The significance of radio debates in the 2014 elections campaign!
Michael Dingake | Tuesday October 7, 2014 14:22
This time we have had radio debates constituency by constituency not only on Radio Botswana, the state radio station, but on private radio stations specifically Gabz FM. Very welcome indeed!
Gabz FM radio station programme sponsored by the American Embassy in Botswana, supported by the British Embassy, Europcar and BOFEPUSU has been a fantastic programme, only slightly undermined by the ruling BDP petulant boycott. If there ever was any need for evidence to prove the ruling party fears competition against opposition parties like the plague, this was it! Of course the basic evidence has always been the fact that the BDP has been snug like a bug in a rug, monopolising the state media: Btv, Radio Botswana and the Daily News; selfishly accessing the electorates in the remotest areas.
Coupled with its strenuous resistance to accede public funding to the opposition , this demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt, that the ruling BDP rhetoric of fairness in the general elections was self-serving lip-service. The under-resourced opposition always lost the general elections before the race started, right at the starting point. Imagine Usain Bolt competing on his favourite terrain with Oscar Pistorious on his stumps? A mis-match by any other name!
The Gabz Fm novelty, sponsored by the USA , is a first in the history of local general elections. Through the programme, political parties contesting, including the multifarious independent candidates, we hope will for the first time be heard by a fair number of Batswana throughout the length and breadth of the country. Whether the election results will reflect the relatively wider access, the parties have been afforded in the ongoing general elections campaign, that is still in the future. What might distort the anticipated improved opposition parties results, will be the fact that the potential of the novelty may not be fully achieved for one reason or two. Participants, namely candidates, audiences and voters are not yet acquainted with the fora and methods of participation in the electioneering process and obviously might have failed to capitalise on the opportunity, therefore didn’t exploit the exercise to the full. Some pertinent observations need be made however:
Radio Botswana debates were marred by moderators untrained in objectivity. I may be subjective myself, but my honest impression was that the bulk of RB1 moderators were out to afford an opportunity to Domkrag to rebut general criticisms directed at the ruling BDP. Whereas the attitude to the opposition debater was, ‘How are you as an individual MP, going to fulfill your personal agenda in parliament, if your party doesn’t emerge victorious in the coming general elections?’ The BDP debaters were left as the incumbents and were thus only asked to defend their previous shortcomings, which they comfortably palmed off, by citing the world economic recession woes and pointing to evidence of government new programmes, some of which came on stream in time to enhance publicity to win the contested general elections. Smart!
I was impressed by the Gabz Fm moderator, Reginald Richardson penchant to enforce strict punctuality at the political debates meetings. Richardson, trained interview-journalist able to wrench the truth out of interviewees, had his own kink of attempting to confine the debater to his/her constituency, which sounded illogical, particularly on the employment situation. Assuming beneficiation as advocated by the opposition is successful, beneficiation plants cannot be in every constituency, therefore an MP who works hard to make mass employment possible through beneficiation programme, does so for his/her own constituency as well! After all, not all constituencies have potential for employment creation.
However RR impressed me on the question of punctuality at these debates. There’s been persistent and valid criticism that Batswana work ethic, borders on the despicable. The most despicable element of this poor work ethic is unpunctuality at work or at any organised come-together. Poor time-keeping is the biggest weakness, not laziness as often alleged to be typical of Batswana. It’s likely to be our Achilles heel in future development, as Batswana . If there’s one trait and the only one, I share with President Khama, is the ‘punctuality’ trait. I search myself, ‘How can a whole people be so unconscious of time?’ Are we bewitched? Just why don’t we fall into the rhythm of an organised modern life regulated by timeliness? How do we just survive in this world of the clock, without observing the rules of the clock? Can we continue to survive any longer when we continue to flout the dictates and imperatives of living according to time schedule?
We cannot live in a time vacuum just as we can’t survive in a space vacuum! I am baffled the lackadaisicalness of some party colleagues on time hasn’t sent me to an early grave. At the Gabz Fm radio debates I revelled in Reggie’s enforcement of timeliness. I particularly liked Reggie’s unyielding attitude to one candidate, a fellow party member in Good Hope ; the BCP debater pleaded for his latecomer supporters to be admitted in the hall, but Reggie stood firm. He didn’t hear me sing praises of approval! If a fraction of Batswana learnt something from Reggie’s punctuality principle, hallelujah!
Above all else I want to believe the constituency-tour debates initiated by Gabz FM serve as a prelude of levelling the playing field in general elections and government will soon introduce the overdue ‘public party funding for a modicum of fairness in our general elections. Viva Gabz FM!