This commentary adopts the standpoint that one of the tragic aberrations afflicting Botswana, which might eventually contribute to its decline, is that our fatigued leaders, including some in the opposition, no longer care a nickel about the future of this country or posterity. Their only supreme consideration is to make quick money and promote personal survival pursuits that have absolutely nothing to do with the welfare of the oppressed.
We’ve prematurely reached a political blind alley. Hence even very basic things that could boost the self-esteem and dignity of Batswana aren’t being done. The leaders’ ambitions for the nation are ridiculously lukewarm, and far from being commensurate with the huge expectations of deprived citizens.
Even Vision 2016, a pledge for prosperity, high standards of human decency, robust democracy, and effective governance can’t catch on under the overwhelming supremacy of our acquisitive mercenaries. Many only flippantly cite the Vision as part of their hollow public relations gimmicks. They don’t genuinely espouse it because its noble values are at variance with their self-aggrandisement propensities. Because of lack of moral capacity to energetically confront daunting existential challenges, they have embarrassingly confined the masses to a prison of servile dependency. In the past, politics was an aspect of elevated national volunteerism. But now our mean-spirited and prodigal “fundraisers”, including conspicuously well off ones, treat politics as a golden opportunity to make hay while the sun shines.
The leaders’ self-serving pretensions, collapse of the caring ethic, and reckless abandonment of our desired future are evident in a burgeoning phenomenon which translates in a tragic conspiracy against our faltering democracy: the emergence of the GOPs (Government Opposition Parties) and GONGOs (Government Non-Governmental Organisations). Before explicating this regrettable phenomenon, I challenge you to appreciate that the absence of valiant structures for democratisation and human rights advocacy has enabled the ruling elite (including opposition politicians and NGO bureaucrats serving the state) to conveniently manipulate the entire electorate for selfish reasons. Elections and the entire process of ruling are grossly misused to select and maintain a dominant elite who use enormous power to peddle their own agendas in the guise of serving the “unthinking masses”.
The creation of the GOPs and GONGOs is a common feature of elite rule, particularly in an African polity. The functionaries running these entities have the same aspirations as those of the power elite. So, “deprived” elements in the GOPs and GONGOS succumb to the value of capitalist accumulation in line with their reference group in the establishment. In Botswana, where even the private sector is heavily dependent on the state, opposition and NGOs leaders, particularly those in the “debt trap”, are susceptible to financial and political manipulation by powerful forces in state structures. The latter create the GOPs and GONGOs through an election master strategy with a crucial component called ‘decapitation.’ This literally means ruthlessly beheading, castrating, dehorning, amputating and strangulating targeted organisations in order to render them impotent and worthless. The nefarious tactics employed to effect decapitation include cooptation, manufacturing divisive conflicts and intractable confusion in organisations through infiltration and puppetry, and political espionage and sabotage.
The dysfunctional Botswana National Front (BNF) is a typical GOP in that a tiny but influential deviant band in it has been strategically bought off as part of a mammoth plan to annihilate the fledgling opposition movement. The financial resources for disabling the opposition are clandestinely sourced from local and international agents of global capitalism.
The turning of the BNF into a bogus GOP has several dire consequences. First, if the BNF attempts to punish its “captured” band by dint of expulsions, or elimination through elections at its next congress, the deceitful band could be hugely backed by its sponsors to unleash a disastrous political volcano worse than what transpired during the 1998 “Palapye Debacle”. This point is significant as it explains why even the party’s Marxist academics are in disarray, numb and not sure-footed. They fully understand that any tough move to nip the recalcitrant band in the bud now, may eventuate in the most catastrophic explosion whose ripple effects could filter into 2009. The BNF has no intelligence system and damage control machineries to counteract and foil massive decapitation manoeurves.
Second, the “colonised” band would be instrumental in leaking out BNF’s election strategies to the sponsors. Third, if the BNF could eliminate some members of the “dissident” band, the Machiavellian sponsors could offer some of these “dissidents” special seats in Parliament and Councils, and use them to perpetuate their stranglehold on the fractured BNF.
Third, the colluding mercenaries in the notorious band wouldn’t speak out against the rulers. Fourth, they would be directed by the sponsors to deliberately commit some of the most expensive mistakes against the BNF.
A number of NGOs are also in the same boat with the BNF in that their crooked leaders have been strategically positioned to serve powerful interests. They hope to be offered special positions and other kickbacks once the deal yields good dividends. Our major limitation as a nation is that we’ve failed to produce a critical mass of inspiring visionaries and martyrs who can die for justice.
But how come people who are expected to help build a strong democratic culture decide to connive against and abandon the masses of the poor? Why are these opportunists able to do this without meaningful consequences being meted against them?
The answers to these pertinent questions are obvious. Local politicians are not accountable to the masses. None of the parties has supervisory processes that compel MPs and Councillors to deliver superior results. Even if a leader is obviously dysfunctional, the electorate cannot bring their influence to bear on his performance.
But this state of affairs is also attributable to the fact that political parties and the electorate are in a horrible “crisis of purpose”. The parties are not clear about their major purpose or reason for existence. Hence at times they say they want to unite and take over government. Before the unity projects takes off the ground, they dramatically break up, preferring to go it alone. As for the befuddled electorate, they unwisely elect people on the basis of partisan considerations and not their performance record.
Another problem is the widespread myth of our leaders’ “exclusive political competence”. This fallacy is a derivative of low political consciousness and our conditions of mentally crippling general underdevelopment. Our people naively function on the erroneous assumption that the process of ruling is an exclusive preserve of politicians and their emasculated grovellers. The latter try to validate this by creating the impression that they’re more intelligent than the electorate. But our politicians lack cultural competence. They’ve no adequate understanding of how some positive aspects of culture can be creatively applied to produce dynamic processes of ruling that can empower every Motswana.
We can counteract the prevailing political malaise through the creation of functional democratic institutions, effective leadership development, holding leaders accountable for their political incompetence. As well, the national constitution and the constitutions of political parties should be reviewed with a view to strengthen them and radically abolish political abuse of the electorate. We should also engage in constructive dialogue for resuscitating civil society activism.
