As the country teeters on the brink of doom and gloom after its leaders derailed the focus on the national vision and led the nation towards a cul de sac, frank dialogue and honest debate is required to challenge the prevailing oppressively legalistic but ethically unconstructed  logic. What we need is to collaboratively chart a common cause for the future of the beloved country.
In authoring Vision 2016, the nation had rightly identified the need to shift gears from the conservative text-book based economic development agenda towards a more strategic blueprint for piercing through the barrier to establish solid foundations for sustainable prosperity for all citizens.
Through Vision 2016, the people of Botswana had sought to crown the country and engender higher levels of national sovereignty characterised by unity, pride, openness, democracy, accountability, ethics, tolerance, compassion, justice, care, education, knowledge, productivity, innovation and security.
Whilst thinking about our lost vision, the story of George Washington refusing to be crowned a King of America, narrated in a book by Keith McFarland came to mind. Following his victory over the British during the American War, Washington is said to have flatly refused to be crowned the founding King of America, instead insisting on ‘crowning the country’. And as, things turned out, laid the foundation for the great democracy that America was to become.
The troublesome decision to anoint Botswana’s future sovereign leadership in the name of stabilising a political formation is set to haunt this nation for a long time. The act was akin to the crowning of a strongman whose personalistic individual sovereignty soon grew bigger than that of country resulting in the marginalisation of democratic institutions and the elevation of individual interests above those of country.
The detour towards the cul de sac occurred in Botswana when the country became increasingly organised around one leader rather than around a vision that was bigger than any one person. When the journey towards prosperity for all was cut short, the sense of shared responsibility for contributing to creating the future the citizens desired for the beloved country was set aside and in its place an agenda to crown leaders to be served by the nation was authored.
Listening to the inaugural homily by the new Catholic Pope ÔÇô Pope Francis who spoke of the need to protect each other, the poor, the weak and all creation brought a number of questions to mind about decisions by the national leadership of this country.
Increasingly decisions on corruption, artificial land shortage, employee relations, information dissemination and other issues of national interest appear to be made to protect a select few who either enjoy political power or economic favour.
When George Washington refused to be crowned King, he was making a wise choice, placing the interest of Country above his own and thereby ensuring that the American State received royal treatment from its citizens for being bigger than any one person.
The country need to take stock and objectively┬á identify areas of success whilst acknowledging the opportunities for improvement and empowering the people at all levels to contribute to building the nation’s future. Open debate should be encouraged rather than mutilated for the country to navigate through the cul-de-sac and continue towards prosperity, justice and happiness for all.
National leaders should evaluate their value add to the nation, that is, their contribution to promoting national interests above private interest, including protecting the poor, the weak, the victims of patron clientelism and ensuring that national resources are not pillaged to enrich those with political power.
There was no justification or casus belli for the alienation of whole constituencies of workers, the media, the intelligentsia and all those with dissenting voices  simply because they, among other things, assert the right for all citizens to be guaranteed equality of opportunity and given protection so that each could become potentially what they could be.
The key deliverable of responsible and accountable leadership is justice and the creation of an enriching psycho-social environment devoid of the noise of negative emotions and insulated from the toxic pollution of the rampant and shamelessly opportunistic individualism that comes about when the Country is not crowned.
Good leadership knows that sustainable national prosperity could only result from the collective commitment of citizens when they feel the obligation to serve a country in which they were shareholders rather than one which promotes the interests of an individual sovereign.
Whilst we stare at the cul-de-sac the leaders and all sections of the citizenry of this country must engage in searching for a formula to make Botswana ‘revolution ready’, as Gary Hamel lamented in reference to organisations:
“Do you care enough about your organisation, your colleagues and yourself to take responsibility for making your company revolution- ready? If you do, you have the chance to reverse the process of institutional entropy that robs so many organisations of their future. You can turn back the rising tide of estrangement that robs so many individuals of their sense of meaning and accomplishments. You can become the author of your own destiny. You can look the future in the eye and say: – ‘I am no longer a captive to history. Whatever I can imagine, I can accomplish. I am no longer a vassal in a faceless bureaucracy I am an activit not a drone. I am no longer a foot soldier in the march of progress. I am a revolutionary’.”
If the leaders and the citizens care enough about the beloved country and each other they should take responsibility for actively making the country ‘revolution ready’ so that it can return towards the unifying vision for prosperity for all. It is not an option to watch the beloved country roll back more than forty five years of independence during which we could have used the resources endowed by the Creator to build a resilient economy reliant on the talents of the people.
To crown the beloved country the nation’s strategic issues – such as poverty, the prevailing leadership model,┬á land, education, security, health, workers welfare etc. need to be discussed openly and actively throughout the nation. Citizens must be encouraged to enter the socio-economic and political space and question the fundamental assumptions that have guided our post-independence developmental pathway.
Crowning the beloved country means inculcating a healthy disrespect for not acting in the best interest of country amongst all citizens, including the national leadership. It also means zero-tolerance for leaders who embrace individual sovereignty and fail to be credible activists modelling the attitudes, motives and behaviour that place national interests above the desires of individuals.
We need to find answers to questions on whether are we creating the best place to live, to raise children, to study, to work or the worst place to die, to be poor, landless, jobless, powerless…? Are we creating the best place for everyone to be happy or for few citizens and foreigners to enjoy our wilderness and exploit our resources?
The humble cry of citizens is for leadership to harness the will of the people around a compelling vision for freedom, justice, prosperity and happiness whilst strengthening the systems of checks and balances that prevent despotic orientations. A shift from romancing the poor, the downtrodden, the vulnerable, the unemployed and the weak towards strengthening democratic accountability is urgently needed.
Leaders should lead the process of ‘crowning the beloved country’ and creating a compelling vision that is bigger than any individual and any institution.
*Mbongwe is a management consultant specialising in human capital, organisation development and strategy. He can be reached through HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]” \t “_blank” [email protected] or 3935758.
