Why Domkrag is declining?
Michael Dingake | Wednesday February 26, 2014 12:27
This, in spite of the crowing by H.E President Ian Khama that the BDP can win all the 57 constituencies if BDP activists work as hard as he does. This aspiration was echoed by his two lieutenants, Mpho Balopi, Secretary General and the then party chairman Honourable Guma Moyo.
Guma Moyo we know has since turned heel and fled from the scene of party command and Balopi is deeply embroiled in theBulela ditswe mishmash. The Bulela ditswe imbroglio incidentally is a sure sign that the decline of Domkrag is irrevocable. The enormous victim of the fiasco we know was Honourable Minister Ndelu Seretse. It started with the kicking of the ballot box at some council ward. This incident gave Honourable Seretse a glimmer of hope that the trouncing that was evident in all the polling stations could be reversed.
BDP bigwigs then miscalculated by ordering the dumbest re-run in the whole constituency instead of limiting it to the box-kicking constituency. The blundering election board blundered further by removing the civil servants from the voters’ roll! Imagine the same civil servants will be welcomed with open arms to cast their ballots for whoever the candidate is to be at the general elections.
What system is this that denies the voters the right to select a candidate of their own preference, yet expects them to endorse one chosen behind their backs? If there is something to cause disenchantment in the Domkrag ranks, this is it! If the law provides that persons of a certain age qualify to vote, then they must qualify at all stages of the process of electing their representative! The thrashing Honourable Ndelu Seretse got at the ill-fated Serowe East constituency re-run, was somewhat deserved looking at this kind of childish management of the primary elections process. The spectacle of 2013 Bulela ditswe is the single most damning evidence that the BDP house is dilapidating. No less than five cabinet ministers were sidelined in the primaries, altogether plus-minus 11 sitting MPs were rejected by the party members. The repercussions at the pending general elections are too ghastly to contemplate.
Already the wildfire of discontent is playing havoc in the BDP ranks as we all know. Re-runs have been ordered in some constituencies and re-runs have been disapproved in other constituencies. The result is massive defections by the losers at council and parliamentary levels! Alleged irregularities cannot be countenanced by the complainants. These irregularities do not seem to be out of inefficiency or incompetence of administration staff but appear orchestrated by disgruntled elements. Officially, factions are a thing of the past under Khama’s administration.
If they exist, they are nameless. Pre-Khama administration, factions had names: A-Team, Barata-Party, Big Five etc. Factionalism in the BDP is still endemic, albeit the factions be nameless and unidentifiable. One would be right to say they are operating underground, with virile impact. The nameless factions are frittering the party innards, hence the party’s decline. Why is the BDP monolith disintegrating? Well everything in nature is born/created, grows, declines and perishes/dies. Domkrag is a human institution with the frailties of mortal human beings who created it. The concept of democratic government which the BDP claims to uphold needed to be carefully nurtured and maintained.
After 46 years in power the wear and tear of the BDP is there for all to see. Earliest warning signs appeared in 1994 when the opposition BNF increased its share of Parliamentary seats from three to 13 in a 40-member National Assembly with more than eight constituencies rendered marginal. The writing was clearly on the wall. What saved Domkrag from defeat in the 1999 general elections was the 1998 BNF split. The BDP got space and time to renovate and organise a counterattack Constitution was amended to de-democratise it and massive propaganda was mounted against the opposition, cartooning it as unstable and unfit to be given the reins of power.
The 2010 Domkrag split demonstrated the BDP was not exceptional. Political parties are human institutions where differences exist willy-nilly, often these are minor and solvable, occasionally they are major and overwhelming. Major contradictions require relevant expertise to handle. Mismanaged they create havoc and embarrassment. When the life time tenure of President Sir Ketumile Masire was terminated after 16 long years Domkrag needed leadership that could wriggle out of the prevailing business as usual mode, one which could adapt the democratic principle to the times and circumstances. Instead the BDP believed it was business as usual and would continue to bask in the image of the pre-apartheid past when she alone boasted multiparty democracy in the region.
The automatic succession in the amended 1997 constitution and the appointment of Lieutenant General Khama as president-in-waiting was disastrous. He split the BDP, created the monstrous Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) to harass Batswana. Why did anybody think Khama was the right man for the job when he expressly stated his interest was tourism and charity work? His military background confined him to military barracks outside the BDF camp! He couldn’t help but try to militarise the government, appoint relatives and friends to prestigious posts as well as shy away from press conferences and international meetings.