Khama�s prophecy of hope Versus Boko�s prophecy of doom
Correspondent | Tuesday December 20, 2016 14:43
One was speech delivered by the President of the Republic, Ian Khama who is also the BDP president and the other by the leader of the opposition, Duma Boko who is also the UDC president.
The speeches are clearly different and distinct. This is not surprising because the two speakers belong to totally different worlds. In summing up the two presentations one can say it was contest between Khama’s world of realism and Boko’s of idealism. It is a contest between Khama’s message of hope and Boko’s message of doom and despair.
President Khama shared with the nation in clear and simple terms the story of its development path, covering successes while acknowledging limitations, challenges and in particular external global pressures frustrating our potential. On the other hand, Boko, the master of political rhetoric took us on a long tour of his imaginary world, a world of fantasy bearing no resemblance whatsoever to our own Botswana and the world as we know it.
Khama’ speech captures Botswana’s real story. It is a story that many of our people, young and old, poor and rich can easily identify with. The President’s speech touched on who we are as a nation, where we are coming from and where we stand today while preparing the nation to ‘take full advantage of emerging opportunities’. Khama tells clearly Botswana’s unique story of development.
Appeal for national unity. This is a typical Khama speech placing great emphasis on our nationhood. He calls for the nation to find one another and forge ahead as a single national cohesive force while cautioning us about the dangers and pitfalls of pursuing divisive selfish agendas. It is a speech that is national in character rather than partisan.
It lives to expectations. While there is cause to celebrate phenomenal developments achieved in the past 50 years, Khama appeals to the nation not to sit in its laurels and instead to brace for more belt tightening because “the era of comfortable budget surpluses is behind us”. Khama reminds us of our humble beginnings while paying a fitting tribute to the nation’s sense of unity of purpose and tenacity, which saw us, overcoming daunting obstacles. It is a speech seeking to instill a sense of pride in the nation’s ability to rise to the challenges.
For instance, having inherited no development from our colonisers, Khama reminds us that this gallant nation built strong home brewed political institutions and a sound economy. The President extols the nation’s spirit of resilience and as well as the continuing culture of good management of God given natural resources. He reminds this nation that it was not the sheer discovery of precious stones that made Botswana what it is today but prudent management was responsible for the meteoric rise to an upper middle-income status.
Khama expresses optimism that present planning anchored on this rock solid foundation carries Botswana to a prosperous and sustainable future. This is what Khama feels should give this nation reason to rejoice as much was achieved against all odds and expectations.
It is worth remembering that other nations elsewhere were not as fortunate as those entrusted with political power squandered opportunities at their disposal. This is what set Botswana apart from its peers.
Through his speech, Khama rose above partisan politics and there is not a single instance where he makes mention of his opponents and detractors in a bad light. Khama respect that the state of the nation address is account of how we have fared as a collective not a catalogue of the activities of his own party. He does not exploit this opportunity to settle political scores or belittle his detractors. The tone of the President as he delivers his speech is friendly, calm and collected. For him it is time to give an honest account. He seems oblivious of the many people who had thronged the gallery what they wanted to hear.
Two days later the leader of the opposition takes the stage to respond. The gallery is fully packed with young people. Boko is visibly agitated and employs rhetorical devices not only to drive points home but also, to impress the gallery. He immediately picks on Khama and plays the man. Note the difference in approach. Boko launched a scathing attack on Khama, heaping all the blame on Khama’s shoulders for anything perceived to have gone wrong.
He gives a list of things that he feels the President did not get right such as job-creation, poor service delivery, alleged appointments based on sheepish loyalty rather than merit and so on. In the process of delivery, he switches to Latin, as if he was addressing a different audience, not fellow MPs who have no idea about Latin. At this stage, he reminds me of that character, Lakunle, the schoolteacher, in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel.
It is clear that these are two prophets. On the one hand Khama like a prophet of hope, inspires the nation to see opportunities in every challenge, while Boko’s prophecy of doom is sowing the spirit of despair among our people. Boko’s no hope speech encourages the nation to look for challenges in every opportunity. He does not see opportunities in the present unemployment challenge. He does not believe that unemployment presents a golden opportunity for all of us to encourage our young graduates to get into innovative and enterprising mode. For him, this is a chance to take on Khama- it is Khama this and Khama that. He does not realise this is not a political rally it is the state of the nation where we need to review how the different constituents of our nation have fared.
It does not occur to him that it is our collective duty to expand job opportunities. For example, Boko is pouring scorn on programmes such as ISPAAD, LIMID and Poverty Eradication and sees challenges in them and not opportunities, which young people could exploit to improve their lot. The fact of the matter is that Botswana is drought-prone and this is partly the reason why many agricultural schemes do not always deliver as expected. This is what Boko chooses to ignore.
Whereas Khama is imploring young people to direct their energies and talents towards exploitation of many youth empowerment schemes, Boko dismisses these as useless ventures.
Khama’ speech is an inspiring piece intended to spur the nation to greater heights. It is a call for national unity and courage in the face of adversity. Khama contends that judging by past and present accomplishments, there is every reason for this nation to hope for better things to come tomorrow. Boko does not concur with this because this is not consistent with his message of doom; typical of a prophet of doom, Boko sees disaster and negativity everywhere. He has no confidence in the government, no faith in the public service and he does not trust university professors and Judges.
The reason he believes appointments are not based on merit. He is on record as having once doubted the judgements of our learned judges, whom he described as conservative. The big question is whom does Boko trust? He trusts no one. He sees himself as some of kind of philosopher king, possessing monopoly of wisdom and absolute truth. And here lies clear signs of a dictator in the making.
Yes, it is true Botswana is grappling with a lot of challenges mainly occasioned by the world recession, which began in 2008. Whereas Khama’s SONA touches on the impact of global external economic forces on our development efforts, Boko disregards this important context in which our economy is operating. He sees Botswana as an isolated ivory tower detached and immune from global challenges. He conveniently ignores that the world recession is a global phenomenon, which does not spare any nation. Boko’s speech does not do justice to the economy of this country because no analysis worth its salt could disregard the debilitating effects of the world recession on economic growth.
His goal is to score political points and it does not matter how. And on this score he performed with distinction. Boko exploited recent challenges such as the liquidation of BCL, energy and water shortages to write off our chances of ever getting better as a nation. To Boko gaining political mileage is all that matters.
He seems to forget our spirit of resilience as a nation. That nothing can dampen the spirit of a tried and tested nation. Perhaps he needs a reminder. As a nation, we have been in this road before, facing far much more bigger and formidable tests. This nation prides itself in waging a fierce war against poverty and diseases and ignorance. Today no Motswana goes to bed without food. Thanks to existing social safety nets. We have no room for despondency. This nation will never surrender nor lose the fight against emerging challenges like unemployment.
We derive inspiration from battles fought and won in the past. For instance we have defeated powerful external forces, which threatened our democracy in the formative stages of our independence. There are many more examples which demonstrate our never die attitude as a people. Going through archival materials, the nation will recall that when one of the partners unexpectedly pulled out of the university of BOLESWA project, this nation rose to the challenge and built the University of Botswana to what it is today through self-reliance.
This clearly proves that Boko’s prophesy of doom has no place in our country. Boko’s is not only attacking the BDP and its leadership; he is also underrating this nation’s fighting spirit, an expression of no confidence in our abilities as a people to deal with challenges. But history is proving him wrong.
Boko disagrees with everything being done in this country and everything we stand for as a people. This is a man who places himself in a pedestal, towering far above everybody else. He is a self-appointed messiah and a self-styled agent of change. The challenge is he does not clearly spell out where he is leading us except to castigate the efforts of those in power. He used the platform to dismiss Botswana’s democratic credentials. While doing so, he does not care to provide convincing evidence support his claim. Yes, I agree, there may be some imperfections found in our democracy but I don’t think there is enough justification for anyone to delete Botswana from the list of democratic nations.
Boko must be reminded that he should sell his UDC party with caution to avoid compromising Botswana’s international standing and consequently putting at risk our future prosperity. To discredit Botswana in the eyes of the international community including potential investors is suicidal for a man vying for the position of president. It is unpatriotic.
That being said, I am convinced that all fair and unbiased minds here and abroad will not buy his story. Botswana is held in high esteem for her democratic credentials. Botswana is synonymous with peace, stability, democracy, a free press, the rule of law and respect for the will of people. And that without any shadow of doubt the BDP is the architect of many freedoms this nation is enjoying. Botswana is synonymous with free education and medical care. Boko has every right to hate the BDP but any attempt to obliterate and underestimate the role of the BDP in laying our rock solid foundation as a nation is an exercise in futility. A few more examples of achievements are worth enumerating.
This country has managed to score significant milestones in education, an achievement that the world acknowledges. This government has achieved universal primary education, ensured 100% transition from primary to junior secondary education and efforts to raise transition to senior secondary education from 70% to 100% are continuing. This country has now started to expand pre-school education opportunities to cater for the previously un-served sections of our society especially the rural poor. On the health front, Boko seems oblivious of the progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, progress made on reduction of the under 5 mortality rate and ongoing work to improve maternal health. Boko is at pains to acknowledge these accomplishments because he is allowing political expediency to cloud his judgment.
For universities this nation is stepping up efforts to promote research and innovation to fulfill our aspiration of a much more diversified and knowledge based economy. This is evidenced by the creation of BIUST among other things. And efforts are being made to address the concern of quality in our education system through our Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan. Our teachers and students are responding well to the reforms. The recently released PSLE results show that we are moving in the right direction. Being pessimistic, Boko finds it hard to acknowledge progress.
The opposition led by Boko’s leadership is dragging Botswana on the road to politics of deception. Boko is on record as having used his oratory skills to convince the unsuspecting members of the public that government security agents were involved in the unfortunate demise of Gomolemo Motswaledi. It is on account of this that his UDC won the favour and sympathy of the electorates in the 2014 general elections. I must add that it was an account of the work of Joseph Goebbels, the best liar that Europe ever produced that the Germans entrusted their future on Adolf Hitler. With the benefit of hindsight letting Hitler in turned out to be a mistake of catastrophic proportions.
It is unfortunate that whenever given an opportunity to speak in Parliament, Boko chooses to play to the gallery at the expense of facts. He has a propensity to deliver empty speeches laced with colourful language to deceive and mislead the unsuspecting members of the public. In his response to SONA he claims that Khama does not deliver on his promises but where is the Motswaledi report, which he promised the nation?
Boko is attacking this government for the sake of criticising. For instance, he faults President Khama for Mmamabula project’s failure to take off as planned. The leader of the opposition does not appreciate that Mmamabula project was conceived as a private sector led initiative. It is therefore unfair to apportion blame on the President, when the private sector makes a decision not to invest.
By and large Boko’s speech was intended to instill fear and panic amongst Botswana while conveniently forgetting that Batswana remain resilient and resolute in their endeavor to overcome all odds to make Botswana better yesterday. Fully conscious of the fact that his story is not convincing, Boko takes solace in demonising, denigrating and maligning President Khama. It is unfortunate that Boko plays the man and not the ball. Under the circumstances one is compelled to give Boko some little dose of his own medicine. Under the guise of practicing free speech he likened Khama to a demon.
If there is anybody possessed with demonic spirit is Boko because he preaches negativity while Khama preaches positivity. Even when advised by the Speaker of the National Assembly that it is un-parliamentary for a member to refer to another as a demon, he insisted that he was merely exercising his freedom of expression. As a lawyer he should know better that his rights end where those of others begin and that the right to hold opinions is not absolute. But it appears he does not recognise this golden rule. The ball is in our court as the nation. We are standing at a cross road to choose between honest politicians and politics of deception. This nation must not fall for Boko’s charm and his old propaganda machine.
Finally Boko raises questions about Khama’s legacy as his tenure of office comes to an end. Here is the answer.
President Khama is a true patriot and servant of this nation credited for co-founding the Botswana Defence Force-an institution largely responsible for the preservation of Botswana’s territorial integrity and sovereignty particularly at a time when we were confronted and surrounded by racist regimes in our sub-continent.
He showed exemplary and bravery leadership when called upon to lead Botswana at the most difficult time in our history. His ascendancy to power leadership coincided with world recession, which saw a decline in government revenues, but to his credit he has kept the economy afloat. He has had to disregard political expediency to safeguard the welfare of the present generation without compromising future prosperity of the next generation.
He carried on Mogae’s legacy of administering lifesaving free Anti -retroviral therapy despite the current adverse economic climate
He continues to uphold our culture of democracy and will bequeath us a much more mature and vibrant democracy characterised by a livelier and robust press among other things.
He will be remembered for his philanthropic and humanitarian deeds. In particular he is credited for resuscitating our spirit of self-reliance, as shown by the successful Presidential Housing Appeal, which is restoring human dignity to the less fortunate by providing shelter. He will be remembered for living the vision 2016 pillar of a compassionate, Just and caring nation.
He will be remembered for promoting our unity in diversity through promotion of diverse cultures through the President Holiday competitions.
He will be remembered for his sterling work in promoting sports and recreation. Under his leadership Botswana sports men and women came to the party as evidenced by honors they continue to attract in the international stage.
Siki Motshwari Johanness