In May 2010 just before the official unveiling of the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) the Badge of Courage ran a piece titled ‘The BDP has lost most of its best brains’. The core of the argument was that the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) breakaway group was formed mainly by former BDP’s young intellectuals who were largely responsible for rebranding the erstwhile old-fashioned BDP and making it attractive to some bright minds the country ever produced.
The discussion posited that these young democrats had substantially modernized the BDP and transformed it into a prestigious institution that boasts of both the numbers and brainpower. It was argued that the departure of these intellectuals under the banner of Barata-phathi would spell doom for the BDP’s image especially for young people. Indeed it would seem that the BDP never really recovered from the effects of the split particularly in terms of loss of quality people.
In fact, the departure of these trendy characters who had defied established logic and flirted with the moribund BDP has returned the BDP to its original status as a party for unschooled zealots. In the developed world that we are always quick to use as a yardstick to measure of civilization and/or development, research suggests that in most cases the level of education correlates with political affiliation wherein one’s affiliation to a particular political party can be used to approximate his/her level of education. In like manner, one’s educational achievement can points to his/her likely political home.
There is no denying the fact that education is important. What is rather contentious could be what level of education should be sufficient to enable a person to function effectively in society. Generally, the more schooling one receives, the more successful and useful one is likely to be. The developed world has prospered largely because of the value they placed on education and their use of educated men and women. Some years back former British Prime Minister John Major expressed shock at the dominance of private-school educated people in upper echelons of British life. Perhaps Mr Major would be happy to note that in Botswana the opposite holds which in many ways explains why Botswana has failed to create decent jobs for such a small population in relation to its abundant resources.
After the departure of the intellectuals and propagandists the few schooled and intelligent people that stayed put were possibly ashamed of belonging to a party whose members boast of ignorance. As a result, they opted to keep a low profile on the pretext that they were giving more time to their families and their private business. Their tacit withdrawal from active party politics ceded more space to motor-mouthed, semi-literate, brainwashed suckers whose only asset is their hard skulls and their lacking any sense of shame. Indeed since its formation, the BDP has made the unschooled most welcome than any other social group in ways that suffocated the intellectual space and rendered brainy people unwanted. The party has an inherent preference for people who take gossip more seriously than facts and lazy followers whose role is to follow a mundane parade.
Essentially, people with a decent education do not fit well in the BDP family. Put differently, the BDP is not readily accommodative of decently schooled people but rather prefers demagogues. Thus, the few brainy chaps affiliated to the party, be they freedom square politicians or money-grabbing indecent professionals, are attracted by the promise of (dirty) money the same way flies are attracted to faeces. Their distaste for the hard work of having to think and engage like-minded peers is part of the reasons they affiliate to a party of proud lackeys where they have become philosopher kings who are experimented as executives in all government senior positions on offer.
It is a truism that the opposition parties are crowded with smart fellows who revel in glorious riches of their brains and subscribe to issue-based politics. This stimulates a healthy competition of ideas and innovative approaches to life. The opposition bloc is therefore hardly an ideal political home for greedy chaps who prefer low lying fruits and jobs-for-the-boys schemes. The opposition bloc is a complex jungle that requires perseverance, ingenuity and benevolence. These traits are scarce in people who specialize in fraud schemes for quick money.
It is noted that when the founders of the BMD left the BDP they were accompanied by their equally enlightened associates or supporters in a way that highlighted the impact of the split on the quality of personnel remaining in the BDP. This should explain why the BDP has never forgiven the dissident but yet continue to nurse hopes that their former strategists who bore the image of modernity, superiority and shrewdness would someday retrace their steps to the party. In public the BDP present the dissenters as bitter, position seeking and ill-mannered vagabonds whose departure has not harmed the party. However, behind the scenes they continue to try every trick in the book to have them back including offering ridiculous sums of money. These are signs that the BDP is desperate not so for the numbers but significantly so for the brains that left the party brainless and unattractive.
When the astute Honourable Samson Moyo Guma retraced his steps to the BDP there were murmurs of disapproval from those who felt that Moyo has betrayed the party and if re-admitted, must be isolated. Yet, in no time he was elevated to the party’s top position after he whitewashed his competitor Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi for the party chairmanship at the Maun congress. Many in the BDP held the view that his decision to run for a higher party position immediately after returning from the BMD was premature and an insult to party loyalists. Thus, his landslide victory against a party stalwart was telling ÔÇô many party members believed in his abilities in spite of his questionable loyalty.
When Botsalo Ntuane returned to the BDP he publicly declared that he would not be seeking party position in the immediate future. Yet, in no time he was propelled to one of the most crucial and influential position in the party’s central committee ÔÇô Secretary General. Mr Ntuane humiliated BDP stalwart and renowned self-taught strategist Gaotlhatse Matlhabaphiri in very cruel fashion and in the process recording a historic winning margin that made him a giant of the BDP politics. This was in spite of all attempts by his competitors to de-campaign him by presenting him as an untrustworthy, disrespectful and dangerously ambitious political traveller.
Honourable Guma Moyo and Botsalo Ntuane’s whitewashing of loyal and trusted BDP members soon after they had masterminded the BDP’s first ever split points to their remarkable political pedigree that is founded on their schooling, and by extension BDP members lack of confidence in the rest of the brazen attention seeking cheerleaders who can hardly match the opposition’s crackerjacks and highflyers.
