President Ian Khama’s assumption of office in 2009 was characterised by the announcement of numerous Dees (democracy, dignity, discipline and delivery in no order), and followed by tough new policies on alcohol consumption, heavy traffic fines, a re-structured and heavily financed intelligence community, the Media Act and others. Discipline and delivery appeared to be President Khama’s top priorities and the regime promised to be the most productive. Yet services have collapsed and delivery is fast approaching collapse. What was conspicuously missing in the Khama revolution – was religion and the fear of God, philosophy and human morality, and the desire to listen to the other party – the cornerstone of peacefully ordered human behavior. In contrast, the rapid changes that accompanied his presidency bordered on chaos which generated resistance.
What characterised the chaos of the Khama regime and later boiled into anger and resistance was the manner in which senior civil servants (about 19 in a space of 6 months) were expelled, in which senior ruling party officers (including ruling party MPs) continued to be expelled, in which senior army officers were being retired, in which academics (the Zimbabwean lecturing in media studies immediately comes to mind) and priests who had lost favour with the regime were declared persona non-grata. Gomolemo Motswaledi, a senior ruling party functionary who had taken President Khama to court over sharp differences over the running of the party, was suspended and his candidature recalled in manners that bordered on inhumanity. All that were retired or expelled after him bore the same stamp. Now these have joined forces with the striking workers to confront the Khama regime, spearheading a strike never seen in Botswana’s entire history. Above all, the mounting extra-judiciary killings that later followed, were the most visible reminder of the brutality of the new regime. Clifford Geertz warns about the dangers of sudden changes that amount to chaos:
There are at least three points where chaos ÔÇô a tumult of events which lack not just interpretations but interpretability ÔÇô threatens to break in upon man: at the limits of his analytic capacities, at the limits of his power of endurance, and at the limits of his moral insight. Bafflement, suffering, and a sense of intractable ethical paradox are all, if they become intense enough or are sustained long enough, radical challenges to the proposition that life is comprehensible and that we can, by taking thought, orient ourselves effectively within it ÔÇô challenges with which any religion, however ‘primitive’, which hopes to persist must attempt somehow to cope’ (Geertz, 1973: p100).
This means that, the Khama regime’s introduction of Dees that promoted tough actions in many fronts characterized a sudden eruption of events that resulted in state-induced chaos. The multi-layered suffering due to the forced retirement, the extra-judiciary killings and the strikes imposed on the nation, challenged society’s analytic capabilities, its power of endurance and dampened its moral insight. President Khama’s recent refusal (during the 2011 strike) to meet former presidents, organized priests, BDP back benchers, opposition leaders and unions, and his refusal to offer a reasonable salary package, to reinstate dismissed workers and to re-consider the no-work-no-pay rule, has prolonged the enormous human suffering that generated resistance.
Geertz is of the view that sudden eruptions of events (particularly consistently re-experienced suffering and lack of understanding) engender in man the disquieting sense that his cognitive resources are unavailable. Thus, sudden eruption of events that threaten the dominant ways of understanding and shatters all mythical conceptions about the presidency as a caring fatherly symbol and about human life as something that induces pity, is generating agitation and revolt.
The introduction of tough action in many fronts initially instilled fear (rather than discipline and productivity as desired by the presidency) in the whole public service, in the members of the rival faction within the ruling party, in the private media, in religious circles, in academics and in civil society. These groups were in the process of identifying with each other, with the high possibility of forming a resistance movement. The presence of a heavily funded intelligence agency (DIS) at the centre of state power worsened the fear that cell phones were no longer a safe mode of communication and that any mode of communication was no longer safe. The fear of telephone tapping even spread to ruling party MPs of the Barataphathi faction, to the private journalists, private lawyers, academics, trade unions and priests. The fear spread further to parliament and to the army who also suspected that spies had been massed around their grounds. There were even fears that listening devices have been inserted in car-lock systems to record people’s conversations. Even though the former minister of Defence, Justice and Security (Ndelu Seretse) denied allegations of phone tapping and spying, the perceptions persisted. In June 2011, new allegations started circulating that the DIS had been paid 26 percent while the rest of the public service could not even be paid three percent. These developments exist parallel to, and outside the Tswana value systems of mmua lebe, and threaten the society’s cognitive resources, and this may encourage widespread rebellion against the system. In contrast, Batswana are accustomed to being consulted and allowed to debate even things they do not understand, where even the most irrelevant and the most uninformed, are given repeated chances to speak (mmua lebe gore mmua lentle a ntshe la gagwe). Batswana believe that bad ideas create room for good ideas to emerge. They believe that restricted debate and government impositions prevent good ideas from emerging and from gaining popularity. Thus, Tswana social values are against impositions of any sort and promote the diversity of opinions. Dialogue is a central feature of the historical Tswana society. Now there is no dialogue.
The long drawn strike of 2011 could actually lead to another round of extra-judiciary killings. Scholars such as Kenneth Good (deported) and Ian Taylor had started writing about the rising authoritarianism, and others such as Sebudubudu and company, have started writing about its entrenchment. They portray the Khama regime as imposing militaristic discipline in the society, intolerant to independent thought no matter how less challenging, brutal in its dealings with perceived opponents, and immoral in not seeing the human suffering that accompanies the strike. However, it seems that all these authors got it partly right and partly wrong: they got it right in the actions of the Khama regime, but they got it wrong in the presence and determination of the forces of resistance against authoritarianism. While there is no doubt that the Khama regime seeks to entrench authoritarian rule, the forces of resistance are equally gathering pace to match it.
Thus, the above authors only saw the rising authoritarianism, and failed to see the rising forces of resistance and the politics of liberation.
Is there an alternative peaceful manner towards achieving a part of the vision of the Khama regime? I suggested Machiavelli’s approach in the Discourses, hoping that advisors of the Khama presidency would visit the text and provide guidance accordingly. Machiavelli observed that Numa (the then Roman leader) described Rome the way President Khama saw his Botswana: as undisciplined (in the Botswana case – widespread drinking and driving, over-speeding, passion killings particularly among the youth, high HIV-AIDS related illnesses, etc), corruption and laziness.
Unlike the Khama regime that sought to instill discipline through tough measures that might end up inciting rebellion, Numa Pompilius of classical Rome sought to instill discipline and civil obedience through the art of peace. He introduced religion to his people! ‘Anyone who examines the many actions of the Roman people as a whole and of the many individual Romans will discover how these citizens were more afraid of breaking an oath than of breaking the laws, since they respected the power of God more than that of man’ (Bondanella and Musa, 1979: p207). Machiavelli observes that through religion, Numa succeeded to instill discipline and this earned him respect and loyalty. ‘Thus, anyone who examines Roman history closely will discover how religion helped in commanding armies, encouraging the plebians, keeping men good, and shaming the wicked’ (Bondanella and Musa, 1979: 208). Thus, the introduction of religion in Roman affairs (both private and public) led to the creation of good institutions, good laws, good education and good culture.
I also pointed out to Max Weber and his analysis of the Protestant ethos that he thought had created the prime conditions necessary for capitalism to flourish in the West.
Protestant sects, particularly Calvinism, first and foremost emphasized asceticism (living a modest life and abstaining from spending your earnings on unnecessary material objects). The Calvinists interpreted the concept of a job/work, as a Biblical ‘calling’, a duty unto God and a proof of genuine faith in the almighty. In turn, working long hours, and any subsequent wealth achieved and saved from such hard work, were interpreted by them as a sign of being in the good graces of, and a gift from, God (Weber quoted in Jacobs, 2010: 13).
Weber concluded that the Protestant ascetic and ‘calling’ to work not only created good Christians, but the best climate possible to provoke an entrepreneurial ‘spirit of capitalism’ (Jacobs, 2010:13). Jacobs observes a similar religious pattern in Japan, and notes that: ‘Japanese labour works longer hours than those in the West because they have been conditioned to believe that it was morally the proper thing to do. In this way, they have not been that much different from Weber’s Calvinists, who viewed their calling to work as proof of their devotion to God, and imperative to their success in the after-life (2010: 16). Thus, Both Western capitalist countries and Japan in the Far East saw the importance of religious morality in cultivating a good man and a hardworking citizen. Japanese firms practice long-life employment, seniority wages, profit-sharing bonuses, to cultivate individual commitment, loyalty, trust and a propensity to work long hours. Japanese workers are treated as partners and are not viewed with disdain as happens under the new BDP regime. History provides alternatives as to how President Khama could rule in a more humane manner, by enjoining religion into his politics.
*Maundeni is Professor of Political Science at the University of Botswana
