There is rumble in our politics again. Any loyal politics follower won’t be surprised where that rumble is coming from. There is always one political party which is notoriously known for indiscipline in this country. A party which some of its members erroneously think they know it more than other members and always rebel against the decisions made by the supreme decision making organ of the party. A party which has been held back by these members who are still rooted in old irrelevant political dogma which has failed in places where they were invented yet somehow these political obfuscators think they can revive and implement these political theories here in Botswana. Yes, that political organisation is Botswana National Front. BNF, despite its policies, has always failed to present itself as an alternative simply because it has people who have refused to reform and carry the party forward. One such person is Comrade Moore.
Comrade Moore is a typical cadre who has failed to evolve. He is rigid and falls in the category of people who deny BNF progress. He and a few cadres in the BNF have somehow managed to hold BNF at ransom simply because they claim to understand BNF’s political inclination more than any other BNF member. Very articulate in his presentations, be it with a pen or with a microphone I must admit, Cde Moore has misplaced energy. His understanding of politics I must say has failed to garner BNF support no wonder during the last election he contested as an independent and failed to garner more than 300 votes let alone him win a leadership contest ever since his political education position in the BNF. Comrade Moore fails to judge our political environment and assumes that his understanding of a century old literature can somehow make him a political martyr of a failed ideology of the now collapsed Soviet Union. Some of us have always enjoyed Cde Moore annotation of Botswana politics but we get tired when Cde Moore now wants to be a stumbling block in BNF reform and progress. Batswana are in dire situation of failed BDP social and economic policies which BNF has failed to topple ever since its existence. Its only logical for BNF to embrace change and dig deep from its soul to adopt new tactics to topple BDP and offer fresh mandate to Batswana. This the BNF congress in Mochudi, special one in Mahalapye and the latest one in Ghanzi have shown to do, who is Cde Moore to be always splashing his denunciation on newspapers to say BNFs 40 years of existence is being negotiated away? Does he have a mandate to hold the BNF at ransom even when the party congress has taken a decision no matter how sad it is to him as an individual? As much as he understands the socialism or left politics where is his understanding that congress is the supreme decision making body of the BNF?
Cde Moore should understand that we have examples of political parties which were a force to reckon with in the past. Such political parties had cadres like him who were rooted in their political dogma and denied their political parties a chance to progress. Such political parties are among others Botswana Independence Party which before its demise was a regional party without national appeal. Failure to reform and modernise is currently not treating Botswana Peoples Party any better. BPP at one point had a legal battle about their identity in BAM. Yes they won the battle but did that transform into any anything which improved its electoral fortunes? BNF should learn from what happened to BIP/ IFP and what is currently happening to BPP. BNF should distance itself and get rid of cadres who are rigid and refuse to reform because such are enemies of progress.
Cde Moore should understand that we do appreciate his contribution in the BNF but he should be alive to the fact that our understanding has limits. He is behaving as if he is an agent from BCDP BLOCK who is sent to always tear BNF apart and paralyse the UDC. At this point Cde Moore, if at all he is progressive comrade he should be focussed on selling UDC policies and praising the success and the relative stability we see in the UDC. Cde Moore should be spending time writing about ‘neelano ere e bonang mo UDC’. When people expected fireworks within UDC due to constituency allocation, nothing dramatic has so happened. We have seen BMD giving BNF some of the constituencies which were originally allocated them. BPP has also ceded some of its allocated constituencies to its partners. Isn’t this cooperation worth celebrating and worth acknowledgement by those who their pens are mightier? Comrade Moore once opined that one thing which might have led to collapse of Umbrella 1 talks was failure to talk about the success back then. He was referring to the harmonisation of policies which were done successfully but never given the necessary exposure as a success. Of recent Cde Moore isn’t celebrating UDC milestones. He is preoccupied with his selfish interests or serving his masters at BCDP block to destabilise UDC. He is always sowing seeds of disunity among BNF and calling BNF partners names like small political partners. Isn’t this Cde Moore who once labelled Gabriel Kanjabanga a left wing communist suffering from infantile disorder for his opposition to Umbrella? During that rally at Gaborone bus rank Cde Moore said Gabriel Kanjambanga thinks he is so revolutionary that he doesn’t want BNF to be part of Umbrella. He reminded Kanjabanga of the Bolsheviks, who were by 1917, had few workers within their fold but decided to be part of reactionary, reformists and social revolutionaries, a move which won them a lot of workers. Is BNF wrong today to be embracing the Liberals in BMD to topple BDP?
Isn’t this what Dr Kenneth Koma always recommended that BNF should welcome former BDP cadres and use them to beef their bid to topple BDP? Isn’t BMD bringing the much needed BDP “communists” who have wasted their time at BDP? I still have clips of that rally and celebrated Cde Moore’s progressive politics that day. Today Cde Moore is singing from the same hymn book with Gabriel Kanjabanga. Cde Moore orated during the same rally that UDC lacks a revolutionary group to provide direction to the UDC. He opined that such a group should have organisational and ideological independence within a front and advised Kanjabanga and others to stop criticising from side-lines and be part of the collective and support the minimum programme to better the lives of Batswana. It is startling now that Cde Moore is a changed man. He is not leading by example and one can conclude that he is counter revolutionary.
Comrade Moore has misplaced energy. Fighting BNF won’t change nor bring him any political glory. Sticking to failed political theories and failing to localise such to Botswana context is an indication of a man who still has a lot of work to contribute to Botswana political landscape. His relentless attack on the current progress of BNF which has potential to topple BDP is nothing but counter revolutionary. Very much interesting that he acknowledges Dr Kenneth Koma sentiments that “only revolutionary make a revolution, a revolution must first take place within your own being. If you are virtually an embodiment of imperfections, both morally, physically and otherwise, you are not fit person to make a revolution”
Comrade Moore therefore should also learn from what he recommends us to learn from. He should embrace regime change first within himself. Dear Leader Cde Duma Boko has always maintained that regime change isn’t reference to BDP alone. He has always said we should also change our mind set, think differently and do things differently for the benefit of Batswana. Cde Moore should not allow his ideological believes, which are not cast in stone, to cloud his mind. He should not assume that he is the custodian of BNF alone. BNF belongs to the progressive minds. BNF belongs to the crop of cadres who are in a position to make an assessment of the current environment and admit, without losing their socialism character, that capitalism can only be defeated from within.
Comrade Elmon Tafa aka Comrade Moore knows this. His endless criticism of BNF is now becoming monotonous and counter revolutionary. Comrade Moore should adapt or better still leave BNF and form his own political organisation which he can lead the way he wants. BNF should reform and get rid of old school political theoreticians like cde Tafa. His time is surely up.
