Some of our leaders have the tendency to make public statements that can make you wonder if it is not advisable to subject them to breathalyzer tests before they open their mouths to the public. Go ipuelwa hela! Their statements are not in line with the positions they hold. They are reckless in their speeches. They get so excited they end up throwing caution to the wind. They speak; it would appear, without any forethought. Last week Vice President and Botswana Democratic Party Chairman Mokgweetsi Masisi addressed the media for three hours and truly speaking, nothing of substance came out of his mouth. His ranting and raving was so embarrassing, coming from someone who is destined to become the next president of our republic (if wishes always came true). It would have been better had Masisi confined his hogwash to the opposition and the media fraternity because his boss Ian Khama has trained us to know that when BDP leaders run out of anything important to say, they relieve their frustrations on blaming the media and opposition parties for all their failures. Masisi did the unthinkable. The problem with Masisi is that he had too much idle time. He enjoyed being flashed at by photo journalists and stayed in that room for three hours. He ran out of intelligent talk and instead of bidding the journalists good bye, he couldn’t resist hanging on to feed his insatiable appetite for attention and self-worth. It happens though. When you run out of sensible things to say, the best way is to leave because if you continue talking you then run the risk of talking nonsense. It happened to Masisi at that press conference. He talked about the BDP and offered all his hallucinations about his party being the best thing that has ever happened to this country. After his BDP poems ran out, he turned on the opposition and accused them of being the source of his party’s sorrows. How I wish he had stopped right there. When his unsubstantiated accusations on the opposition ran out, he then turned his guns on the BDP veterans. He ridiculed former presidents Festus Mogae and Ketumile Masire. Masisi is of the view former BDP leaders have no business criticizing the current BDP leadership. He feels they are irrelevant and belong in the dustbins of history. Masisi ga a Masisi. The things he said about the two former presidents are so shameful. Masire would ask if Masisi is very brave or very foolish. Masisi says Mogae should just shut up and not express his support for gays and lesbians because he failed to do so while he was president. He says just as Mogae confessed he was silent on the issue at the time of his presidency for fear of losing elections, they too must not be expected to support gays because they, just like Mogae, do not want to lose elections. You see I have a problem with Masisi’s way of thinking. Masisi is basically telling us that former presidents shouldn’t criticize the BDP leadership because they were never criticized. What Masisi forgets to comprehend is, perhaps there was nothing that warranted criticism towards those former presidents. I mean, Masisi knows for a fact that compared to those former presidents, the current president takes the crown when it comes to making blunders that cannot be ignored by anyone who claims to love this country or the BDP. Those former presidents perhaps received less criticism because they did not have dictatorial tendencies like Masisi’s current boss. They made mistakes and acknowledged them. They never took criticism to mean insubordination or degradation. Masisi doesn’t want his regime to be criticized and he better be warned because very soon he will have a taste of his own medicine. Masisi will never succeed Khama and once this reality hits plays through, Masisi will want us to accept that it is okay to criticize your own leadership. Some of us do not want a situation where BDP will lose power and we find ourselves having difficulties criticizing the new government for persecuting the likes of Masisi on the basis Masisi taught us it was wrong to criticize the ruling party leadership. Masisi went on to stoop so low by insinuating Masire’s comments on the BDP are a result of his old age coupled with no knowledge of modern governance which according to Masisi, is technologically based. Masisi seems to think his newly found love for social media platforms such as Facebook put him ahead of Mogae and Masire. He is busy taking photos wearing gangster- inspired attire and he thinks that’s a sign of a modern day leader who is better than our old timers. Masisi must be told to respect the wisdom of Mogae and Masire because the fact that they do not make silly posts of Facebook does not mean they are backward. They are far more advanced than Masisi, in all respects, including personal grooming.
Twitter:@kuvuki
