Botswana, under the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), has earned international acclaim as the shining example of democracy. The BDP and opposition parties all deserve credit for their commitment to nurturing the country’s democracy, peace and stability.
All this has been possible because, to a large extent, we all shared a common reality.
Despite a few misgivings here and there, we all shared a belief that we were all committed to honouring the rules of democracy. The truth is that we create our own reality. Often times, this reality is more perception than fact. All along, all we needed to keep our democracy going was the perception that the playing field is level and everyone is playing fair. This is what has sustained our democracy so far. That is why perception weighs far more than fact for our democracy to survive.
Recently, however, there has been a growing discordance in our perceptions and indications are that our democracy may turn out to be the first victim. While the BDP maintains that the country’s electoral system does not temper with fair play, opposition parties on the other hand insist that the country’s electoral system is loaded against them and in favour of government.
While the BDP government insists that the public media is apolitical and serves all political parties fairly, the opposition on the other hand sees the Btv and Radio Botswana as mouth pieces of the ruling party.
While the country’s leadership maintains that our judiciary is free from political influence, recent attempts by President Ian Khama have created suspicions in opposition circles that the president is trying to load the judiciary in his favour.
It may be true that appointments to senior positions at the government enclave are made on merit, but there is a growing perception in opposition ranks that you have to be a card carrying member of the BDP to make it as permanent secretary or head of a parastatal. Recent developments at the Gaborone City Council are not helping the situation. The permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and the Attorney General’s chambers may not be working to the BDP agenda. The fact that they have decided to bend a few rules here and there, maybe to cut through the government red tape, has however raised a few eye brows, more so that the BDP is the biggest beneficiary of their questionable discretions.
All these are just perceptions and nothing more. The sad reality however, is that our realities are created more by perceptions than reality.
Worse still, these perceptions are becoming part of our political make up and will taint any future understandings and interpretations of our political interactions. If these perceptions are wrong, which is very likely, then for a long time to come we are going to be dealing with wrong interpretations of political decisions.
We will all see our political future through the eyes of these wrong perceptions. That is the greatest danger that is facing our democracy. So the first place to start in protecting our democracy is to address these discordant perceptions.
Our leaders should not only defend and promote democracy, but should also be seen to be defending and promoting democracy. It is high time we cleared the foul air that is poisoning our democracy. We are confident that behind the thickening veil of negative perceptions there is a thriving democracy waiting to be rescued. It is time to return to our shared reality of democracy, politicians, journalists and the general citizenry.
