President Ian Khama is probably the most visible president of Botswana ever and yet the most enigmatic. We see him on our television screens everyday shaking hands with destitute and huddling over fires with rural folks. Yet we do not know him. The Ian Khama we know is an illusion, he only exists in our minds; a figment of our active imaginations; an abstract creation of the media, the academia and political analysts. He is a creation of a breed of professionals who live in their minds and relate through concepts.
He is a makeup of labels like autocratic, authoritarian and a dictator who rides roughshod over all principles of democracy. The country’s elite has built the impression of Botswana’s president from such labels, gleaned from media reports and analyses by political experts and members of the academia.
Labels, whether spoken, written or just imagined have a very strong hypnotic effect. Just because we have put labels to Ian Khama, we have come to believe that we know him. The reality of the situation, however, may be that we have only covered up a mystery with labels.
It is very possible that the real Khama who is hidden behind all those negative labels and abstract concepts is actually the opposite of the Khama who exists in our minds. It is very possible that we may have created a monster from a saint. As professionals who are guided by concepts, we see through our minds. What we think precedes what we see. If indeed the Khama we have come to know is a result of an optical defect of our minds, then whatever interpretations that attend his actions and decisions will be a reflection of the original error.
If that is the case, Khama would be as much to blame as the rest of us. The President has decided to declare war on the media, the academia and the NGO community. Our impression of him comes, in a large part, from piecing together statements from his war talk. And what we came up with was this abrasive leader with a chip on the shoulder and a score to settle with all watchdog institutions.
It is time for Khama to take off his amour and let the real man behind the warlike exterior show. He should open up to the media, the NGO community and the academia. Botswana needs the real Khama now than ever before. If he is to steer our ship and ensure that it does not stumble on the rocks of fear, uncertainty and mistrust, then he is going to have to drop his mask and set free the man with moral suasion behind it. He should help the media, the academia and political analysts see the real Khama. Until then, we will be relying on concepts and labels like dictator, authoritarian and autocratic to imagine what the president may be like. And he has to act now lest those labels fossilize into who we think he really is.
