Many people expressed shock at the revelation that former President Masire got a share of De Beers wealth.
It is amazing how citizens of this country have come to unquestioningly believe that the political leadership has our interests at heart.
It is really amazing how a majority of our people have become religious in obedience and in trusting those in positions of authority. Our gullibility and general carefree approach to life is really frightening. We take everything for granted as though our lives are dependent on the goodwill of the leadership and behave as if the leadership is doing us a favor. I was never amused at the revelations. I still recall how the state president remained disinterested when it was revealed that Minister Lesego Motsumi was daily chauffeured in her official vehicle to attend literacy classes in Mafikeng.
I still recall how the president was helpless when it was revealed that former Assistant Minister Mfa’s official vehicle got involved in an accident while transporting his daughter to his home village.
The presidency remained silent in a way that somewhat confirmed that the two cabinet ministers were merely having a share of the loot. Can you make sense out of this brief? ‘The silence of the two gentlemen (Masire & Mogae) on the local scene is highly instructive: the past is haunting them and they are ashamed and feeling guilty. Certainly the two gentlemen are more than culpable for the problems besieging this once wonderful country and their culpability lies in their poor judgment and bad choices’ (Sunday Standard, 21 June 2009). Yes, poor judgment and bad choices that were motivated by greed.
In the meantime, former president Masire should consider resigning his Chancellorship of the University of Botswana before much damage is done.
The position of Chancellor requires someone who can uphold the highest professional and ethical standards through honesty and accountability not someone who is exceptional at reciting the ‘Psalm of De Beers’. He should also apologize publicly for his poor judgment before we call on Queen Elizabeth II to denounce his honorary knighthood that gave him the title ‘Sir’. It is really pathetic that we should behave as if our lives are dependent on the benevolence of the leaders, which is why I had opined that we need a small amount of brutality and repression to help us develop an interest in public affairs, a cruel leadership to walk us half way to hell so as to develop a sense of responsibility (Sunday Standard, 26 April 2009).
Our passivity, meekness and submissiveness are unparalleled and point to behaviors and values of a society that does not live for a purpose. There aren’t many small-minded people like us in the entire globe. We are truly a rare breed of self-righteous prigs that have a poor sense of value for life. Many of us have been given insulting and blasphemous labels for publicly speaking against the conduct of our presidents and their cabinet ministers. While in many cases our opinions are not supported with concrete evidence, they nevertheless relied on circumstantial analysis to highlight deficiencies in our governance structures and values of integrity that should have given strong signals for worse things to come.
Unfortunately, government officials and some individuals dosed their rebuttals with naked threats and intimidation intended to coerce us into subscribing to the dictum of accepting all things as they are. We were subjected to ridicule and contempt by some arrogant and pompous brutes who portrayed as empty-headed, brainwashed morons who are misleading people. Their determination to defend the leadership even against plain absurdity renders them incapable of objective and independent thought. One BDP functionary confided in me that they will always defend their leadership irrespective of a catalogue of errors and institutionalized sleaze, yet behind the scenes they confront them to do the right things right. While this is understandable, it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to deliberately subordinate public interests to personal ones. I know many people thought we had lost our minds when we cautioned that Botswana was slowly sliding into abyss, that in fact ours was a ramshackle democracy. When we demanded that government business must be transacted in an orderly, transparent and accountable fashion, that some senior politicians got their riches through unconventional means, some overzealous lackeys came hard on us portraying us as people having the Pull-Him-Down (PHD) syndrome.
We were also challenged to ‘work harder and smarter to achieve … goals and stop harboring jealousies against those who were disciplined in their work and private lives and managed to be where they are in terms of wealth (Sunday Standard, 20 April 2008). Someone went blunt and wrote this in reference to myself ‘delusions of grandeur’ (Mmegi, 9 April 2008). In a capitalist society where inequalities in income are sharp and readily accepted, it seems generally obscene for the less privileged to comment about how other people acquired their wealth. In such a set up, it seems it is the divine right of the privileged few to continue to amass more wealth through whatever means.
It is therefore very revealing that we get told to work harder and smarter and stop complaining about how other people (unlawfully) make money. It seems the business of the poor is to take pride in their poverty and leave critical inquiry to those worthy of living. The African culture is not inherently corrupt but does breed and perpetuates corruption.
In much of Africa, Botswana included, the leadership is hero-worshipped and given unregulated respect which eventually make them untouchable, invisible and do as they please. Consequently, they develop a habit for misleading the nation and inciting lawlessness by getting involved in illegal diamond and ivory trade.
This cultural disposition is propounded by some egoistic fellows who believe that their closeness to the leadership entitles them to bully others, and that everyone else outside of the inner circle of the privileged few is an ‘average fellow’ carrying a heavy burden of personal frustrations (Echo, 19 November 2009). When we critiqued the leadership style of our president we were labeled bitter and unpatriotic individuals in a way that suggest that the president belongs to the chosen few and the rest of us must put up with this reality.
This culture of entitlement harms efforts to cultivate a sense of accountability in our leaders. When we cautioned the nation against certain behaviors that run counter to principles of good governance, we were viciously attacked by people who believed that having served ‘in the highest office of (our) youth movement’ they can lay claim to monopoly of knowledge about what is happening in every establishment.
That some of us may never make it to certain responsibilities even if given three lives! This is vulgarity with all the hallmarks of an oversized ego predicated on a false sense of self-importance by some brazen slum lords who behave like automated body guards. I find these mischievous characters more irritating and treacherous than criminals or corrupt leaders for they are the ones who spur on thieves and protect them against exposure. They make it impossible for crime busters to believe our stories.
They ensure that we practice democracy without accountability. All the same we will continue to have them – unethical, self-loathing and life-sucking brainy people wanting to scavenge from corrupt leaders. A lot of people have agued that this scandal has been made possible by the absence of a law that compels leaders to register their assets. People, this is just a small fraction of the problem. The monumental problem is our culture that seems to prohibit us from questioning and commenting on the leadership such that even if Parliament legislate on the registration of assets, our leaders will still float above the law because they are essentially ‘respectable’ people.
Just sample the ANC’s response to newspaper reports that President Zuma has fathered another child out of wedlock. They declared their support for him and cautioned that culturally Zuma as an elder and state president cannot have his sex life questioned as though they are saying as a state president he is at liberty to bed anything with the features of a female being. Such devotion to corrupt cultures breeds irresponsible behavior such as a culture of thieving and extreme infidelity. It makes our leaders believe that they are superior beings who can get whatever they want all the time, anytime.
It is in Africa where many journalist and commentators have been charged for insulting state presidents. In many cases, such charges were frivolous for the truth is that the only crime committed was to ask the leadership to account. Therefore, the biggest challenge in Africa and Botswana in particular, is to temper our excessively generous respect for people in positions of authority with a small amount of interest in our own lives.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking our leaders to account. We also need to urgently reform and empower our institutions and develop a culture of respect for institutions not leaders, who behave like part time sangomas.
I hope people now know the real reasons why the government enacted the Media Practitioners Act.
