SONA : Where speech writers lost the plot
Siki Motshwari Johannes | Friday November 10, 2017 16:39
When a sitting President’s speech fails to capture the mood and meet the expectations of the audience, questions are raised about the quality of the President’s speech writers.
President Ian Khama’s last State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered on Monday this week left the nation wondering who his speech composer is. Khama delivered a long, unnecessarily laborious and uninspiring speech, which reflects the calibre and character of his speech-writers. Clearly, the writers had a bad day in the office.
In other jurisdictions, the speech-writers who crafted Khama’s speech could by now looking for new jobs. The President and ministers are as good as their speech writers. For instance, behind former American President Ronald Reagan, the greatest communicator of all time Peggy Nonaan, an author of note and so was Jonathan Favreau behind the eloquence of the past immediate US president, Barak Obama.
Rhetoric takes centre stage in American politics and this influences the choice and appointment of presidential speech writers. In our own situation, a low premium is attached on speech-making and this explains why things went so wrong for Khama that Monday afternoon.
Shoddy work should not be tolerated and entertained, especially in the highest office in the land. It should be standard practice for those composing the President’s speech to read and inform themselves adequately and accurately on the expectations of the audience.
The writers failed to grasp the political temperature of the moment and therefore, crafted a completely irrelevant speech which disconnected the President from his listeners. Khama’s SONA was disappointing not because it did not carry important national matters. The reported turnaround in the diamond industry, the growing contribution of the non-mining sector are welcome developments, but devoid of a parting shot, the President’s speech was found wanting.
But the fault was in delivering the speech in a ‘business-as-usual’ tone. For the entire speech, the President did not sound like an outgoing President. This is where the speech writers lost the plot.
Khama’s rule was characterised by incessant and unprecedented battles between the executive and the judiciary. Matters came to a head when the President suspended four judges for allegedly pocketing undue housing allowances.
Many felt that the punishment meted out to the judges was too punitive because the executive was motivated by a desire to weed out the judges deemed not friendly or those that are not executive-minded. The executive was accused of assaulting the integrity and independence of the judiciary.
This issue clearly raised questions on the President‘s respect of the rule of law and could damage Botswana’s image internationally. It is surprising that such a hot potato escaped the attention of the speech writers. A statement assuring the nation and the world that, “despite the skirmishes with the judiciary, the President upholds the rule of law.” And this kind of damage control is important not for the sake of the President but to boost investor confidence despite that out of frustration, the judges relented and apologised.
Another latest development worthy of being covered in the last SONA relates to Khama’s failure to uphold the recommendations of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in appointing judges of the High Court. A typical example is the case of Omphemetse Motumise who had to fight for his appointment through courts of law after Khama had simply rejected him. These things if left unexplained could tarnish Botswana’s image in the long-term.
As a parting shot, Khama should have also articulated very well his pet project of poverty eradication besides listing how many houses have been given to the needy as poverty goes beyond housing. He came up with good anti-poverty projects, but unfortunately a lot of government efforts have gone up in smoke.
People who were allocated backyard gardens, for instance, have nothing to show today because their projects have been crippled by the high water bills they incurred at the instance of the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC). Batswana allocated small stock and chickens to run, have been impoverished because the projects crumbled under their noses whilst they had high hopes on such projects. Some are still waiting helplessly for the projects that are not reaching them.
Khama should have addressed Batswana on these failed projects and highlighted on what his government was doing going forward as this was his flagship project targeting thousands of Batswana living below the poverty datum line. Statistics alone, often fail to portray the real picture gripping a nation that is often crippled by spates of drought. Another equally worrying issue that the President failed to tackle effectively is that of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Even when the nation and the opposition parties are selling a convincing story that Khama’s government’s haste on wanting to introduce EVMs in the 2019 general elections is influenced by malice, Khama took the matter for granted.
That the opposition Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has challenged the government’s move to introduce EVMs in 2019, does not prevent the President in his last SONA to share the story of his government. Batswana need to know what Khama and his government are thinking on these crucial issues. Khama’s silence on the EVMs does not help the position of his government expecially that Batswana have rejected the use of EVMs when the government consulted them through kgotla meetings. Having ploughed through a long ‘uninteresting speech’, the moment that people have long awaited for came right at the end of the speech when the president said: “Madam Speaker, in accordance with the Constitution, five months from now I shall be passing the baton of leadership of our great country into the capable hands of His Honour the Vice President, Mokgweetsi Masisi. I am confident that with support of members of this House and the nation as a whole, the next administration will continue to build on the legacy of progress that was begun under my predecessors.”
This is the only portion of the speech which connected with the audience. The nation expected the President to take advantage of SONA to seize to deliver a farewell address and to walk them through the routine of annual ministerial performance reports. This was the moment to speak to the highlights and lows of his term in office and if need tender words of wisdom to the next president. He was expected to open up a bit to give a synopsis of his work and to be candid enough to cite areas where he feels he could have done things differently. The speech sadly fell short of this.