Starting some three weeks ago, the whole nation has been invited into believing in the moral authority of the current Government to determine our long term path into 2036.
The Head of State announced the appointment of a Committee that will draft the nation’s new blueprint to be called Vision 2036.
Under the scheme of things, Vision 2036 will replace Vision 2016 whose lifespan comes to an end next year.
If this whole exercise sounds muddled to you, it is because the whole undertaking is really delusional and impossible to achieve.
We can be certain that some document will indeed emerge from this circus. But it will not count for much.
No Government that is literally fighting for own survival should try to impose long term plans that they know they most definitely will not be able to implement.
Given the disinterest with which the current administration has treated Vision 2016, any attempt at coming up with yet another similar plan could only mean one thing ; deceptive self-preservation.
Vision 2036 is nothing but an attempt at reinvention by the ruling party and there is absolutely no need for opposition parties to be part of a Botswana Democratic Party makeover.
It has been a glaring error for the civil society like the Church, NGOs and Trade Unions to allow themselves into this theatre.
It is telling how sparsely represented they are in the Committee.
They are outsiders who have been admitted into it reluctantly and grudgingly.
The upshot of it all is that their voices will not be heard.
Their input will not mean for much and when the final product of this messy exercise finally comes out, we can be wholly sure that it will not represent their thoughts.
They are being used as a voting herd that could somehow induce the much lacking integrity of this Committee.
As for the media I can safely say that our representation therein amounts to nothing more than tokenism. It is an insult.
And the less we say about it all, the better it is for all involved.
The Vision 2036 Committee is overly stacked with Botswana Democratic Party activists ÔÇô many of them with immensely questionable credentials. It cannot be a coincidence that an opposition that was voted by more than 50% of the electorate is so poorly reflected in the demographic setup of then Committee. But still that is a lesser evil of it all.
A bird’s eye view reveals that some key participants in the Committee have a moral deficit so severe that the Committee will as a matter of fact die before it arrives. That really should get us all worried.
There is notable shift between the Committee that produced Vision 2016 and the one that has been tasked to produce Vision 2036.
Where Vision 2016 Committee was inclusive and representative, the current one is exclusive and prescriptive.
There were many who questioned and differed with the Committee set up to draft Vision 2016.
But then the Committee could not be accused (at least not fairly) of lacking in moral authority.
As for the current one, a good number of its members lack the kind of moral rectitude that was envisaged by the crafters of Vision 2016.
By and large, Vision 2016 was put together by men and women with impeachable moral rectitude; people who were exemplary in their personal and private lives as they were in their public careers.
The same cannot be said about a committee announced by President a few weeks ago to stitch together Vision 2036. From the top down, the makeup of the new Committee reads like a joke ÔÇô yet it is expected to produce a lodestone to guide the nation and country over the next 20 years.
The mediocrity was evident from the picture that emerged following the photo opportunity that was part of the Committee’s fanfare launch.
If they were self-respecting, a good number of the key players in the Committee should have politely declined appointments into it.
Some of them have demonstrating a shocking disregard for empathy and compassion envisaged by Vision 2016.
Some of them are directly responsible for all the failures at Vision 2016 Council ÔÇô and worse – including literally stealing the money that was meant to run the operations of Vision 2016.
Crucially, some of them will might yet have a hard time even attending the plenary sessions of their committee because they still have numerous pending dates with the country’s criminal and judicial systems.
Some of the Committee members literally presided over the collapse of Vision 2016 by their complicit behavior in the criminal behavior surrounding the recent sacking of Vision 2016 Chief Executive.
The same people have now been rewarded with drafting a value laden document that will guide this nation into the future.
It is very much like assigning a convicted diamond smuggler to become a chief security guard at the Debswana diamond mines. We are a sick nation.
The strategic reasons behind the creation of this costly exercise are clear. Vision 2036 is a smokescreen to deflect public attention away from the pressing issues of the day. It is an attempt by those in power to regain moral capital they know they have lost and which, from the look of things they do not deserve.
And that is not all.
Their overarching obsession is to ensure that by the time the dust settles, the status quo will be preserved.
That is why it is gross mistake for opposition to allow themselves to be even part of this charade.
Vision 2036 dovetails with a narrative that is fast gaining pace to use next year’s jubilee celebrations when the country turns 50 to create a hype amounting to hysterical euphoria with the hope that amid those celebrations, people might rally around the flag and forget that they are hungry, thirsty, poor and led by a lethargic cabinet full of amateur politicians whose moral authority has literally tipped down a cliff.
Going through all the above, the single thread running through it all is that the Botswana Democratic Party has to be saved ÔÇô whatever it takes.
It does not seem to matter to the appointing authority that the Vision 2036 Committee lacks moral integrity ÔÇô which is key to inspiring the kind public faith that will be crucial if people are ultimately going to buy into the final blueprint.
At face value Vision 2036 Committee looks like a well thought out plan by a Government that has the interests of the nation at heart.
In reality it is all part of a grand plan at self-preservation, designed, calculated and choreographed to help the ruling party to regain political ground that it has been losing to opposition.
The only good thing about the Committee and the document they will produce is that by and large both are potentially harmless unless our opposition is gullible as to believe that these innovations amount to any plans that could turnaround the fortunes of our country.
Producing Vision 2036 might be a lofty and noble idea. But it cannot be written by the current committee as appointed.
