Are protest demostrations childish?

Michael Dingake | Tuesday September 8, 2015 16:57

President Ian Khama was also on Btv to lambast the organisers of the Friday protest march in Gaborone.

The reaction to the water crisis march by President Ian Khama and his Minister is certainly surprising, absolutely intriguing and interesting in the extreme. What is it that is so childish and uncalled for in a public protest against a government that is failing to deliver services to people who have voted it into power? Isn’t this what democracy - ‘government of the people by the people for the people,’ is all about?’

Does democracy imply merely casting a vote for one party to rule for the long five years without crying ouch whatever the party in power does or doesn’t do? Do voters have the right to monitor what the government does, to cheer and applaud when cheer and applause is deserved and to boo and heckle when performance is substandard? Isn’t this the way to keep the democratic process alive and dynamic?

Democracy is for the people to get what they expect from the chosen representatives who rule over them for the period of their tenure. It implies that as long as the elected party delivers what it pledged  to deliver in the form of public services, the party doesn’t invite criticism while the good performance lasts. But it’s a given, that if at any time the party fails to deliver what it pledged to deliver, the voters have the right to come down on  it like a ton of bricks! It’s quite unbecoming and arrogant of the party to question the right of the voters to criticise it when it no longer delivers as per contract.

Perhaps we should start asking ourselves whether we are not responsible for this inexplicable arrogance and the noli me tangere attitude, displayed by the rulers. Unused to protest marches against non-delivery of services, the spoiled rulers now think, things are getting out of hand; and what the marchers are doing,  is tantamount to indiscipline! Perhaps BDP is just jittery because of its below par performance in the recent post-2014 by-elections? The party’s popularity has obviously taken an irretrievable nose-dive. The knowledge that BDP is in power as a minority party, not a majority party as implied by the democratic majority principle, and that prospects for recovering ground is sliding with every by-election contested, cannot be good for the morale nor the mood of the minority governing party. It’s a nightmarish experience reflected in the spasmodic utterances we hear and read. After 50 years in power, Domi squirms in disbelief at the turn of events!                

Batswana have indicated that the infatuation with the governing party has declined irretrievably, never to come back. BDP has been brought down to mother earth, and made aware that in a true multi-party democracy political parties rotate the benches- the ruling party benches and the opposition benches. Moreover, periodically a ruling party can be thrown out of office before the expiry of its term of office.

This can happen when the opposition closely monitors the governing party and likely to discover that it  is sleeping on the job to the extent that some of its elements are also disgruntled to the extent that they are ready to support a ‘motion of no confidence’ if tabled by the opposition!

The rulers must keep in mind that voters have a prerogative to recall them if need be, before the five-year term of office expires through a motion of no confidence in midterm. Batswana are daily made aware that there are BDP members who are highly disgruntled by the manipulation of the primary elections system (Bulela ditswe) and the unlevel playground on which the bulela-ditswe competition takes place. The political situation is highly volatile and unpredictable within the ruling party camp with prospects for defections. The best the BDP leaders can do is to pay attention to public complaints and be sensitive to the demands. Favourable public opinion is no longer on the side of the ruling party but on the side of the opposition who raise the provision of services of a critical nature like water and power!

By protest marches Batswana are making the point that the ruling party should be alive to the public demands and always respond positively and urgently to these demands. Supply of water and power are among the burning issues of the moment. In our area we have experienced unbroken waterlessness for over five weeks!

 We have survived the ordeal by learning the ropes of carrying empty drums in the boots of cars to go begging for water wherever it can be found: water for cooking, bathing, washing clothes and the plates, flushing toilets, brushing teeth, swallowing medical prescriptions, brewing coffee or tea and just for drinking to quench thirst and the medical health advice of drinking six glasses of water per day! In the immediate experience we have had in the area, it is just impossible to get one-third  of  the amount of water one needs! 

We are definitely overjoyed and hopeful that something is to be done to redress the situation since the protest march.

At the same time we are unsure whether the promises will be fulfilled because in the past, the public has been disappointed that promises made at the highest level remained unfulfilled! The public must keep their protest marching boots within reach, to keep goading the authorities; their promises are never reliable!