The reasons for not taking part in a debate could be diverse: reason one could be that the party not taking part may simply be yellow, scared of debating the others for fear of losing the duels. After all you do not expose your capabilities at war by staying away do you? In this case then, the BDP may just be scared to debate, which would surprise me given the fact that there is no discernible difference in the debate capabilities of different political candidates in Botswana politics.
For the BCP’s Dumelang Saleshando the UDC would have a Duma Boko, BDP a Mokgweetsi Masisi. For a Gomolemo Motswaledi, BDP would have a Botsalo Ntuane, BCP would also have someone. For every poor debater at the UDC there is a poor debater at the BDP and BCP. Therefore, any claim that any is better than the others at debate is unfounded- it would be a poor decision by the BDP if they were to be yellow. We know the broad majority of our politicians across political parties are poor debaters. Being yellow therefore should not be the case, if it is, it is misguided.
Could it then be strategic planning? Some generals actually say the best war strategy is to avoid war, to win without fighting. Yellow strategists, but also great strategists, do not engage when they can avoid the attrition of battle. If you can afford to attain your objectives without fighting, you do not. If you must fight, you do not engage the enemy in hostile territory; you tactically retreat and engage where you feel you stand a chance at winning with minimum effort and casualties. At times, even if you’d win a battle on some ground, you avoid the battle for you want to fight when you want- engage at a place and time of your own choosing.
The BDP has said it has an agreement to do similar debates with a private radio station- which I presume to be Duma FM. They have their own reasons. Parties should map their supporters in order to aid their messaging. Mapping your audience and marrying that with vehicles of delivery- such as radio and newspapers- entails being able to stay away from some and being able to focus on some. The BDP then appears to have segmented its audience. It should be perfectly acceptable. The headache then should be for the BDP decision makers since if this proves a costly mistake they'll have to account for it.
