If you want to know where the current political lords are steering the country to in terms of creating jobs, education, economic development, and land allocation, a manifesto is the right document to read. For any political party, manifestos separate promises from reality. The key issues facing the Khama government all relate to growth. Khama has made clear where his priorities lie as President: in so many words, growth, growth and more growth. However, to ensure that Botswana becomes more productive and improves the living standards, it is going to require a lot of reform, a lot of leadership, a lot of confidence, a lot of optimism, a lot of innovation.
When it comes to producing economic policy blueprints, Botswana ranks highly than other countries. Manifestos have come to define the objectives of political parties. However, I am not convinced that in democratic states, manifestos have any broader effectiveness. I do not, of course, discount their value. But, in states like Botswana, whose reputation as a stable democracy is increasingly becoming under scrutiny, their utility is inflated. Except for rallies sanctioned at the whim of the dominant power, the channels of free expression are limited. In other countries, all parties have debates and access to all media to expound contents of their manifestos.
Secondly, without disdain, the political demographics mean the educated urbanites might have a proclivity to examine such documents than rural people. Yet it is from the rural folk, who may not have the capacity to consume these sometimes complex documents, from which the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has historically derived most of its support. It would be interesting to find out how many, including urbanites, know the detailed contents of BDP and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) policy documents enough for them to make well-informed voting decisions.
The point I am making is that, in Botswana, manifestos play a small role, pre-election. In Botswana, electoral outcomes are determined, to an extent, by simpler messages. BDP has managed to combine these to good effect; they have campaigned on resource nationalism whose centerpiece is material reward.
For a previous deprived post-colonial society, materialism has a greater appeal to the poor than the post-materialism of intangible rights. Message-wise, it has been that simple, not necessarily credible. In the end, manifestos, thus, become useless. For the opposition, the undemocratic playing field of Botswana politics calls for prioritization of direct and collective counter-strategies than blueprints.
The truth of the matter is that Botswana faces common problems, created by a common source so much that all opposition parties are bound to have identical ideals. The reason opposition elements must work together.
Masochism is a weird practice whereby one derives pleasure from pain. Since the run-up to the October 24 elections, BDP have enjoyed inflicting pain on the opposition resulting in them suffering electoral losses. The failure by the opposition to craft strategies speaks to masochistic politics that exposes them to BDP mischief and ultimately defeat.
As a matter of fact, the opposition have produced credible policy documents. But in this country, electoral outcomes are determined chiefly by the management of elections and less so by manifestos. How will the opposition implement these blueprints if conditions do not give them the chance to assume governance?
For that reason, the opposition should work together on mobilizing and demanding electoral changes or else they will be printing never-to-be-implemented blueprints for the coming decades. The opposition has long begged the BDP to fund political parties since independence and the rulers have always objected.
It’s time we faced it: the image we have of democratic politics as one where major parties use the power of office to generate a viable and coherent platform for governing in the name of a majority of citizens is dead. Boko has declared himself an unabashed fan of change, making much in statements of fresh starts and embracing the unknowables of the future. Although it is a long road to the 2019 election, it is also an opportunity for Duma Boko to make change something voters embrace rather than fear.
