Khama a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma?
Michael Dingake | Tuesday September 29, 2015 12:23
The party has absolutely no intention of going back on the. resolution. The President is not a willing participant of the speculations around the third term…. The president has been very equivocal on that too, he has reiterated it many times………. The suggestion that the party may be thinking of extending the president’s term after 2018 is just mischief-making that has no basis at all. The President has been very consistent since 2008. Why are people trying to read his mind? He has been very clear.”
The speculation(s) about President Khama seeking a third term in the presidency, I think is intuitive, natural, proper and responsible. I fail to understand the objection, resentment, sensitivity, the fussiness that topic has provoked in the BDP camp. BDP has suddenly become nervous and mistrustful of anything that appears critical or even slightly negative against President Khama.
To BDP members he is a little god who can do no evil, see no evil or plan no evil. They forget that we are a multiparty democracy. Under this dispensation Batswana are free to speak, to think, to dream and speculate whatever they like as long as it isn’t defamatory or likely to be genuinely casus belli.
Batswana have the right to boast being among the first three African countries to adopt multi-party democracy; we know too, how much we have deformed democracy in the process of time and how some newly independent countries have overtaken us on the road to ideal multiparty democracy. We have been stultified and manipulated to turn democracy into a five-yearly event of unfair general elections instead of a dynamic process responsive to the times and the mood of Batswana, who expect a people-centred democracy. We run on the same spot, even backpedal, to guarantee perpetual rule by BDP. We are deadpan even regressive, particularly under the leadership of President Ian Khama. Nurtured in the military barracks, he believes democracy is democracy when he says so.
The constitution that makes him virtually above itself, has made him sample power beyond his imagination. As head of the Executive he makes cabinet Ministers literally dance to his tune; ministers are his toy soldiers on puppet string; he invades and subverts the independence of Parliament and Judiciary contrary to the tenets of separation of powers redline.
He manipulates election of Speaker of Parliament and capriciously appoints the Judiciary, contrary to the law. Should Chief Justice Dibotelo succumb to public pressure to resign, you can bet Justice Dr Solo who swears publicly by Khama’s magnanimity will be promptly elected to fill the vacuum!
How many Batswana can claim to know President Khama’s mind, let alone his future plans? He never holds press conferences; he delivers State of the Nation Addresses, but never awaits interrogation of the SONAS; he appears at the kgotlas not to consult or exchange views with villagers, but to distribute blankets or serve food and occasionally to direct Ministers and public servants to do their duties in terms of attainable villagers’ demands. Under the circumstances, none knows his mind, intentions or wishes.
He is a veritable ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’ like Winston Churchill said of the USSR at the end of World War II. From the rare interviews he has given newspaper reporters, there is a ray of light what sort of individual he is. His penchant is charity. He dispenses charity to the needy: distributes blankets, goats, fat-cakes, to the needy, the hungry and children.
He is master at creating dependency syndrome among the poor! From his private interviews, we know he hates politics like the devil hates virtue. Yet he has stuck to politics like a leech since he tasted political power.
On eve of general elections he fancies BDP crushing and obliterating the opposition. In 2009 he predicted BDP would win 70 percent of popular vote. He was disappointed at the results. 2014 he predicted BDP winning all 57 constituencies. He had to be content with 37. He believes the opposition cheats and traffics voters.
He thinks he can put a stop to this. He worries if the opposition wins power it will prosecute his kind; the fear must be exercising his mind and making him think how to avert the oncoming calamity, since the BDP Titanic is inexorably sinking! The only way he can preempt this, he must think, is stay and fight to avert impending disaster. I believe he sincerely dislikes politics, but seems to fear opposition reprisals more than he fears amending the constitution!
Khama apparently knows his mind, but does he know his weaknesses when tempted? He was dragged into dirty politics by one Festus Mogae. What will stop him from being prevailed upon to amend the constitution to seek the third term if another? Mogae pleads with him, he is the magician to save BDP from the quicksand of times?
He Loves Power, Enjoys wielding it; he isn’t Immune from flattery; he has self-belief; since he believed he was Messiah to end BDP factions, why won’t he believe he is Magician to make BDP rule forever? Don’t forget, he joined the BDF to defend BDP-democracy.
He isn’t beyond susceptibility that he’s capable to make BDP rule forever if he served another term! Could it be possible he hasn’t inherited the African genes?