The President�s deafening silence

Mmegi Editor | Thursday July 17, 2014 10:28

This is particularly so when issues arise that strike at the very heart of the republic, such as is presently taking place with the corruption allegations around the Director General of Intelligence and Security, Isaac Kgosi.

Whether true or not, the allegations around Kgosi are intrinsically of such a nature as to perturb Batswana, given the levels of responsibility entrusted to the Director General of national intelligence and security. By their nature, any allegations around the gatekeeper of a country’s security trigger concern among right-minded citizens, as is occurring from the feedback the media is receiving on the Kgosi story.

President Khama, who statutorily is Kgosi’s employer, supervisor and by most reports, a close associate, has thus far been silent on what many would judge the biggest crisis to shake the country’s fledgling intelligence organisation.

No one is keen on an overly talkative President who randomly and persistently comments on each and every triviality in the country. But few citizens  want one whose comments are few, far between and reserved for Kgotla meetings when other communication media exist.

Just as a reminder, the President kept quiet through the recent power crisis; he kept quite during the 2011 civil servants strike; he kept quite after the shooting of one John Kalafatis by security agents, just to mention a few.  Surprisingly, the president is not the quite shy guy when he is with the rural poor, or when he is surrounded by his Domkrag fanatics, as he spits fire from left to right.

We are calling on the president to learn to speak to his people through other channels of communication, and not only the Kgotla meetings or Botswana Television stage-managed interviews in which his interviewers are scared of asking him uncomfortable questions.

We say this fully aware of the government structures in place that recognise the presidential spokesperson, press secretary to the president and others.

But a word from the leader himself in any society carries more weight than that of a spokesperson.

We urge Mr President to speak on national issues and not only when he is campaigning for the Domkrag, a job he has proved to have mastered over the past six years.

                                                                 Today’s thought

“Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you want them to understand.”

 

                                                                 – Frantz Fanon,