I will start by confessing that I’m a scientist and I like using numbers and experimental data to push a point.
While in science we believe in empirical evidence, what I have learnt so far is that in politics perceptions are very important and can outplay empirical evidence.
I have been trying to come up with a theory which could make politics more empirical evidence-based for some time to no avail.
When I saw the list of candidates for parliament with their birth dates in the Daily News of Friday September 25, 2009, I could not believe that so many of the candidates belonged to the pre-independence or pre-computers (anti-computers)-generation.
Please, don’t accuse me of ‘ageism,’ I’m just trying to bring empirical evidence into politics. I decided to analyze the Daily News data further and here we go. Of the 138 candidates for parliament whose birth dates were listed in the Daily News, 59 were between ages 50-60 years (40%). These are distinguished ladies and gentleman born between the years 1949 and1959 and are the generation of the current President (no pun intended).
I call them distinguished because it must have been very hard during those years for them to attain the sophistication they possess to qualify as candidates for parliament compared to post-diamond discovery or computers-generation who had more access to schools to help them develop their sophistication.
In the African context, these were the pre-computers-generation and I worried that most of them are less technocratic, less global in outlook, less comfortable with technology, less idealistic and yet more ideological and more invested in old debates about communism, socialism and capitalism.
The group with the next high representation as candidates for parliament is the 1958-1969 generation with ages between 40-49 years (36 candidates, 26%). I will call this the independence-generation. My initial assumption was that this will be generation with more interest in politics and therefore with more candidates for parliament simply because of the mistake of their birth dates. I suppose as independence children, they perceive themselves as consumers with entitlements in all spheres. Interestingly and rather surprisingly, the over 60 generation born before 1949, have a very respectful representation with 29 (21%) candidates for parliament. For lack of a better name, I will call this group the Second World War-generation. I bet I was a bit harsh or too complimentary to the pre-computers-generation if this group can command such high numbers.
This generation must really be in the deep end in today’s world. To them, having more cattle than the carrying capacity of the land is a virtue but a plus for them is that the politics of money is an alien concept. They can use their resources to help the community when they are elected to parliament and believe that being a member of parliament is an extension of Bogosi.
The computer generation (my generation) comes last with 14 (10%) candidates for parliament. What is wrong with this generation? The generation is well endowed and issues such inflation, public debt, foreign policy, recession, globalization, human right, facebook, blogging and others are their main topics of discussion. Yet, with so much energy and education, they come last in contributing candidates for parliament.
I don’t belief that the computers-generation is content with the representation they get from the other generations. The other generations speak a different language and their outlook of tomorrow’s Botswana is against all the ethos of the computers-generation. Apparently, this generation has registered as voters for the elections more than any other generation mentioned in this monologue. Could it be because of the generational divide in politics which is overlooked too often which negates against this generation standing for public office?
It will be very interesting to see some detailed study of the attitudes of different Botswana generations to politics and standing for public office. Yes, all I have written is subjective but we need to interrogate the politics of generations which seem to be very active in Botswana and decide if that is the best system for the country. Without empirical evidence and detailed studies, we will find ourselves moving in cycles and vision 2016 remaining a dream that it is.
