Masire In Quotes
Chakalisa Dube | Monday June 26, 2017 15:46
“In a democracy like ours, elections belong to citizens, not the government and its institutions. Government institutions conduct elections on behalf of the people,” Masire was quoted as saying by one of the local newspapers during an interview.
He was airing his views on the debate regarding the electronic voting machines, which the ruling party government intends to use at the 2019 general elections. This was one of the late former stateman’s last interviews. “We used to say to our donors, ‘help us to help ourselves, and the more you help us, the sooner you will get rid of us.”’
That was in September 1995 when the Agency for International Development (AID) shut its bilateral mission in Botswana, asserting that the country had “graduated” from foreign assistance. According to Masire, it was a rite of passage the nation had been preparing for all along.
“We, the young people, wished to see Batswana acting as a country at the end of the colonial era, not as tribes.
This is what caused two colleagues and I to want to start a paper [in 1954]. It was not money, or politics. We were reading African Advisory Council minutes and seeing that the Chiefs wanted to be big fish in small ponds.” Masire is said to have favoured a strong central government that would protect private property and empowered to discipline acquisitive and or autocratic Dikgosi.
“The first time I saw Seretse Khama, it was while reporting for Naledi ya Batswana [newspaper]. He was with Rasebolai and I took his picture. He objected, and I said, ‘I am too small to be asking you questions.’ They accepted that.” Masire on his first encounter with Botswana’s first president who he deputised before succeeding him after his (Seretse) death. “Agriculture is a major disappointment. As much as Botswana is a dry country, it has agricultural potential . . . The skeptics are wrong about Botswana’s potential in agriculture. They are putting new wine in old bottles, not looking to new solutions. But definitely the old crops do not pay... “The problem is that success in some fields has drained talent away from agriculture into other channels. From a manpower point of view, it is the poorest of the poor.”
Masire, an avid farmer, was giving a newspaper interview in 1995. He has always believed that agriculture can help diversify Botswana’s economy. “The old order must give way before it corrupted the new.” Masire on why he retired. “Bad governance doesn’t just undermine service delivery, it retards development, and it also drives violence”. Masire who often gave veiled attacks towards the current Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government was giving a speech at the Conference on Governance and Service Delivery in Developing Economies in August 2015.
“Corruption imposes heavy costs on the country and distorts development policies. It hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development. It undermines government’s ability to provide essential services. It fuels inequality and injustice and discourages foreign investment.” Conference on Governance and Service Delivery in Developing Economies in August 2015.
“Even as we have differed among ourselves over the course of 11 general elections, we have, nonetheless, continued to travel together towards our common destiny.
I pray that that which divides us as Batswana will, therefore, continue to be less than that which joins us as a nation that is proudly united in its diversity. In this way, our differences of political perspective will remain a source of our governing strength.” - Masire at UB, October 2016. “Spread the message.
The future of our country is paramount. We need visionary people on the future of the country not those who want to create a name only for themselves.” Masire was speaking at Gomolemo Motswaledi’s funeral in 2014. Motswaledi was one of the leaders of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
Masire’s statements were calculated as a veiled endorsement of the UDC. “Our progress has been so rapid because we have benefited from the experience and the mistakes of others.” Masire noted in a speech to the first Parliament in 1966.