The BMD Has Always Been An Illusion
Correspondent | Monday November 2, 2015 16:45
People have always known, only people have not been able to say such for the fear that when you tell BMD the truth, they resort to insults and playing the messenger ignoring the ball. The people can no longer fear to pronounce that this political grouping was from the very beginning founded on a wrong footing. The intentions and dreams might have been right, but the method of formation was never correct. Chickens have come back home to roost. The BMD is not fighting over Pilane, it is fighting amongst itself.
What is transpiring at the BMD is not new in Botswana politics. Interestingly it is being done by the same players who were active during the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) constitutional stand-off a few years ago. Such characters wanted to swing the BDP constitutional interpretation to their personal view and comfort zones forgetting that the picture remains that of guarding jealously the institution and hence the constitution. They remain the same people with same characteristics only they are at different party. One wonders how people who are failing to use such a simple tool such as a party constitution to run a simple structure like a political party can be able to use a complex instrument called country constitution to run a complex web of mixed societies or tribes called a nation. The soft has become the hardened and the hardened has become the soft.
The people are told that when they registered their party, which is now in disarray, they took away all the powers of the party president as they were still reeling in pain from the humiliation they suffered trying to fight the same powers at the BDP. The BMD party president now finds himself without any powers and only a desire to have a say. His say is only limited to rhetoric and playing with words as the constitution has given all the powers to the party chairman. The Party’s Vice President, a factionalist of repute; Wynter Mmolotsi is trying his best to use his political might gained from the streets and BDP political scheming yet those favoured by the BMD constitution such as the party’s Secretary General, Gilbert Mangole are seemingly at ease under the protection of the constitution. The BMD party president is only an observer with a mighty pen.
I am not inclined to discuss Advocate Sidney Pilane because his issue has been elevated to power struggle. It is no longer about why Pilane wants to return to the BMD. It,s about who yields more constitutional power and who yields more scheming power. This is the same situation that the BDP found itself in a few years ago and only that those who created the stand still broke away for a splinter group in the BMD. The same faces who led the breakaway seem too close for another break away.
The BMD is a party that will never find peace and very soon the Botswana National Front, which is in the habit on interfering will do so through its foot soldiers. They will take a side and fuel the BMD war which will further escalate. The BMD will never come out of this political standoff the same and this will inevitably affect in the negative the Umbrella for Democratic Change.
The BDP can only look and enjoy the war as it only justifies that there was nothing ever wrong with the constitution or composition of the BDP. It is becoming increasingly clear that individuals who ultimately left to form their own political grouping were always the problem. It is in the nature of those who formed the BMD to fight and when they have no one to fight they fight amongst themselves. This is the BMD and this shall forever remain the BMD. The problem with the BMD is that it was founded on allowing those outside party structures to dictate the direction of the party. There are those who are more BMD than others yet they do not occupy any power position in the party.
The BMD is coming out to be nothing else but an illusion that it has always been. The only tricky part was that the illusion was too colourful in orange and rhetoric to be ignored. It was given all sorts of praises by almost all quarters of the society including the labour force until now when all have gone quietly into cocoons to be silent observers. The nation must allow the BMD to fight amongst itself, that way the country can have peace because when they are not fighting amongst themselves, they will look for someone to fight with and hence peace will elude those who long for it.
Karabo Ramogotsi Tlokweng kramogotsi@yahoo.com