Khama�s SONA much ado about nothing

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday November 8, 2017 11:37

Frankly, there is nothing to write home about following Khama’s SONA. Most of what the President said is a regurgitation of his past speeches and much like those, the last SONA will go down in the annals of history as one of the most uninspiring. Anyway, we cannot expect manna from Khama, which he failed to supply in his more than nine years at the helm of this wonderful Republic.

He is now left with four months to hand over the baton of power to his vice. If Khama was a chief executive officer of a private company, shareholders would have fired him for poor results. He is lucky that he is a politician and these species’ bar is held much too low. Voters in this country do not hold their leaders accountable, hence politicians get away with much worse than murder most of the time.

We tend to treat our political representatives as our bosses or demigods. The politicians in this country do as they please because the voters, who are supposed to be their bosses, are timid and docile.  That is why some of the politicians are perennial party hoppers, flip-flopping from one party to another with reckless abandon. We have Members of Parliament (MPs) in this session of the National Assembly who have represented more than three different parties in less than a decade.

They are not afraid to defect to a different party because they know that voters will believe their concocted lies. Some of them will even defect from their parties because they do not like some leader. This is absurd and should not be acceptable. Some parliamentarians are serial absconders. When they campaigned for office, they promised voters that they will advocate for their welfare but are failing to do so.

 Some of them go to the August House to warm the chairs and not contribute to debates. Other honourables only mark themselves present and disappear after a few minutes in the House in order to claim a sitting allowance, an act much dishonourable. That is why sometimes the Speaker adjourns meetings because the House cannot form a quorum. This is embarrassing and we do not expect our legislators to behave like primary school pupils.

Our MPs should respect the office they serve and the voters that put them there. We cannot have MPs who always play truant when they should be busy with progressive legislation. Because of this truancy ,our scheming Executive members take advantage of this shortcoming to pass laws repressive to the people.

We expect our legislators to behave honourably and stop throwing water bottles at one another as it does not make the cut. It is simply dishonourable. 

Today’s thought 

“Act well your part, there all the honour lies.” 

 - Alexander Pope, English poet (1688–1744)