Please give citizens the opportunity to freely voice their concerns
In 2011 the Badge of Courage ran an essay titled ‘Botswana needs a national commission on reconciliation’. The kernel of the discussion was that Botswana was at war with itself. The essay was a candid acknowledgement that Botswana society was experiencing unprecedented hostilities and divisions based on political association, tribal identity, gender, social classes, race and so forth. The essay highlighted that everyone, including and most notably the political leadership, seems to be angry, bitter, intolerant, overtly abusive, violent and visibly itching for physical confrontation.
At no time in my life has there been so much pessimism, disinterest and indifference to national events, droopiness, intimidation, hatred, and suspicion that seems to tell that everything that used to be right is now wrong hence Botswana is an angry nation. It seems to me that a considerable number of Batswana would not really care if Botswana was to become a ruin, a virtual wreck. Related to this, it appears to me that the leadership in particular, President Khama is convinced and has publicly alleged that there are some Batswana who are determined to sabotage their own country. This is a serious allegation that demands probing to determine its veracity and the extent of the challenge. Botswana currently faces a larger than normal number of crippling challenges that are sadly disintegrating the once mighty beacon of hope in Africa. Yet, rather than coming together to tackle these challenges as a united front, the political leadership and ordinary citizens are more focused on hate and blame. Anger and bitterness have replaced hope so much that it is pretty dangerous to share a joke about the state president without someone reporting you for insulting His Excellency. These are indications of simmering tension that has been allowed to accumulate hence there is fear everywhere.
The young generation has taken to do graffiti that tells it all. Their violent protests in schools, their determination to commit suicide at an age when life should be a wonder, their parasitic, selfish behaviours epitomize our nation’s overall temperament. At the inaugural International Day of Older Persons, a representative of the senior citizens summed it all when she pleaded that they be not relegated to being dinosaurs. Elsewhere, every year fewer and fewer people turn up to celebrate Botswana Day and fewer and fewer people show interest to register for general elections. Generally, it appears that everyone is bitter including those who, by virtue of their wealth and power, should be wearing a big smile all the time. Earlier this month, President Khama openly and publicly declared that he will fight workers unions to the bitter end while a senior minister of government proudly boasted about his personal life as an incorrigible bootlicker. A recent newspaper report alleges that police in Selibe-Phikwe are investigating a case in which a councillor and the Mayor literally exchanged blows in the council chamber. These incidents are so profound and apparent to make you wonder what is exactly happening behind the scenes.
However, my sincere inference is that a majority of citizens are stressed almost to breaking point, hence the need for a national dialogue to give all of us an opportunity to examine our challenges and express our concerns in a constructive and civil engagement with a view to developing evidence-based, tailored and result-oriented interventions. The proposed national dialogue would be modelled on the processes that culminated in the national Vision 2016 and will aim at giving all citizens an opportunity to dialogue, or express their frank views about the state of our society, politics, economy, human rights and so forth. Granted the government has initiated consultative forums dabbed di-pitso but these conservative, stage-managed, controlled forums have become choreographed meetings where officials strictly promote President Khama’s pet projects. The forums only accommodate the expression of opinions that identify with government position. Any opinions or remarks that challenge the Khama-way of doing things are humiliatingly rubbished to portray those who hold a different view as unpatriotic rebels. Consequently, these consultative forums have been transformed into chitchat events, fraudulent consultative forums where government officials are expected to indoctrinate and browbeat the common man into singing praises for His Excellency.
They have become moribund talk shops where authorities-cum attention seekers gather to show off their body fats and designer diaper bags. A national dialogue provides a forum for constructive, honest, un-bigoted and unprejudiced submissions that would essentially catalogue our multi-dimensional crises with a view to seeking relevant interventions to pacify the deadly antagonism and senseless in-fighting that is threatening to turn Botswana into a battlefield for stray bandits. By admitting written submissions, a national dialogue tends to give an opportunity to those who hold weird thoughts and those who have inbuilt fears to express themselves with undiminished passion, away from the ears and eyes of rogue spies and boos of the rented converts.
Such an initiative will go a long way in cultivating a sense of belongingness so that Batswana of all makes will be proud of who they are and their belonging to the Botswana society. Such as sense of belonging would in the long term mould people into responsible, participative and proud citizens not some stinking anointed rabid sycophants who use scarce public resources to address public meetings to profess that they are descendants of the bootlicking ancestry. A national dialogue will hugely contribute in facilitating reforms where necessary and by extension rehabilitate the self-loathing Botswana society. Our society is bleeding and more we remain divided, the more we bleed to death. If the political leadership would not give citizens an opportunity to freely express their concerns by inaugurating a national dialogue, they should not bother talking to us for we shall block our ears or simply boycott national events in protest.
