Those who follow international events would remember that the past week has been an immensely difficult one for the United States.
Five police officers were gunned down while escorting protesters who were marching in honour of two African-Americans killed by police officers a few days earlier.
For an entire week the whole country was on the brink, literally on the clutches of tenterhooks.
So tense was the situation that American President Barack Obama had to cut short his visit in Europe so that he could personally attend to unfolding events back home.
On Tuesday I followed on television a memorial service in Dallas, Texas in honour of the five killed police officers.
Obama shared the podium with his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush.
No two men can be more different. Obama is an internationalist whose world view is shaped by a firm belief that America’s might should used sparingly, and be deployed only as a last resort when all else has failed.
Also present was United States Vice President Joe Biden; a candid and amazingly humorous old man who is also a direct opposite of all that the Bush dynasty represents. All of them were accompanied by their spouses.
George W. Bush, as history easily shows is an unrepentant believer in the strength and military might of the United States.
No soul mates, on this occasion Obama and Bush came together for the sake of their country, realizing that a slip might bring the whole edifice down.
Like the rest of the world, Americans were pleasantly surprised to see George W. Bush in public after a very long time. Since retirement almost eight years ago, he has literally cut himself out of all public life.
Bush, or W. as the Americans call him looked old and talked slowly with a bit of a stammer ÔÇô a total opposite of the strongman image he portrayed in 2001 when he took America and the world to war in Afghanistan. His hair has grown thin. And a big bald patch is already beginning to grow.
But all those were side matter that did not matter to the Americans.
To them what mattered was the fact that here were two of their leaders who had set aside all their differences, disdain and contempt for each other’s politics so that they could save their country and help it find back its footing.
Inadvertently betraying the solemnity of the moment, at the end of the service, Bush danced slowly from side to side with one hand holding his wide and the other clinging to Michelle Obama.
It was a marvel to watch.
The scene in Dallas, Texas kept crossing my mind during the week when news of events that had been folding in our Parliament started to pour out. What a contrast we are to the Americans!
First the Speaker of the House failed to introduce the Leader of the Opposition in her protocol during an immensely important visit to Parliament by the President of Namibia. Just how the Speaker can forget the Leader of opposition ÔÇô one of her chief lieutenants in a parliament that is supposed to be independent, is anybody’s guess.
And later on it was reported that an opposition Member of Parliament had swung a water bottle to the other side in an attempt to hit a political opponent.
Clearly the clock is turning back on Botswana’s politics of unity, tolerance and cohesion.
How did we end up here?
By omitting to introduce the leader of opposition, the speaker was not only demeaning but also outright spiteful and even rude.
And this in front of people to who we should as a nation wanted to present ourselves as a united front.
Increasingly, our politics are pervaded by hate, vitriol and spite.
The trouble is once you go down the hill stopping becomes an impossible task.
What might today be dismissed as a little oversight will with time prove a mightily irreparable damage to the serenity of our politics.
Parliamentary democracy is something that is innately familiar to the Namibians.
While they only got independence fairly recently, they have since surpassed us in many respects.
In that country, they know how important a Leader of Opposition is.
In Namibia, no matter the scale of differences between opposition and the party in power, a Leader of Opposition is regarded as part of the country’s Government structures.
It would thus have not escaped the attention of our visitors that a Leader of Opposition who by the way represents a motley crew of parties that got more votes than the ruling party could be spurned in the manner that the House Speaker did.
Exhibiting such stark partisanship in the eyes of international guests, as the Speaker of Parliament did can hardly be a good thing for the country.
By every measure, Namibia is one of Botswana’s foremost allies, way ahead of the undependable South Africa; the biggest trading partner that so often exhibits patronizing views about us.
What the Speaker did to the Leader of Opposition must no doubt have also hurt the visiting Namibian delegation.
Her actions are impossible to justify. It’s regrettable she has not seen it fit to make a public apology to the Leader of Opposition.
Clearly she thinks that by overlooking the Leader of Opposition, she is doing the ruling party some service. The truth, I’m afraid is quite the opposite.
There are serious divisions in our society.
Those divisions have pestered for far too long now. And they can only be addressed by people who are deemed to be impartial.
The Speaker, by aiding and abetting the use of Parliament as a launch pad for the ruling party’s revival is also inadvertently causing nationwide divisions.
The upshot of it will be more violence in our politics, which by the way has already started.
This week a member of parliament threw a bottle at another. The response from government has been to increase security for the speaker and her deputy.
This thing of increasing security for the Speaker and her deputy amounts to grandstanding.
This response amounts to addressing the symptoms of the disease while doing nothing about the causes.
Underlying issues have to be addressed or that same security will with time be breached
Not long ago, a councilor in Molepolole spilled blood after head-butting another.
The situation in our politics mirrors that in our personal and individual discourse; spiritual and moral degeneration.
We pay lip service to it at our own peril as a nation.
We are about to celebrate fifty years of independence as a nation.
This alone should be enough to make us all set out differences aside for a while.
Instead we see our differences being more and more entrenched.
We should look at ourselves and ask ourselves difficult questions. All violence should be condemned, at all the time, and without any attempt to justify it.
