This government seems averse to self-correction. It is essentially stubborn, intransigent, insensitive, arrogant, unaccountable and cruel to the marrow. It neither can be reformed from within through the intervention of its loyal lieutenants by persuasion nor can it be reformed by forces from without through incessant constructive criticism. Over the years specifically since 2008, the courts of law have been called in to adjudicate an unprecedented number of cases pitting the government or government officials against various interest groups individually and collectively. Whereas the government has scored victory in some cases, it has been humiliated by some damning judgments most of which came close to dismissing theKhama-led government as a joke or a charade, a tyranny masquerading as a democracy.
Many of these humiliating judgments delivered right across all levels of the judicial system comprising Magistrate Courts, High courts including the Industrial courts and the Court of Appeal would have given the government an opportunity to introspect and work towards reclaiming its credibility and the moral high ground. These chronic losses represented opportunities for the government to correct its wrongs, to show remorse and restore public confidence and assure the world that its actions are not motivated by malice and that indeed Botswana is a constitutional democracy of note, an indisputable African Miracle.
Unfortunately, the government missed out on these lofty opportunities and instead assumed the posture of a pompous wannabe who has lost his conscience and no longer has any feeling of guilt, regret or embarrassment. Inconsequence, much of its behaviour that so often borders on self-parody characterizes a government commandeered by a leader with inbred arrogance and a contemptuous behaviour that is innate in despots.It actions typified by habitual harassment of civil society organizations are an embodiment of an incurable miscarriage of leadership that has a pattern of whining whenever judgments are made against its will.
This attitude particularly the stonewall indifference that has become a birth mark of the current regime has trickled down to the average civil servant who has developed a stinking habit of taking pride in wilful misconduct and has individually and collectively become boisterously and cheerfully incompetent in the full knowledge that their masters care less about what goes on at the workplace as long as members of the public continue to run to the chief priest to plead for a cup of soup and make him a real father Christmas. Citizens are subjected to constant abuse by some public officers who have come to imagine that they are secure and untouchable since the invisible machinery of government protect them at all times.
This arrogance of some civil servants is a by-product of external factors particularly socio-economic and political factors. For instance, many officers believe that to enjoy lifetime employment in the government, one has to simply affiliate with the right political party. That guarantees one complete protection from sanction regardless of performance. Officers account to political masters rather than the tax payer hence many of them have become frighteningly corrupt, unresponsive, unaccountable and insensitive. They are consumed by the pressures of greed and unbridled exercise of absolute power in an almost sadistic manner.
In a system where there are no consequences for incompetence and corruption as long as one is a member of the right political party, there is hardly an incentive to do good. Hard work and honesty for those who are not aligned to the right party can be rewarded by instant dismissal. Ultimately, even the best and brightest employees are corrupted and corroded over the course of their careers and ultimately become dancing dolls with no interest in delivering services to the citizens.
It is frightening that a government that prides itself as a constitutional democracy could be so heartless as to terrorize its own people particularly its employees. It is frightening that a government that prides itself in upholding the rule of law, a government that is often too quick to chide other nation states adjudged to be in violation of their own laws and international statuses would at the same time pull out all stops and use every trick and muscle to gag and enchain its people by attempting to enact laws that even a lay man would recognize as criminal, sick and wicked.
On many occasions the government has been successfully prevented from enacting such evil laws by the civil society mostly trade unions and opposition parties. Obviously it was never expected that the government would easily concede defeat and fold up but rather we expected the government through its officers to get a little intelligent to avoid committing same blunders all the time. This amount of arrogance and a low regard for people makes the government to consistently humiliate itself by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This is what Albert Einstein called insanity.
Tabling stinking and tasteless bills and withdrawing them after recognizing their folly and then bragging about being responsible by listening to the concerns of the people is in excess of insanity. It is a combination of dementia and hysteria that results in complete brainlessness. After a humiliating judgment, an intelligent government would change tact, cajole those who vehemently opposed the proposed changes and mobilize its troops to win over the soft minds in the rival camps before re-tabling the controversial and distinctly dishonest bills. This is basic principle of human relations.
As a matter of fact, it is not expected that government would take advice from what it consider to as its rivals but it is expected that government would poach or copy from the free advice in the form of criticism by political opponents and adapt it to their circumstances in order to do things differently and more judiciously.The current regime has alienated many civil servants as well as ordinary citizens who are presumed to be on the other side of the political fence preferring a close-knit group of merry-go-round banditsand rented loyalists as its trusted servants. It has resorted to turning citizens against each other as in divide and conquer, in the process causing the economy to descend to the lowest depth since independence.
The intransigence of the government shows that were it not by the intervention of the civil society particularly trade unions and opposition parties, Botswana would have steadily become a full-fledged dictatorship. The Khama-led government is evil personified with no shame in brazenly bribing for allegiance and loyalty. Its hunger for unilateralism is consummate with the standards set by butcher regimes of the dark ages. Thus, it is clear that these associations provided countervailing power in spite of their poorly coordinated efforts. In accordance with Vision 2016 in respect of the Pillar of ‘an open, democratic and accountable nation’, there is need to strengthen these establishments so that they can continue to defend our liberties and pressure the government to conduct its business in a much more transparent, intelligent, decent and honest way.
