It is a vintage Olebile Gaborone. Standing in a packed parliament, modest manner and smart suit, the Botswana National Front (BNF) Vice President is espousing his vision for a more tolerant parliament.
He hits all the right notes, congratulating Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) leader Lt Gen Ian Khama and all MPs across the party divide.
He strikes a muscular tone against Botswana’s electoral process, yet tempers it with restraint.
He speaks of a ‘common ground’ among MPs.
“The differences that occur during our debates should not be antagonistic for they enrich the life of this parliament,” he says.
Meet the new Leader of Opposition who comes across as a decent patriot of the middle ground and a steady hand for difficult times.
For a lot of Batswana political watchers who are used to militant opposition politics ÔÇô Gaborone’s moderate brand of politics is beguiling.
We are sitting with Gaborone in his pleasant-but-not-opulent ground-floor office at the Government Enclave. He is soft-spoken, responding to questions with several seconds’ thought before speaking and says things like, “politics should not be a cut-throat game.”
Unlike other leaders of opposition there is no finger wagging; just moderate undertones.
For the record, Gaborone is not a Marxist. It is probably a sore point since most BNF leaders rose through the ranks from the party school where they were force fed a staple of Marxism.
“Let Marxists pursue Marxism, and let me follow my own independent line of thinking,” he says. Marxist slogans like “religion is opium to the people” do not resonate with him.
In fact, Gaborone is more of a religious being than your typical old time BNF politician. The gospel that shaped his brand of politics, however, has nothing to do with hell fire and supernatural vengeance; quite the opposite. The Tlokweng Member of Parliament keeps the company of new age religious leaders like Joel Osteen, Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle.
On his desk is a dog-eared Joel Osteen titled -Your Best Life Now. It is safe to say that the name of Joel Osteen rings few bells in Botswana. But he’s big – very big – in the United States of America as the leader of a new generation of television evangelists whose message is one that could charitably be described as theology lite.
He is not from the generation of hellfire preachers peddling old time religion.
Osteen’s is an affirming gospel, exemplified in the title of his book “Your Best Life Now”, which has sold more than 4 million copies since it was published five years ago.
As we opened the door of Gaborone’s main library, we come face to face with Deepak Chopra, one of the world’s leading mind-body spirit Gurus. Chopra teaches the benefits of incorporating meditation and a healthy lifestyle for increasing inner happiness.
Gaborone also names Eckart Tolle among his biggest influences. Tolle is America’s talk show hostess, Oprah Winfrey’s favourite guru and has sold more books than almost any other spiritual author.
Tolle teaches that in the final analysis we are all one, that political differences, social differences and material differences are a creation of the false mind made self which he calls the ego. This is the thread running across Gaborone’s brand of politics.
“I believe in a brand of politics that respects values like good faith and tolerance,” he says.
Gaborone is always looking for the best in people, continually searching for a compromise, invariably seeing both sides of the argument. So it’s not surprising that he is anguished by the current political hostility in Parliament: “There are many occasions in this parliament when a fair sense of judgment is sacrificed on the altar of party loyalty. Each time this happens on either side of the chamber, we must pause and ask ourselves what our mandate as legislators is, for it is at that moment of introspection that we will appreciate whether it is the party, ourselves or the nation that matters,” he said when responding to President Khama’s state of the Nation Address.
Indications are that the BNF’s traditional hostility to the BDP in parliament, putting political differences before a common development agenda will not be a mainstay of the party’s future strategy. The party’s stance in Parliament is likely to take on Gaborone’s moderate position over the coming months.
Another great influence on Gaborone is Chinua Achebe who enjoys the pride of place in his glass cabinet. When his Marxist colleagues in the BNF talk of “materialism” Gaborone on the other hand talks of the “cargo cult mentality”, a term coined by the African literary giant.
“When Namola Leuba jobs are created overnight and dished out in Gaborone South to coincide with elections under the guise of poverty alleviation we are creating a cargo cult mentality amongst our people ÔÇô the belief among hungry people that on the election eve a fairy ship will dock in their habour laden with every goody they have always dreamed of possessing,” Gaborone told Parliament.
Quoting Achebe during his speech, Gaborone said, “One Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian writer writing on the cult of mediocrity where favouritism based on either tribe, race or political party membership plays a part in employment and conducting state affairs said: “The greatest sufferer is the nation itself which has to contain the legitimate grievance of wronged citizen, accommodate the incompetence of a favoured citizen and, more important and of a greater scope, achieve general decline of morale and subversion of efficiency caused by an erratic system of performance and reward.”
Gaborone told Parliament that if what Achebe has observed “can be allowed to take place in our public service, private sector and even, more importantly in our political parties, this country will fail to reach the heights it wishes to reach.”
In the next few months, the challenge will be for Gaborone to convince the weather beaten, slogan singing traditional base of the BNF that hard-line politics is not everything.
Not an easy fit. In the last elections the BNF lost ground, ceding six constituencies mainly to the BDP.
“I sense a lot of anger among the people. As the BNF we should convince the people that we are still relevant.”
Gaborone is under no elusion that his will be an easy task.
But drinking from the fountain of such gurus like Achebe and Tolle, he may be just what the doctor ordered for the ailing BNF.
In the meantime, the jury is still out.
When he stood to address the nation, it was by no coincidence that his challenge came not from the BDP, but from his erstwhile comrade, Nehemiah Modubule, who queried the Speaker just where she got the powers that the Leader of the House shall be the first to respond to the President’s State of the Nation Address, not an amusing peek for what lies ahead for a spiritual politician practicing Gaborone’s moderate brand of politics.
Gaborone says the BNF should not spare any effort in its attempts to reach a working relationship with the BCP.
“But we have to take the people along. If we lose the people the leadership will become alienated,” he says.
As moderate as his politics he does not want to commit his future role inside the BNF which is scheduled to hold an elective Congress some time next year.
“That is not for me to decide. BNF members will decide,” he said.
He also does not want to be categorical on other policy matters, perhaps aware that though officially a Leader of Opposition, he is there somewhat by default, because the BNF Leader Otsweletse Moupo, for various other reasons could not make it to parliament.