A big meal has been made of the risks posed by the lawyer Sydney Pilane to the stability of the Botswana Movement for Democracy and by extension to the Umbrella for Democratic Change. There is even talk from some quarters that BMD could be calling a Special Congress to settle the Pilane question once and for all. Yet on the ground there is no supporting evidence to prove the wild assertions that Pilane is about to take over the BMD. If anything the man is a hot rod of political controversy and any perceived association with him might cut one’s political career prematurely. There is evidence for that. The BMD women’s congress held last weekend should provide proof ÔÇô if any such proof was ever needed that Pilane’s control is only limited to the national executive committee.
The real power ÔÇô which is found among ordinary members ÔÇô lies elsewhere. In that context there is no evidence to suggest that BMD is about to fragment. BMD or at least that section of it that is not under his sway should forget about Pilane and continue with the business for which the party has been elected into parliament and local government structures. In that instance there is absolutely no need for BMD to hold a Special Congress when there are so many pressing issues including institutionalised rape currently holding the nation at thrall. There is no making light of the dramatic and potentially distracting influence that Pilane’s shadow has had on the BMD. But it would be wrong, na├»ve and disingenuous to blame it all on him. His opponents have been guilty of worse crimes under the circumstances. They are the ones who single-handedly built Pilane to assume status comparable to that of a Greek God. His detractors have accredited to him the kind of messianic political status that the man has never earned and thus never deserved.
Quite inadvertently his opponents inside the party have ascribed to him a near mystical status. Every little misfortune that happens to them, including in their private lives, they are happy to attribute it to him. In him they seem to see a master schemer with a long shadow who can rally the party members to his side as and when he wishes. That has been wrong. And also irresponsible! Thankfully ordinary BMD members have not been fooled by either camp. But still it shows what little faith this BMD leadership has in the independent wisdom of an ordinary citizen. The erroneous attitude of Pilane detractors has of course been fuelled by phony self-exaltation by Pilane and his small group. The group takes itself more seriously than it really is. Their grasp of politics, based on the results of the women’s congress is just as poorly developed as the other side’s.
The faction’s bumbling organization of the women’s league congress in Mahalapye, where they went on to lose badly should teach us that this faction is excessively exaggerated in its ability to wrestle control of the party ÔÇô notwithstanding resources at their disposal. BMD is for now fighting a phony war, an imaginary enemy. Based on the now clear evidence that Pilane does not control BMD, what should be of interest to the party is not Pilane but rather what we hear are impending negotiations with the Botswana Congress Party. Both the BMD and the UDC should be wary in their dealings with the BCP. For now the extent of BCP commitment to becoming a fully paid up member of the UDC is not suspect at best. Even at this late hour there are still powerful voices inside the BCP who are saying any negotiations with UDC should be limited to “collaboration” ÔÇô whatever that means. In other words, BCP does not want to become to UDC what BMD, Botswana National Front and the Botswana Peoples Party already are.
That alone should be scarier and more worrisome than Pilane who it is clear does not enjoy any much grassroots support within both the UDC and BMD than is often dreamed by both his followers and detractors in equal measure. From early on we were open in our view that the BCP had done nothing henceforth that inspired trust. We called for caution on the part of the UDC. It has always been our view that dealing with BCP is difficult because at any given time, power does not reside with elected officials but with the faceless powerbrokers that operate from under the shadows. We still subscribe to that view. And, we might add, such will become ever more apparent when negotiations gain pace. It is a common truism that such power brokers include the moneymen that have always bankrolled the BCP project.
They are not the only ones. There is also a cabal of lawyers to who the leader is held in lock. These are the puppet masters without whose authority the leader cannot even start to raise his leg without their explicit permission. Seen from a different context the BCP’s talk of negotiations is a devilish ploy to use such negotiations as a lifeboat to circumvent the implosion that would have come their way if they stayed outside the UDC. Once such a threat subsides, BCP will once provide their now boilerplate and traditional excuses to go it alone.
