Parliamentary questions are a defining element in the operations of a responsible government. Constitutionally, government Ministers are obliged to take responsibility for their portfolios, answering to Parliament for the conduct of their Ministries and Departments. This practically means that government Ministers are obliged to appraise Parliament and the public about any action taken and not taken by themselves or their officials. In effect, parliamentary questioning could be used as an effective instrument of public accountability by making Ministers answerable for every single government decision. Additionally and also bearing in mind the power differentials between MPs and Cabinet Ministers, legislators should use Question Time as an opportunity to get even with their high life lucky colleagues in the Executive.
Questions are asked in order to get information on behalf of citizens from Ministers about government policies and governmental decisions or to get statistical data that may be not otherwise known or published. Questions can also be an effective means of lobbying and pressuring government into taking appropriate action. They are weapons at the disposal of ordinary MPs to effectively participate in making Botswana a better place for all.
Thus, Question Time is a useful platform from which backbenchers are not only able to optimally air concerns of the people or clamour for attention and enjoy the glare of publicity but also able to criticize government and positively influence the policy making process and or make a name for oneself. Therefore, active participation or wide use of Question Time allows serious legislators to re-assure their constituents that they are not in Parliament to make numbers and gain weight but are most importantly a valuable choice.
Thus, parliamentary questioning is a fundamental constitutional principle in our democratic system according to which Ministers are responsible to Parliament for the conduct of government. This arrangement is founded on the principle of separation of powers meant to provide necessary checks and balances to prevent abuse of power by the Executive.
Parliamentary questioning of the Executive ensures that the government acts under the law and in accordance with the principles of constitutionalism and democracy. In a responsible and matured democracy such as ours, the Executive should be accountable to Parliament as a representative of the electorate. In effect, when a Cabinet Minister ridicules or tells off an MP for persisting with his/her questioning, the Minister is by extension rubbishing the very people who voted him into Parliament.
Recent developments in the 11th Parliament Session where Cabinet Ministers arrogantly evade questions; give vague answers or flatly refuse to answer questions asked by fellow MPs should trouble us and at the same time inspire us – trouble us because such posture breeds authoritarianism; inspire us because it implies that the ruling BDP is being cornered and ripe for a rout. While arrogance and snobbery have always been associated with most Cabinet Ministers, what happened in the just ended Parliament session is beyond any measure of polite description. The appalling, exceptionally impolite and vulgar behaviour of a sizeable section of the Executive is unprecedented and borders on the barbaric criminality.
The Executive has turned Question Time into a farce for most of the time when MPs ask innocuous questions, Ministers reply either with silly aside, name calling or resort to questioning MPs about things which are totally unrelated to the issues under discussion. That the Speaker of the National Assembly fails to remind Cabinet Ministers to account for the actions of government speaks volumes about the extent to which our politics has digressed. Their arrogance and boisterous behaviour makes them look more like fictional characters created to act as adolescent delinquents hesitantly transiting into stunted adults. Yet, instead of being worried that they will be humiliated, MPs should take cue from the Executive branch and trample on Parliamentary rules by heckling Ministers and turn the House into animal farm.
Parliament Standing Orders and Ministerial Code obliges Ministers to give accurate and truthful answers to questions asked in Parliament. While Ministers can at times refuse to answer questions on matters of principle especially in respect of matters of national security, they are nevertheless obliged to be as open and honest as possible with Parliament and the public.
Since questions are not to be pressed by the opposition MPs only, parliamentary questioning should be turned into a campaign platform to demonstrate one’s effectiveness in Parliament especially their knowledge on a full range of government policy hence their suitability as people’s representatives and Cabinet Ministers in-waiting. Thus, MPs should not be downbeat when Ministers dodge their questions but should persist with the questions in the knowledge that the incoherent and impatient Ministers would eventually feel the heat, loose their temper, unintentionally spill the beans and embarrass their own government.
With relentless probing and scoffing at the imprecise answers, it is likely that the Executive would come crashing down given that many of them are often illogical in their submissions. Aside fellows like Honourable Molale, Venson-Moitoi, Molefhi, Dow and a few pretenders, the rest can hardly debate except to threaten to undress in Parliament in order to make a point or appeal to the Speaker of the National Assembly to throw out fiery and combative legislators so that Ministers could comfortably doze off.
As a matter of fact, new MPs across the floor are looking for a way to make their presence felt and such disjointed, dishonest and fuzzy answers to their questions provide a perfect opportunity for them to ambush the Executive. Lies beget lies that would ultimately paint the Executive as dishonourable brutes hell-bent on misleading the public. Unlike in the past when BDP backbenchers derived maximum satisfaction from shielding their colleagues in the Executive, the current crop of MPs have shown that they are not in Parliament to worship idols or provide comic relief to members of the public seated in the public gallery hence a majority of Ministers with shaky personalities in addition to being below average in educational attainment are in danger of being exposed for their shallow minds to a point where they will play truant and force His Excellency President Khama to reshuffle his Cabinet or risk a motion of no confidence in his government.
It has to be appreciated that voters are not permanent idiots that could be fooled every time, all the time. Voters are bound to ultimately get the truth from inconsistent and vague responses as is already happening. When Ministers refuse to answer questions or provide silly responses it strongly suggests a contemptuous, hopeless and malfunctioning government about to collapse.
In this case, MPs especially those from the opposition should notice plentiful probing questions and back them up with spontaneous but intrusive supplementary questions that resonates with people’s lives so that voters could see who between their MPs and the pompous Cabinet Ministers is the cause of our miserable lives. In effect, MPs must necessarily transform Parliament into a battle field of ideas so that those who are in Parliament as back up dancers are seen for what they are ÔÇô rented buffoons and junkies with bloated egos.
Let the game begin!
