Has time for the sacrificial lamb arrived?

| Friday January 29, 2010 00:00

We are not told of what Jesus did when he was in Africa, but chances are like others before him and after, he studied under African masters. I submit that the African was a mentor, whose role was to show the lord how to conduct himself, to give him the courage to complete his mission of  being a sacrificial lamb.

If current events unfolding in our country continue, and if we are very lucky, we are about to see the real essence and beauty of Section 41 of our constitution. The section provides immunity to the person who occupies the Office of President. The section allows one amongst us, who may be as corrupt as we are, to be able to assume a higher moral standing and to thereby give us an opportunity to re-invent ourselves.

Without a doubt there is a strong theme of betrayal at the core of our country. Our colonial era chiefs went to the Queen of England and were betrayed. Our independence era chiefs likewise were betrayed at the independence negotiations. Our republican leaders have without doubt betrayed us.

One of our former leaders once remarked that they did not know what to do with our chiefs. On the surface this sounds like a perfectly innocent statement, but on closer inspection it shows how ill prepared for leadership our independence era leaders were.

Our chiefs were at the core of who we were, custodians of our values and culture.Therefore for an African to say that he did not know what to do with our chiefs is tantamount to saying he did not know what to do with who he was. I submit it is this ill preparedness that is at the core of the acts of lack of judgment that are being exposed now and that continue to tarnish our governance institutions.

I cannot for the life of me imagine an Englishman saying he did not know what to do with the Queen of England in the process of turning his country into a democracy. The crown represents his values, his essence. This may explain why our leaders give greater significance to titles they are given by foreign governments and institutions. They do not know who they are. This attitude of not knowing what to do with our chiefs explains why successive governments since independence have made no effort to teach our children our history other than that we were a protectorate, as if that is something to be proud of.

Rre Khama is a chief, one therefore expects him to be knowledgeable of the duties of chieftainship, one of which is to protect your people's wealth. He is a former army commander, and one expects it to be ingrained in his psyche the duty to protect the people of this country. He is now president of this country, one therefore expects him to fully understand that our country and its people come first and have placed immense power at his disposal to achieve this.

So far Rre Khama has used Section 41 of our constitution for a private purpose. It is time he used the section for a national purpose. If he has wronged us in the past or during his tenure, in terms of Section 41 we have given him an opportunity to serve us without any disturbance. Rre Khama has indirectly indicated that he can contemplate a situation where the Botswana Democratic Party is irrelevant to the affairs of this country. I gleaned this from his statement detailing why he suspended the Secretary General of the Botswana Democratic Party. As things stand half of our people do not believe BDP is relevant to their lives.

Of necessity leaders involved in mineral revenue laundering activities will not understand what conflict-of-interest is about. They will not see any need to have a declaration of assets law. Surely no self respecting money launderer will accept a declaration of assets law. One cannot expect a money launderer to disclose the sources of his wealth.  How do properly grounded leaders resist a citizen economic empowerment law and then go and beg for the mineral revenues to be laundered so that their party can finance its election campaigns? It is ridiculous. A party that produces these types of leaders is irrelevant to our national interests. The current debate about review of the constitution that tends to pitch factions of the BDP against each other should not detract the nation's attention from the shortcomings of the BDP, it has produced leaders who are ready and willing to betray our people. Can someone please explain to me how a country where the president is a citizen, cabinet ministers are citizens, Members of Parliament are citizens, the people have to endure endless debates about the need to place wealth in citizen hands?

One must not discount the possibility that the revelations are not really targeted at past presidents, but at the incumbent. Some are calling for a review of the constitution that has as one of its main targets Section 41 of our constitution. Take away Section 41 and combine it with the revelations about the BDP funding, then you have a lame duck president. Such a president will be easy prey for the corrupt and greedy. Such a president will not be able to chart a new vision for our country. Real power brokers do not waste time on the past, they think forward, so making damaging revelations about past presidents is of no worth to them, such disclosures can only be made if there is some future benefit.

Our constitution is a test of the character of any person who occupies the Office of President. When corrupt people feel comfortable in the presence of a president, he should not look to the nation for why that is so, he must look inwards. What is the point of being a president who enjoys immunity when all he can do with this immunity is to make the corrupt comfortable?

Is Rre Khama our  sacrificial lamb. We have guaranteed him space, and he must use it for our national interest. In Rre Khama we have convergence of chieftainship ideals, military duty and national power. We cannot afford to have this combination wasted by leaders who are too selfish, greedy and short sighted to grasp where we want to be as a people.

If he allows them to feel comfortable around him, we will just discount him as another of the leaders produced by the BDP who could never place their country first. We will just wait for the emergence of a true leader, it may not happen in our lifetime, so what? Nations wait for generations for emergence of a true leader, in between they make do with lesser mortals.

We have a unique opportunity to show the world that even in times of relative peace, things can go terribly wrong, through betrayal, but that it is possible for any society to re-invent itself. We have the constitutional mechanism to re-invent ourselves. Our chiefs did not seek protectorate status so that we become forever an inferior people. They sought protectorate status to buy as time to shine. That is Botswana. No leader who did not know what to do with our chiefs could have come close to understanding this.

If one takes into account the fact that it seems only Sir Seretse Khama had some legal training on the side of the indigenous Batswana who took part in the drafting of our constitution, you begin to wonder whether the other participants ever really understood what our constitution was about.

One may therefore suggest that we should trace our steps to the three chiefs, go past Seretse and move forward. There is nothing unique or original about what I am suggesting.

The Chinese, Indians and Japanese took this route and no one can question their confidence. Even the English, whom our leaders hold in high regard, took the same approach centuries ago when they were colonised by the Romans. Colonisation is an interruption of your development and should never define who you are. Only a leader who is capable of inviting people to disclose his corruption, if any, past or present, without fear of any reprisal can ever really enjoy Section 41 of our constitution and unite the nation. Cabinet ministers must not find it easy and acceptable to offer questionable explanations about conflict of interest, and why we do not have a declaration of assets law.

If Rre Khama mistrusts the nation as regards to Section 41 and can only see value in it for private purposes, then he is not the one. We wait for the sacrificial lamb.

Lediretse Molake