswana conferring honors and awards on distinguished individuals to recognize their excellent service to the nation. It is hard to argue with the logic and practice of giving proper recognition through the conferment of honors and awards of excellence and distinction. I know for many people such honors and awards are just a routine business best left to those tasked to oversee it. Many more citizens probably do not know anything about these honors or don’t just care about who get honored or how individuals are selected for the honors. I also never thought much about them because for me they were just a meaningless routine affair for the Office of the President and the recipients.
However, after watching part of the ceremony on Botswana Television (BTV) this past September, I had a feeling that these honors and awards must have lost meaning and no longer command respect. The facial expression and the body language of the recipients said it all. Perhaps they did not feel much honored or considered the honors useless. There was visible lack of excitement and a vivid show of disinterest from the recipients and their well wishers. The event resembled a memorial service for a departed destitute.
It is generally agreed that there is need to recognize individuals and organizations for their distinguished contribution and selfless service to the nation. Unfortunately, the devil is in the manner in which we do it. Over the years, the honors and awards have lost their meaning as they have come to be used to merely generate publicity for the President. Whereas the honors and awards are given in the name of the Republic of Botswana, they nonetheless bear the identity of the presidency who coincidentally presents them to the recipients. For some unknown reasons all the honors happen to be prefixed with the word ‘presidential’. It is the Presidential Order of Honor; the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service and the Presidential Certificate of Honor.
What it means is that even though they are Botswana honors, recipients actually accept them in the name of His Excellency the President. You could discern this from their brief acceptance remarks that expressed gratitude to the President. This implies that the honors and awards have taken on the identity and personality of the president and thus have the potential to encourage loyalty to the President rather than the nation that actually confers the honors. In this manner, the honors act as bribe that makes recipients, their families feel indebted and forever stay faithful to the president. In my view this trivializes the honors more particularly taking note that over the years the Presidency has been discredited and its prestige greatly harmed.
The Presidency is no longer a source of national pride and a unifying factor. For instance, in the past year the Presidency was suspected of sponsoring extra judicial killings. The Vice President shocked the world when he said that one or two killings would not tarnish the image of the country. It is generally believed that the Presidency has become openly divisive, vindictive and callous.
By simple logic, once the image of the Presidency is contaminated, all things associated with it or done in its name get repugnant, blemished, disgraced and repulsive. Thus, the ugly image of the presidency has extended to the honors and awards, however their good intentions. It would therefore appear as though recipients merely accept them without attaching any pride on them. Perhaps unlike the late Dr. Kenneth Koma who openly refused a presidential award, they do not want to embarrass the government or His Excellency the President hence they just accept them. When our people accept awards from some obscure international organizations while they reject our own honors we should be worried as a nation if we really care.
In addition, it is my view that the awards have become very controversial particularly that the majority of people receiving them are either former civil servants or BDP associates. My concern is that the honors are now being motivated by politics, after all the process of selecting individuals is shrouded in extreme secrecy. As a result, instead of growing bigger and uniting the nation the honors have become peripheral, divisive and in some big ways polarize this fragile nation. They have thus become worthless, counter productive and scandalous.
It is on the basis of this observation that I propose that there be a wholesale review of the Botswana honors and awards system to revamp and restore its credibility or discontinue the practice if it no longer serves a purpose. In particular, there is need to set up an independent honors commission to oversee the system [if it is upheld] with a view to removing suspicions of bias and its politicization. The commission, which will be detached from the Presidency, will give the honors system some measure of transparency, respect and some prestige. The review exercise will further determine the appropriate names for the honors to make them somewhat genuine Botswana honors and awards.
