In his state of the nation address this past Monday, President Festus Mogae reaffirmed his government’s commitment to media freedom, freedom of expression and emphasized his continued personal faith in the separation of powers of all the three major branches of government.
In short, President Festus Mogae reaffirmed his faith in democracy as we in Botswana have come to know and practice it over the years.
All those are commendable pronouncements coming from a head of state at a time when there is simmering discontent among the citizenry that the country’s democratic ideals could actually be on the decline, with the more cynical skeptics saying the country has actually not only regressed but overtaken by the region’s newcomers to democracy.
The President’s pronouncements will go a long way to cement the popularly held beliefs about his long track record of irrefutable faith and commitment to the ideals of liberal democracy, pluralistic society, and freedom of expression and media freedom.
While these are all noble ideals that, in Botswana, have become as customary as to be taken for granted, we want to point out that not many African countries have been lucky as to have them as part of their way of life.
After delivering his State of the Nation Address, Mogae moved to Europe where, again, he reminded his audience that while there is improvement towards fully fledged democracy in Africa not all African countries have been anywhere as lucky as Botswana.
We, therefore, as Batswana have to continuously remind ourselves of the importance of these very important ideals for which other people in other countries had to fight before attaining them and always jealously guard against any encroachments to erode such freedoms, liberties and ideals.
As Mogae went on to tell another audience in Europe Botswana has been a multi-party democracy since independence in 1966 and “has since held nine (9) free and fair general elections under an uninterrupted constitutional order.”
That is a massive achievement given that many of those elections were held when almost all of the rest of the sub region was in turmoil.
President Mogae could not have been spot on when he said, “We have had peaceful and smooth transitions of power from the time of the first President, Sir Seretse Khama, to Sir Ketumile Masire in 1980 and from Sir Ketumile Masire to me in 1998. Sir Ketumile is now retired and living happily in Botswana and is today here in Brussels, in this hall.”
There are not many examples in Africa of presidents retiring voluntarily.
In other countries, retired presidents have been dragged before the courts after it was found that they misappropriated state resources to themselves.
That also has not happened in Botswana.
Having said that, we want to point out that there are some disturbing trends which suggest that our achievements could actually be endangered if we are not careful.
The issue of the CKGR is a case in point.
It would be unfortunate if the President would resort to George W. Bush’s tactics following September 11, 2001 that “you are either with us or against us.”
What President Mogae and, more importantly, his senior advisors and speech writers should understand is that there are many Batswana of goodwill who support Basarwa cause without necessarily taking sides with Survival International. And in any case, if the truth be told, in Botswana Survival International is more a product of government than citizens, and much less Basarwa.
By labeling these Batswana and casting aspersions on the levels of their patriotism can only spell more divisions amongst us as a people, a country and a nation.
We speak with one voice in support of the country.
There is no question about that.
But if we differ on how best the country should go forward, it would be unfortunate to regard those dissenting as any less patriotic. If that is so that at any given time the more patriotic amongst us are those in power or with access to the people who are in power.
That would be a sad day for the ideals of democracy, tolerance and coexistence that President Mogae says he cherishes so much.
