The government, notably the Office of the President, hogs the airwaves (and editorial space in the case of one newspaper) very well and in this way retains full control over the message that is filtered out to citizens. Currently, those who get their news from the Botswana Daily News, Botswana Television (Btv) and Radio Botswana only don’t know that there has been a constitutional crisis that forced the highest court in the land to literally close down.
Unless they read private newspapers or listen to private radio stations, this group of information consumers will also likely not know the raging controversy over electronic voting machines. On the face of it, it might look like the government is in control but Professor Agreement Jotia of the University of Botswana lays out a case of how the government is actually losing this information warfare. Right under the noses of the generals who are directing this warfare from the Government Enclave, an “electronic republic” is fast taking shape and liberating a nation. Despite the hype, Botswana was never really fully democratic and the “current regime” (to use President Festus Mogae’s choice of words) is reversing what democratic gains were made in the past. Jotia quotes UB colleagues of his who previously stated that “any polity that restricts freedom of expression and is intolerant of opposing views does not qualify to be classified as democratic.” He notes that with the formal press being constrained in its exercise of “critical and logic-driven analysis” pertaining to how the country is run, social media may be the only tool to fill the void.
“The current wave of media communication could be seen as the exact medicine necessary for Botswana’s citizens to live in a true democracy. More exchange of ideas will make our democracy flourish and make those in positions of power not take the electorates for granted. Too much comfort derails leaders from their political mandate. No democracy can exist with the deformity of not listening to descending or differing voices,” Jotia writes in a paper titled “The Role of Social Media in Freeing Botswana from State Control of the Media” that will be published in the forthcoming edition of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies. Elsewhere someone has used the term “electronic republic” to describe a digital realm that is populated by netizens who have been known to live out the true meaning of democratic creed. Jotia says that in Botswana, the “force” of the electronic republic was felt during the 2011 strike by civil servants. Interestingly and in perfect alignment with what the author says, around this time a newspaper story quoted a striking civil servant in the Kgalagadi area as saying that he doesn’t rely on Btv or Radio Botswana for updates but Facebook.
Indeed Facebook did an outstanding job of covering the strike than both government-owned news outlets. “Here social-media took the centre-stage, and information moved faster and more robustly than ever before. Since then, the power of social media has grown steadily, to the degree that during the 2014 general elections, government began complaining about “irresponsible journalism” and “irresponsible citizenship” as young people expressed their political views over the Internet, especially through Facebook, at times in quite bitter exchanges,” Jotia says. He also credits social media for having played a crucial role in last year’s deportation of a controversial anti-gay American pastor, Steven Anderson, who went on Yarona FM and said that all homosexuals should be stoned to death. “Anderson’s stay in Botswana became short lived as protests from all corners – radio and social media, demanded that he be banned from staying in Botswana and be declared a prohibited immigrant. The same Anderson, social media revealed later, had been banned from entering South Africa and the United Kingdom,” Jotia writes.
The UB scholar adds that while the government may have misgivings about Facebook revolution which it sees as pro-opposition and irresponsible, a real democratic gain is actually being made: “Empowering ordinary citizens to participate in the political process through media outlets could consequently lead to more direct democracy whereby the general participation of the public will be fostered with both potentially positive and negative consequences.” He further asserts that “a democracy becomes robust and vibrant when the citizens themselves are conscious of their socio-economic and political sphere and willing to actively participate without fear.” However, there are problems with the use of this medium to deepen the country’s democratic enterprise. Jotia says that while social media has created a socio-political platform for a pronounced democratic intercourse, limited access to the Internet – or even to a computer, remains a challenge. This problem is more pronounced in rural areas where only 15 percent of the population have access to the Internet. At the last count, only 6.5 percent of Botswana’s population lived in a household with a computer. While they pose absolutely no national security threat in objective terms, those with such access have drawn the attention of government intelligence agencies, especially the Directorate of Intelligence and Security ÔÇô DIS as it is more commonly known. Jotia notes that alongside South Africa, Botswana is one of the countries which, in recent times, has requested user data from global technology company, Facebook.
Jotia, who is a democracy and education specialist, proposes that Botswana leaders see social media as a threat because for too long, the country has been “a sleeping democracy” where criticising the government has been equated with disrespect. However, as the rest of the world, Batswana are getting on the information superhighway by freely “advocating freedom of ideas so as to conquer the brutality of irresponsible political control and too much comfort by those in power.” It is nothing the leaders will like but the country’s democratic processes will be nurtured. As has happened with every information technology innovation since the printing press, social media is blemished with its own warts. Jotia notes the abuse and manipulation of this tool by youth to sway public opinion both for and against the government as well as to spread malicious propaganda. He cites the example of a Water Utilities Corporation computer technician who digitally undressed an image of President Ian Khama of every item of clothing but a mankini through the magic of photoshop. Thereafter, he anonymously uploaded the image online.
That happened last year but despite the amount of resources that were used to nab the culprit, no charges have been laid which strongly suggests that legally there was nothing wrong with what he did. “This misuse of social media infringes on the rights and dignity of those being attacked or exposed. Under such a scenario, probably it is justified to have some law being enacted to objectively avoid the alleged abuse,” Jotia recommends.
