Your commentary was unfair
Correspondent | Thursday November 6, 2014 11:15
First, the allegations that the BCP leader insulted the intelligence of Batswana are gross and unjustified. The Editor erred in concluding that the absence of the BCP from the Umbrella was the decision of the party President Comrade Dumelang Saleshando.
This view totally misrepresents the decision-making process followed at BCP. Contrary to the Editor’s twisted analysis, the BCP leader upholds the party constitution and congress resolutions.
In the same vein, the Editor may, by his wrong analysis, insulted the majority of Batswana who voted to retain the BDP rule. We at BCP do not view voting any political party as an insult but rather we view the voting process as an exercise of individuals’ constitutional rights.
The Editor is also advised to respect the freedom of association of the general membership of the BCP and its President Comrade Saleshando. As BCP we disagree with the claim that we were punished by Batswana. Instead, we acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of Batswana either voted BDP, UDC, BCP and some independent candidates.
We are certain that the 140, 000 people who voted BCP are all Batswana. The claim that Batswana punished the BCP is based on emotions and extreme generalisations. Contrary to the illusions of the Editor, the BCP was not primarily founded to build a strong opposition but to be a real contender for state power in order to establish a truly democratic state guided by social justice.
The BCP revolves around the axis defined by its membership. The primary responsibility of the BCP leadership is to defend the core values of social democracy in Botswana and implement the mandate given by its membership.
We are agreeable at BCP that many Batswana are concerned about corruption and the erosion of civil liberties in our country. The BCP as a clean party enumerates how it intends to run government in a manner that is different form the BDP and its replica – the UDC.
Despite our stark differences with the BDP policies, we at BCP respect the verdict passed by the majority of Batswana voters that the BDP should continue to misrule our country.
There is no political party in Botswana that has been more audible than the BCP when it comes to condemning the erosion of the rule of law and the drift towards totalitarianism (Refer to the Botswana Congress Party: Democracy Alerts Nos. 1, 2 & 3). The BCP has on many questions questioned the positive rankings that the BDP government had received from some organisations such as Transparency International (IT) and others, with applause from Mmegi editors.
The BCP views these rankings as subjective as they do not reflect the feelings of Batswana. The so-called Split-Vote Theory is one lie that the BCP must forcefully refute.
This theory is unidirectional and cannot explain a win by an opposition candidate yet it attempts to explain a loss by the same.
This theory is too simple and founded on political coercion and opposition self-pity. This theory cannot help explain the political scenario that obtains in Gaborone right now and this is the time to discard it.
The mere fact that the BCP is one of the opposition parties in Botswana does not simply mean it is similar to other parties in the opposition and therefore should be lumped into something as narrow as the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
Listening to the Presidential debates between Comrades Dumelang Saleshando and Duma Boko, it was quite clear that UDC policies are close and some similar to BDP’s hence the natural coalition should be between UDC and BDP.
Finally, the BCP rejects with contempt, the cheap and deranged analyses leveled against it by the Editor. The BCP finds the analyses to be too simple, partisan and lacked evidential proof to qualify them.
Sincerely,
Cde Kapule Mabuta
Membership No. 130419
Kasane Central, Chobe