Just for the record, this column has been one of the first to acknowledge President Ian Khama’s great potential to take this country to newer and more glorious heights.
Long before it became a fashionable obsession to sing Khama’s name as if it was a national anthem, this column highlighted the unprecedented possibilities of a new order that was likely to set in under Khama’s leadership.
Long before it became mandatory for political commentators to preface their pronouncements with Khama’s praise poems, this column recognized the man’s formidable resolve and admirable sincerity to attain the best possible results for his country and people.
Those views still stand.
In fact, as was the case right from the beginning, I still rejoice in the hope that Ian Khama has the potential to become Botswana’s best President ever.
For the best part of the last 15 years, the BDP has come to be associated with internal feuds, exclusivity and factionalism.
The party’s internal relations have not been very much different from conditions in a strife-torn, civil war ravaged failing state.
Thankfully, the Khama effect is fast bringing that to an end.
For the first time in those 15 years, the BDP comes across as a united party of hope.
Which is all the more refreshing, given the fast decline of the country’s opposition politics.
Khama could not have arrived at a more opportune time.
While there no doubt remains simmering scuffles beneath the surface, it generally is agreed that the man is in control.
He has assumed the leadership of the ruling party at an extraordinary moment of our history as a nation.
In more ways, not least his personal appeal, Khama has a wonderful opportunity to reshape Botswana’s political and economic terrains; an opportunity that was simply not there for his three predecessors.
A consensus exists that not only is he the best man to save the ruling party from itself, he also is the best positioned to communicate to the BDP outsiders the new culture that is fast gaining ground from therein.
Within a short stint that he has been President he has already created a new and fresh atmosphere that is reaching beyond the BDP borders and reaching across the breadth of the country.
Save for the unfortunate and much regretted distraction caused by the ham-fisted manner with which he personally handled the Ntuane matter, there is a strong breeze blowing across the entire country signaling that doors of hope and opportunity may be about to open.
Botswana has waited for to long for such a feeling.
It, therefore, is no exaggeration to say that the honeymoon is Khama’s to spoil.
But, of course, as many of us would know, there is always a danger of being over-optimistic.
The danger is that when disappointment finally sets, (as it inevitably will in the future) it tends to be disproportionately blown out of context and be felt far beyond its true realms.
This makes it all the more imperative that while we rejoice and glorify Khama’s potential, we do so in measured tones that are consistent with the confines of a real world in which we live in.
There is no doubt that, as citizens, we have to rally behind our government in its endeavours to improve the lives of Batswana.
But if the same government goes astray, there is also no doubt that we should not hesitate to mercilessly drag it on red hot coals.
Expressing divergent opinions is, however, not the same as polarising and dividing the nation between two distinct camps, with one supporting President Ian Khama and the other violently opposing him, as has lately been happening.
The danger is that the ensuing polarity, most of it waged in Khama’s name, can only stagnate the government’s well meaning intentions to take this country to another level.
The onus, therefore, is on Khama himself to restrain those people that are hounding others in his name. He should call his army of admirers to order.
Khama should insist on his fans to avoid playing party politics with the lives of Batswana.
It is exactly because of these reckless divisions that an impression has been created that the latest initiatives to be announced by Khama’s government are meant purely to prop up the ruling party fortunes.
We are living in a time where Khama’s braggarts tend to casually criminalise anybody else who holds a view different from theirs.
We are living in a time where people who dare hold a view different from Khama’s braggarts are systematically classified as preachers of hate.
That is unfortunate.
This belittles our democracy, and undermines the fact that notwithstanding the divergence of opinions, a majority of our citizens are wholly behind the new government. However divergent the opinions they express, many citizens instinctively feel that President Ian Khama is on to something really good.
This feel good attitude should not, however, be ruthlessly thrust down the throats of those who are still skeptical.
Disgracefully bashing skeptics as non-believers goes against our culture of diversity and tolerance.
This is why there has been so much debate surrounding the muzzling of Honourable Botsalo Ntuane by the BDP top brass.
It is disheartening to see lack of readiness by BDP braggarts to accept the simple fact that, in a democracy, how a ruling party conducts its affairs is actually everybody’s business.
The reason why BDP has recently been subjected to so much criticism stems from the fact that there are fears the ruling party’s behaviour towards Ntuane could actually be the beginning of a drawn-out brutal and insidious regulatory regime that would ultimately spill out of the party’s borders.
The issue, therefore, is not Ian Khama.
The mention of Khama is scarcely more than incidental.
It’s all about our liberal traditions.
He happens to be the ruling leader at a time when that party is flouting the very traditions they are expected to uphold.
This democracy is not BDP’s alone.
We are in it together as a nation.
While we do not always agree with the BDP, we wish them well because their failure would be a national failure.
