Ya go tlhopha, Motswana wetsho!

Mmegi Editor | Thursday October 23, 2014 16:33

You have heard the hoarse voices and sweaty faces at the “mega rallies”. You have seen and/or participated in the vigorous debates in public squares, on social media and in your own home.  You have made up your mind, changed it and made it up again.

Now is the time to vote.

As a citizen of Botswana you have the constitutional right to vote. As a patriot of Botswana, you have an obligation to vote.

Vote for your country, its future and your own for they are inextricably tied and mutually inclusive. Citizens of other nations have and continue to shed their blood for the free right that is offered to you tomorrow. Many are imprisoned, many others persecuted and tortured for the right that you have in your hands. Do not take it for granted. Wake up and cast your vote in favour of whomever you believe can best fulfil your aspirations as an individual and our collective aspirations as a country. Apathy or indifference has never built a nation. Apathy sits at home and complains, while action makes a difference. Tomorrow, take your Omang and voter registration card and head to the polling station within your chosen constituency and vote. To our candidates who have their fingers crossed for tomorrow, we urge you to keep your eye on the values we all cherish as a nation. Let us have peace and harmony on election day and remember that despite our political differences, we remain united in this nation’s destiny as Batswana.

Its pioneering practitioners will tell you that politics is about national service. It used to rank among the most noble of callings; an opportunity to rise from within a society, canvass its views and lead it towards a shared ambition and aspiration.

In those halcyon days, politics was not about self-enrichment, the relentless pursuit of influence or megalomania. It was certainly not about deceit, as so often happens nowadays when a candidate will hoodwink voters into believing one thing, when he or she in fact has other sinister designs.

We urge peace among our candidates. On October 27 when the results are finalised, if you are not happy, do not emulate the poor examples elsewhere on our continent, where losing candidates take to armed protest or stoke up civil unrest.

We have a fully functioning and healthy judiciary ready to accommodate and preside over your complaints and appeals.

Whatever our differences on October 27, the bedrock of legal recourse was laid long ago by our founding fathers, to whom we equally owe the furtherance of peace and stability in our republic.

Go and vote Botswana. It is your inalienable and cherishable right.

                                                                 Today’s thought

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

 

                                                                 – Nelson Mandela