Spencer Mogapi of the Watchdog Column in the Sunday Standard comments that ‘only a BDP split can deliver us from the arrogance that is today sweeping across the party’. (Sunday Standard, November 9-15, 2008.)
In the past, I have opined that a weaker BNF is good for our democracy and development (Sunday Standard, June 3-9, 2007). My argument was that a stronger BNF somewhat makes the BDP to close rank in order to guard against their collective interests. In doing so, they engage in petty politicking and dismiss even good suggestions from the opposition simply to show that they do not govern in joint operations with the opposition parties. I opined that in contrast, ‘with a relatively weak BNF, the BDP could afford, by shifting their attention from the BNF and directing their vigor towards addressing serious national challenges, allow open parliamentary discussions amongst their own members’. ‘When the BNF is visibly incapacitated, the BDP would have the luxury to violate its own tradition and allow free vote for its members’.
I had hoped that the BDP will gradually loosen up and nurture internal democracy to attract and appeal to some of the best brains on earth. Recent events point to the contrary and indicate that things are becoming uglier. Gagging has been intensified and intelligent debates are an irritant to the leadership that is itself sickening.
Thus, my estimation falls off and I am now attracted to Spencer Mogapi’s case and prophecy with slight differentials. The BDP has become increasingly arrogant and insensitive. Yet only the BDP can save us from this hell. But it is inconceivable that the BDP could split. As I said before, a majority of the people join active politics and the BDP in particular, out of the promise and desire for sudden riches. Because of incessant greed, such people are unlikely to leave the party in spite of being molested in public for they consider it a heaven for stinking wealth and other earthly comforts. Other parties are looked down upon as malnourished, not so different from symbols of poverty and inferiority.
Such souls would rather die in tormented silence in the BDP than move on. They are likely to tell us that they are BDP in blood and soul when in actual fact they cannot fathom leaving a party with massive opportunities for wealth. Having witnessed the BNF splitting many times and splitter groups merely adding to the numbers, abused and aggrieved BDP members would rather opt for silence than break out. Since it is highly unlikely that the BDP could split and since the party is determined than ever to outlaw constructive dialogue, Botswana is in danger of becoming a failed state. We are saying only the BDP can save us from itself but its members are unwilling to come to our rescue. Under the circumstances, options are far limited. Locking ourselves in cupboards and crying loudly for our dying democracy is certainly not one of the options.
People need to get out and defend this country from being destroyed by those who seem naturally bereft of imagination. One way to defend this country is to make huge sacrifices and put ourselves in the line of fire. Those who love this country and are not held to ransom by party affiliation and activism should necessarily consider joining the BDP for the wrong reasons. The desire to become registered members of the BDP would be motivated by the love for this country. The rationale for clandestinely joining the BDP is precisely to gather intelligence and steal vital documents that could be used against the party by anyone with vested interests in our democratic culture.
Such could be information on their secret donors, use of public monies and stores for party activities and so forth. The under cover agents would also seek elevation to positions of authority as a matter of significance so that they establish a parallel ideology in the party and back their own proxies for party positions with a view to causing damaging disorder and instability especially at lower level structures that have direct contacts with the grassroots. The leadership would be compelled to adopt their short-cut method in dealing with internal dissent by silencing the spies. Since under cover agents did not join the BDP for self-enrichment or for take over, they would simply defy the leadership and intensify their under cover activities to wreck more havoc.
This would cause the party leadership to expel them in large numbers. The expulsions will dent the party’s image and make it unattractive to potential members. The negative publicity occasioned by these expulsions would make erstwhile members to be ashamed of their political home and consider quitting or go mute, dumb and numb. This would destabilize the party and to some extent cause it to realize that they are not indispensable. This realization would cause them to take Batswana seriously and get down to serious business for the benefit of all.
Alternatively, people should simply join the BDP in large numbers, but then they should either abstain from voting or vote for the opposition parties whenever there is an election. After all, they are more than willing to accommodate anyone including familiar BNF functionaries. This sheer political opportunism means that they are vulnerable to infiltration and should be penetrated big time after all they are the architects of the game. The sole idea here is to dilute the BDP’s numerical strength, to blackmail them into believing that they have a huge following when in actual fact their so-called members are decoys. Abraham Lincoln once asked ‘”Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” This would cause the BDP to critically examine their manner of dealing with people and adjust accordingly in ways that address their pomposity and arrogance.
The same under cover agents who feign membership of the BDP could seek to stand for primary elections. If they are vetted, they de-campaign the party with vigor to destabilize it and set the party against itself. If they win the primaries they would then deliberately roll out a poor campaign strategy to ensure vast losses. The BDP would then feel the heat of a possible opposition take over and would certainly work hard to get back the confidence of the people by focusing on real national business.
The BDP members would want people to believe that they are a moneyed lot. They derive maximum pleasure from showing off their wealth by dining and wining those of us who can only show donkeys as our valued possessions. Their inherent desire to flaunt their cash should be exploited to the fullest extent.
This inferior sense of morality could be exploited by planting surrogate sex workers at strategic locations to entice the flamboyant BDP gold diggers. The sex mercenaries would then rob them of their cash (be it clean or dirty money) and other valuables and then publicize their encounters with the big shots specifically to puncture their egos and contaminate their dignity. This approach would present the BDP as a haven for sexual abuse and exploitation and cultivate a sense of victimhood amongst female BDP members.
Most people are not entirely disappointed by the BDP’s history in delivering development agenda but are definitely incensed by its newly entrenched disrespect for democratic ideals. They may not see the opposition as a better evil but would certainly engage in sabotage to show their disapproval. What is required therefore is to organize them to engage in coordinated subversive activities that will rock the BDP.
Another tactic could be to boldly discourage and or prevent people from voting at all, not even for opposition parties. It would be better to stay home and worry about our starving kids and grannies than vote for feudal barons and scrawny candidates imposed on us.
It is better staying home than vote at stage-managed elections to give legitimacy to people who then turn against us and treat us like mummified creatures.
At the end people who have put themselves in the line of fire (politicians without borders or call them activists for democracy) would hold their heads high with a clear conscience that they did what they did for the love of this country. Certainly options are limited and there is need to apply hook or crook to come to the aid of our country. There is need for creativity if we are to save our country from despots.
Strategies and tactics that are within the constitution and under the law, however unconventional and unacceptable should be sought and tested. We have been warned that it is easier to annihilate democracy than to restore it.
Abraham Lincoln once said “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves’.
Botswana is destroying itself.
These unconventional and tasteless tactics are intended to shake the BDP which seem to be tired, to inject life and some seriousness into the party, to prevent it from continuously raping and surrendering itself to tyrants and intellectual snobs. Desperate times call for desperate schemes. If in the process of helping the BDP in its struggle for change and self-preservation, we facilitate a regime change, so be it. It is now or never.
