Shortly after leaving office former US President Harry Truman remarked that ‘two hours ago I could have said five words and been quoted in fifteen minutes in every capital of the world. Now I could talk for two hours and nobody would give a damn’.This statement sums up the anxiety, ambivalence and the reality of going from a somebody [a powerful, feared and worshiped individual with divine powersas is the case with President Dr Khama] to a nobody in a flash. It sums up the threat of downgrading from a position that allows one to cause multitudes to see you as a local God to being dismissed as a counterculture midget.
The Friday 7th April 2017 edition of Mmegicarried a story about the possibility of President Dr Khama re-joining the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) after the All Party Caucus agreed that former Presidents be allowed to seek employment if they so wish. On the simplistic side of it the proposal shows good judgment but a critical scrutiny shows dangerous undercurrents of uncertainty and President Dr Khama’sfear of a downhill slope to the point of being a nothing as expressed eloquently by Harry Truman.
It is public knowledge that President Dr Khama has in the past stated that he intends to re-join the army at the end of his two terms in the presidency. Of course we may never know whether his was a joke or a sincere expression of his resolve to go back to the BDF whether we like it or not. However, what is evident from his pronouncement is that President Dr Khama won’t be a pensioner anytime soon.
The Presidency is certainly the highest office in the land and anyone who ascends it would have no motivation to take up any other junior position subordinate to the presidency especially when the former president would have to be subordinate to someone he has commanded for over ten years. The prospect of climbing down off the top of the tower and becoming an ordinary spectator would hardly appeal to those with bloated egos.
That President Dr Khama, an overly narcissistic snob would accept to switch roles and/or accept to be replaced by someone he surely does not respect reveals more than just a desire to serve the country irrespective of his young age relative to his predecessors. It projects the image of an anxious and desperate school bully approaching a dead end with imaginable severe repercussions.
In fact, experience shows that President Dr Khama does not take kindly to be replaced and would rather choose his successor who effectively becomes his (President Khama) door mat. It is a fact that all persons employed in whatever capacity will at some point in time retire from work either because they have reached mandatory retirement age or because they believe they have done their part and need to hand over the relay button and let others play their part. Thus, sooner or later bully bosses and blood-stained leaders have to let go and come face to face with their victims.
Yet, the effect of letting go largely depends on the individual and his particular circumstances. For people who have rubbed multitudes the wrong way deliberately or in the line of duty or who have caused immeasurable pain to families, the thought of letting go reminds them of such episodes leading to feelings of guilt and a general fear of retaliation. Revenge is a normal aspect of human life and manifests differently as expressed variously including through expressions such as ‘settling scores’.
The old principle of an eye for an eye connotes that criminals, wrongdoers, bullies and snobs should get punishment or treatment equivalent to the injuries or humiliation they caused to their victims. Essentially, retirement inflict retirees with paranoia particularly for leaders who have used executive powers to torment their subjects. President Dr Khama subscribed to a hands-on leadership style that often created greater room for injurious and/or unpopular decisions that have certainly made him more enemies than friends.
His candid pronouncement or joke that he wished to re-join the army and the All Parties Caucus decision to endorse it is actually a smart strategy aimed at precluding his vulnerability. It is a rational response to the reality that he has made more enemies, at the personal and official levels, who are eagerly awaiting him to vacate office and get even with him. Going back to the army andgetting a relatively powerful position in such a highly respected security organ (where his expertise cannot be doubted) is a protective shield because without it or at least association with it, he will be a nonentity and thus left open to retaliatory acts or worse still persecution.
And the tragedy of it all is that President Dr Khamais leaving office at a time when there is a high possibility that the opposition could take over state power. Readers will recall that a while ago the leader of the united opposition, Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) Duma Boko has publicly promised jail time for corrupt leaders of the current regime. The UDC president is also reported stating that he has learnt that President Ian Khama has confided to his close allies that he fears that should UDC assume power after the 2019 General Elections, he would be sent to prison.
In effect, President Dr Khama is very much aware of the reality that letting go means he would no longer enjoy immunity from prosecution. In fact his nemeses are closing in on him, almost tripping over each other to deliver the first sucker punch as he prepares to exit the corridors of power. Thus, the threat of going from a somebody to a nobody or worse still a fugitive who managed to evade the long arm of the law by virtue of his position is real and is accentuated by an impending BDP loss in 2019 that will make him more vulnerable and isolated with no one to turn to for protection since his allies would have been vanquished.
The unwanted truth is that without access to executive powers especially the control of security agencies, President Dr Khama will be powerless and in politics powerlessness especially for former leaders who projected an image of supernatural beings means nothingness, incapacity and eventual public humiliation.
Given his controversial, lethal and divisive presidency, the relinquishing of power is bound to be too hard to contemplate. The recognition, reverence and public clamour that has accompanied him as the BDF Commander and the Commander-in-chief of the armed forcesin his capacity as the republican president, has been a significant aspect of his larger than life disposition.
In similar ways as celebrities need drunk-in-shoot followers to flourish and consolidate their personal brand, President Dr Khama needs the admiration of his demented lackeys to feel truly big, superhuman, distinguishedand above the law. Yet, as a pensioner, he just will be that ÔÇô a pensioner of no consequence. President Dr Khama desires an infinite supply of anything and everything that set him apart from an ordinary hustler and retirement does not offer opportunities for a life befitting a special being.
Retirement means deprivation of the key elements of greatness especially association with and/or unlimited access to and use of executive powers. Retirement represents loss of influence over key appointments, procurements, public policy making, the legislature, judiciary and individual behaviours. A reversal of his role as a leader to others and loss of influence means President DrKhamarisks being a has-been, a paralyzed former champion for nothing, a forgotten despot.
While it has been said that power corrupts, it is also very clear that the fear to lose power corrupts as much as power.
