Speaking at the national congress of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Women’s Wing in Kanye recently, His Excellency the President Dr M.E.K. Masisi is reported to have said that he is against the direct election of the President as proposed by a sizeable number of Batswana during the ongoing Constitutional Review process. The proposal was loudly made from the first two kgotla meetings in Tlokweng and Ramotswa respectively with the same repeated in most if not all subsequent meetings. To be fair to the President on this issue, I accept there are some Batswana who agree with him on the basis of the negativities or the disadvantages of the direct election of the President. I also accept there are those who argue this will improve and enhance the quality of our democracy since democracy is not static but should be afforded the opportunity to mature like wine in an old bottle as it were. Direct election of a President is one aspect of democracy used in many countries and it works albeit no differently from our present setup. Parliaments still convene, MPs are still at each other’s throat on this and the other issue. Budget proposals are still debated and passed etc. The good thing about electing a President directly is that voters have a direct voice on who becomes their President. This in Botswana’s setup speaks to the elimination of the profoundly flawed automatic succession dispensation.
The President has been widely quoted in the private media particularly by The Midweek Sun online edition dated 22nd June 2022 to have said ‘If a President is elected and a majority of Members of Parliament differ with him, business will be brought to a standstill, laws and even the budget will not be passed…It will be an abomination if they win the elections but if they do win, I personally willnot agree to having such a setup because all will do is argue endlessly in Parliament…We will be messing up the country so let it remain clear that a leader whose party wins is given power for five years’. (My underlining for emphasis). In more ways than one and from these quotations, the President is as clear as day light is that he is going to do everything and anything available to him to block from inclusion into the Constitution the direct election of the President proposal as loudly desired and proposed by Batswana. How tragic!
Without saying it, this will firstly be in direct contradiction to the letter and spirit of the very process albeit controversially, the President has caused for it to be undertaken. Secondly, the President will be imposing his personal desires on what should or not be part of the new Constitution. Thirdly, this will be a serious affront to democracy and constitutionalism where it will be his way or the highway. Fourthly, it will be a mockery of causing the process to go underway at such huge cost to the taxpayer when the President knew from the onset that he will pick and choose what he wants and discard some if not all that Batswana want. The fact that he chose the Commission of Inquiry route as opposed to any other to establish the Commission on Constitutional Review was deliberate because of the fact that the said Commission would at the expiry of its lifespan present its findings and recommendations to him who will in turn, decide what he desires therefrom and discard whatever he does not. The direct election of the President is one such desire from Batswana he will discard without flinching.
The pre-emption of the Constitutional Review process is one classic way of how the President will influence his Members of Parliament to out-rightly reject the direct election of the President. This firstly and predictably because his parliamentary caucus will be informed about the Commission’s findings and recommendations before opposition MPs and secondly that he has a firm grip on his MPs such that they cannot apply their own consciences to accept or reject the Commission’s findings and recommendations. By the time the Commission’s report reaches parliament, only the recommendations that sit well with the President will be presented only for one purpose-to rubberstamp them.
The direct election of the President is nothing new in the Botswana political discourse. It will be remembered that in early 2019, the BDP MP in the person of Hon Polson Majaga tabled a Motion on the same which Motion sought parliament to amend the Constitution to allow for the direct election of the President. It will also be remembered that during the debate on the said Motion, the Vice President who is also Leader of the House His Honour Slumber Tsogwane tried to arm twist Hon Majaga to delay the presentation of the said Motion. At the end of the day, the Motion was adopted but was never incorporated into the Constitution to this day. Batswana have strongly and loudly spoken on it but it appears the President’s voice will carry the day. Because BDP leadership has been anti-direct election of the President from the word go whether from its own MPs or elsewhere, the pronouncement by the President to the effect that he is anti-direct election of the President as proposed by some Batswana should neither shock nor surprise us.
It is abundantly clear that the Constitutional Review process has been a smokescreen to the process initially intended to almost entirely deliver what Batswana desire from the many kgotla meetings they attended and are still doing so. It is also abundantly clear that only proposals that sit well with the President and his MPs will see the light of day. It is fair to conclude that the President’s rejection of the direct election of the President is because he and by extension his party see nothing with the tainted automatic succession dispensation which effectively chooses a President for Batswana. While Batswana are trying to outlaw the dispensation, the President with the greatest of respect and for lack of a better phrase, is almost ‘showing them the middle finger’. It is sad that a Constitutional Review Commission meant to improve and enhance Botswana’s democracy is scuppered by the very people who should put the interests of Batswana way before their own, narrow political interests. It will be sad day in Botswana’s democracy that a President rejects and out-rightly so, that which Batswana want. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’. Let us not for a moment lower our guard on adhering to all Covid-19 protocols. It is our civic duty to do so.
