Will it get worse than this?

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday October 8, 2014 17:26

It is a reality that may deceive the less informed into believing that politicians are not only permitted to lie, but are required to do so, to mislead, threaten and coerce. Take the constantly repeated falsehood that some Batswana will become refugees or that there will be a civil war if the opposition is voted into power.

Not that we necessarily support the opposition, but that any open minded person would know that such a statement is designed to cause fear and panic, as there is no basis, or history to base such a declaration on. For the spiritual, the lie is more serious than that. It is a curse on the nation.

The classic however is what former minister Michael Tshipinare said to Kanye South voters over the weekend. Tshipinare told, no, threatened the voters that the BDP would know those who failed to vote for the party in the October elections ”because we will be watching you”. Mr Tshipinare knew he was being untruthful, but then again he may have been helpless against the organism  that has become the antithesis of moral principle in ruling party politics. Mercifully, voters in Kanye are largely informed folks who know when someone is pulling their leg. But can the same thing be said about ordinary folks in remote Botswana?

For many of them the appearance of an ex-minister such as Tshipinare is a precious sight. What more if he appeared alongside the president who drops from the sky in a helicopter or military aircraft? Telling them the BDP, or the President or the police chief or whoever they are likely not to want to offend, would know if they voted for the opposition could very well work.

Many of them would rather live in peace than be terrorised for voting for the opposition. Tshipinare knew, as do most of his party members that ordinary folks, who have heard about murdered opposition members or supporters or those who were tortured, would be too afraid to even imagine voting for the opposition.

He is riding on the fear that has already been created. Surely a good man such as Tshipinare must have felt uncomfortable making such comments, which go against most Batswana’s moral feelings.

We have no doubt that he will feel remorseful, for regardless of the good consequences that may follow his statement, his words will go down in history as just what they were -untruths to the voters. We can only hope that in his remorse he will try to dissuade other politicians from the path of untruths. We hope it will not get worse than this.

Today’s thought

“Politicians: Pinocchios with nose jobs.”

– Bauvard, The Darkness of Nature