Botswana politics and the leadership question

LAWRENCE OOKEDITSE | Friday January 29, 2010 00:00

News of his impending stepping down from the party presidency and the speculation that ensues as to who will take over awakens a sense in one that we perhaps do not have many great leaders-not that Dr Zibani Maundeni would agree, if he still holds the view that is-that when one leader steps down others rise on the side, who had previously been somewhat eclipsed. Men and women with heroic grandeur; those whose administrations could clash with their times and find some measure of greatness are rare to find. And the country still needs a man or woman ahead of his time.

Such we have failed to have in abundance thus far; from both within the ruling and opposition parties. Alas for countless pundits and inspirational speakers, it is apparently not the case that the Chinese word for crisis is spelled by joining the characters for danger and opportunity. But that common fallacy nevertheless captures an important metaphorical truth: whatever the perils it brings with it, a crisis can be a grand opportunity.

Such opportunity though, as we saw with Botswana opposition parties at last year's general election, can easily be missed if such do not have apt leadership to harness crisis into opportunity.  Whether the BCP will harness the change in the presidential guardianship as a vacuum leading to greater opportunities for self-renewal and eventual electoral success remains to be seen.  

Naturally, the biggest question is who will succeed Saleshando, Dr Kesetegile Gobotswang demonstrated great intellect when he declared that he is unavailable given the commitment, and perhaps charisma, that goes with the position. Not many names are cropping up, even if you searched you would not find many suitable candidates; those with the necessary credentials, including that extra ordinary effect on others-charisma- to assert themselves over the leadership of the party.

Taolo Lucas, having served as secretary general would perhaps be close to holding the fort but whispers in the woods do not suggest his interest in the presidency-it's too early to tell though; Dick Bayford is said not to have much green flowing in his veins though such could prove to be just speculation. The likes of Batisani Maswibilili seem not to have the interest or the adequate charisma to take over. One easily runs short of possible candidates. Not that this problem is only within the BCP; both the Botswana Democratic Party and the Botswana National Front suffer from the same.

For the BCP, there remains a single claimant with the near charismatic effect that could propel a party from an opposing movement into a governing one. He has not declared himself unavailable, neither has he declared himself available but he has made the vague statement that politicians tactfully make when they are interested but would hate to appear rather too upfront with their interest.

Dumelang Saleshando said a week or so ago that the party/people will decide who they want to lead and he shall wait for that voice of the majority. One gets to believe he is intelligent enough though to still be battling with the fact that he is Gilson Saleshando's son and his ascendancy could easily be seen as the establishment and entrenchment of oligarch of the Saleshandos. Thus, the party would be robbed of the cannon fodder of claiming other parties belong to certain familial lineages. Still, he could compensate for this with other qualities.  Whoever takes over the fort needs to be able to lead with the astuteness of a military general and to seize opportunities such as economic pressures akin to last year's recession and BDP factions and infighting. He/she has to be someone who understands that risk and opportunity are interwoven and one who is able to intricately pluck away the opportunity.

Among those who have understood that truth was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Writing to his fellow Democrats in the 1920s, Roosevelt noted that their party could not hope to return to power until the Republicans led the nation 'into a serious period of depression and unemployment.' In a case of beware what you wish for, the great depression set in and FDR's name was immortalised for the inspiration he became though he never quite ended the depression.

Not only are leaders adored for such. Steven Soderbergh director of a Che Guevara biopic reveals why he thought he made such an admired leader.  'I was drawn to him because of the things in him that transcended the political ideas of the day: his will, his commitment and his total willingness to engage at all levels, all the time, in aid of someone else, for people he hadn't met, and didn't know.

He never benefited from any of this. He wasn't interested in power. He twice walked away from everything he had to fight in a revolution - the second time with real consequences. He was the number two man in Cuba with a new family, and obviously felt his place was in the jungle. I think that's where he was most comfortable, strangely', he says.

Such a leader many people would follow without a pause and part of the reason the opposition still finds it hard to win a general election here is the unavailability of that person. Still, with such steely abilities and a sheer willingness to get one's hands dirty, that inspirational leader would do well if well groomed and with lots of sex appeal, yes sex appeal. After all, the voter is like a suitor.  Watch that epic movie, King Kong for more insight into beauty and the beast. Che had it, so did Blair back in 1994, JF Kennedy too and now Barack Obama exhumes it too thus coming out as a hit to young women voters.

David Cameron in the UK Conservatives' hot seat has it and has Gordon Brown worried. Will the BCP man/woman who takes over have it? For without it, at that level the person will fail to compete with President Ian Khama who has a fair share of his own charisma among the ordinary folk.

The Nazis, for all their evils, were one political movement to understand the power of glamour and sexual charisma, and exploit it. Then you have the Cuban revolution, which came with these macho guys with their straggly hair and beards and their sexual glamour and suddenly had their posters all over the world and the entire radical chic crowd creaming their jeans. Somebody out here has to harness that power of theirs; the BCP and BNF have a chance to go for such a person at their next congresses but such a person must have the complete set of qualities not  just be a brainless macho.

Confronted with the same questions on leadership, back in 1974, TIME magazine quizzed several high profile people on what makes a great leader and who comes out as a great leader. Perhaps not surprisingly, a US philosopher, Mortimer Adler, came out with quite some answer arguing that 'in Aristotelian terms, the good leader must have ethos, pathos and logos.  The ethos is his moral character, the source of his ability to persuade.

The pathos is his ability to touch feelings, to move people emotionally. The logos is his ability to give solid reasons for an action, to move people intellectually. By this definition, Pericles of Athens was a great leader'.

For US psychoanalyst Jules  Masserman, 'leaders must fulfill three functions -provide for the well-being of the led, provide a social organisation in which people feel relatively secure, and provide them with one set of beliefs. People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammed, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same'. 

A Chinese historian Yu Ying-Shih also has a version of good leadership, positing that 'Gandhi, a religious saint of the highest moral principles, but also a political leader who worked for the rights of the depressed and disinherited classes. He had no personal greed for power but cared rather for the welfare of the people, using persuasion instead of violence, never allowing expediency to justify a deviation from the truth'. In a world shorn of truth, especially in the murky waters politics are, a man or woman whose moral fiber appears intact is in this version desirable.

With the congresses coming up mid this year, and the BCP Presidency already declared vacant, men and women need to ponder if they fit the bill. Do you have the necessary credentials men and women as you go about caucusing? Look in the mirror and give yourself an honest rating. If not, you belong to the rubble of masses best led-and so many such pseudo leaders we have had and have been going nowhere slowly.