I once stood by the road in Gabane with the purpose of flagging down a truck carrying river sand because I needed it for a construction project that I was undertaking. I was standing in the shade of a tree by the road when I realized that I was sharing the shade with a shiny snake. I must at this point mention that it was not a very large snake, just in case some think that I must be a very brave person. I had however read somewhere that even a small snake has enough venom to kill and that usually shiny or brightly coloured snakes are venomous.
I decided to play a game with the snake and got lucky. I looked at the snake and it returned the stare. After a few moments the snake decided to leave the shade, and tried to cross the tarred road. I have been taught that snakes are cold blooded animals, meaning they do not have the ability to control their body temperature. It was a very hot day and I knew the tarmac was very hot. When the snake got onto the tarmac I was very excited to see if it would be able to cross the road. A few meters into the tarmac the snake returned to the shade.
After a few more minutes the snake tried to have another go at crossing the road. By now I was fairly confident that it would not be able to cross the hot tarmac and will return to share the shade with me. True to form after a few meters on the hot tarmac the snake returned to the shade. We again exchanged a few stares and stood together in the shade. Luckily for the snake a truck carrying river sand approached and I flagged it down. The guy agreed to supply me with the river sand and I left the snake in peace in the shade. If I know as I do what my desires are in regard to what a politician has to deliver then the more stringent and consistent my knowledge of what I want will be represented by the temperature of the tarmac.
If my desires and expectations of a politician are flimsy then the temperature will be mild allowing the politician to run away from me. If I stand firm on my desires and expectations then the temperature will be higher. The desire of the snake to cross to the other side is representative of politicians’ tendency to make promises and to abandon the same as soon as they get elected into office or tendency to refuse to account to the voter. By registering to vote you place yourself in a very powerful position. As I have said before, politicians really understand one threat; that of being rejected at the polls. If you refuse to register you automatically remove the threat of rejection. Unlike the popular position that when you do not register and vote you allow others to choose the next leaders, I maintain that when you do not register and vote you remove a very real threat over the politicians. If people want to test the correctness of my position they should just register in large numbers and watch the conduct of the current rulers.
I bet as soon as it becomes apparent that many people have registered there will be projects all over the place and schemes that heretofore had no funding will suddenly have the funds. The point is that the act of registering to vote sends chills down the spines of politicians, especially those who are in power. After all they do not know why you registered to vote. It is possible you registered to elect them to continue in office or in order to remove them from office. This is a very powerful position. No person who does not know why you registered to vote can gamble that you registered to vote for them. Registering to vote gives prior power to the actual vote. It is better to register to vote so that you exercise control over the politicians long before you actually vote. Imagine a situation where at least three months before election day you have politicians trying to convince you to vote for them.
The act of registering to vote telescopes the threat and demonstrates power of the supposedly powerless voter. The nonsense that you register to elect a government of your liking diminishes the potency of the act of registering to vote. Even members of the ruling party can register in large numbers but there is no guarantee that on election day they will vote for the ruling party. If there is a guarantee that they will vote for the ruling party then their registration is devoid of the power that would otherwise be in the act of registration. For the undecided voter or for those who do not belong to any political party the power in registering to vote is there. Registration of non aligned potential voters allows members of the ruling party to have some measure of control over their leaders in regard to policy direction. The members of the ruling party cannot be expected to sell failed or failing policies to non aligned potential voters. It is fairly obvious that there are significant members of the ruling party who are not happy with the current policy direction. Let us put the above into proper perspective. As an engineering consultant I have to complete design of structures before the quantity surveyor prepares bills of quantities that are used for tendering purposes. The whole process takes a minimum of six months.
This means that if as an engineer I do not have work on my desk this late in the year, the construction contractor is certain that he will not have any work till end of this year, way after elections in October. Ipelegeng projects like cutting grass do not have any real lead time. All that is required is funds and grass cutters, fat cakes and soda or soup. These are off shelf items. All one has to do is enter any hardware or retail outlet to get the required items and to round off a few desperate individuals to implement the Ipelegeng project. A government that is pre-occupied with Ipelegeng cannot expect members of the ruling party to tell contractors that they will not have any work even after elections in October or that construction contractors should lay off workers and hope to hire them after October. That is exactly what the current government is telling BDP members to say to potential voters.
“Register for Ipelegeng if you want to work before October or trust me to award work to engineering consultants after October so that you have work sometime in March 2015. Please bear in mind that our financial year ends in March 2015 and it will take at least two weeks into April 2015 for warrants for funds to reach the relevant department for them to award work. So please vote for BDP and wait for 12 months before you compete for work” If you register in large numbers you send a loud and clear message to government that you are not going to register for Ipelegeng and that you are not prepared to be without work for another twelve months, because you have children to feed, rents to pay and loans to service. Effectively registering to vote makes it clear to our current rulers that you are ready and willing to consider electing them out of office if they do not give you work before October 2014 or implement whatever policy or program is intended to benefit you before October 2014. If you write a test in which there are ten questions and you get the first six wrong, there is no way that you can pass the test. It does not matter how much I like you, the result remains the same. There are people who think liking someone will change the result. It does not and never will. Voting is not about liking someone but about evaluation relative to set goals.
I have not read Mme Mma Nasha’s book, but I have wondered whether it discusses the tools Rre Khama was supposed to use to end factions in the BDP. For so long as it does not tell us what tools Rre Khama was supposed to employ to quell factions then with due respect to Mme Mma Nasha she is running away from the truth. I also did not watch Rre Khama’s interview under the tree. I lost interest when he said that he will not promise any job numbers but only that he will do things to the best of his ability. The snake that I shared the shade with had inherent limitations. Being a cold blooded animal meant it could not escape from the uncomfortable position it found itself in. Imagine if other snakes had depended on it. Even if it tried its best it would have failed due to its inherent limitations.
Likewise if Botswana has to depend on the abilities of Rre Khama and the army types that surround him it will tie its progress to their inherent limitations. What we need is the best abilities of our people as a collective, not those of one individual and those that served in the army with him. Registering to vote gives you an opportunity to send this message loud and clear even before voting day.
