Of Khama and the vicious remarks

| Thursday June 3, 2010 00:00

FRANCISTOWN: Whenever President Ian Khama is faced with dissenting voices, particularly from his opponents and from the media, he tends to retaliate with the use of vitriol and vicious propaganda.

He usually does so, perhaps, in order to cast aspersions on the patriotism of his opponents. Surprisingly, he has gotten away several times with much more than any person could get away with.

The way he portrays women and marriage makes one wonder whether we are being initiated into new Setswana values.

When he was in Francistown at the star rally that he addressed at the beginning of this month, Khama used very unsavoury language directed at Minister of Education, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi as they were dancing on the stage.

'Rona ba ba kwa morago re bonye dilo tse di gakgamatsang ha o ntse o tshikinya dinoka (We at the back have seen amazing things while you were shaking your waist),' Khama said to the enchantment of the crowd.

He has also been quoted as saying he is unable to marry because he has too much on his plate already, probably impying that factions in the party are giving him a headache and he does not want to go home to a wife who would give him another headache.

A Botswana National Front (BNF) youth league spokesperson, Arafat Khan once indicated that Khama has developed democrats to be docile, timid and fearful, noting, 'You disagree with him, you are doomed'.

If that is true, then it partly explains how most people have come to be so accommodating of his foibles. Early last year, Khama confessed his dislike for politics to the Financial Times newspaper during an interview. He stated that it was never his choice to enter politics and that it has never been one of his career ambitions.

'I was quite happy in the military where I was...I always knew politics to be a dirty game. It had no attraction for me and now being in politics I can confirm it is a dirty game and I would never recommend it to anyone,' he had told the newspaper.

Ever since he has been in politics, Khama has never missed an opportunity to make vicious remarks about anyone who crosses his path. Members of Parliament, including those from his own Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), were most probably the first to suffer his wrath when he castigated them in parliament, calling them 'un-principled, intolerant, selfish vultures and monkeys' for asking for salary increases.

It is almost a decade since he made these remarks and at that time he was still the vice-president and had seldom made contributions to Parliament.

This put him on a collision course with Member of Parliament for Tonota South, Pono Moatlhodi. Some people wanted Moatlhodi to apologise but Mmadinare MP Ponatshego Kedikilwe defended him during a kgotla meeting held in Diloro village. He said that like any Motswana Moatlhodi had the right to freely articulate his views in Parliament without hindrance and suggested there was no need for him to apologise as he owed nobody an apology.

At some point, President Khama called BDP chairman Daniel Kwelagobe a self-seeking, power-hungry politician. This was after Kwelagobe had refused to return the favour to vice-president Mompati Merafhe following a deal that had been made for Kwelagobe to assume the party chairmanship without challenge from Merafhe.

Of late Khama seems to be having a torrid time from the newly formed splinter party, Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD). This is evidenced by his recent remarks during political rallies in which he never misses the opportunity to label the leadership of the BMD as dissidents, power-hungry and self-seeking individuals who can readily 'sell' the country to satisfy their individual aspirations.

The president has also at times diverted his attacks to the private media. Recently, he is said to have scathingly accused the private media of being unpatriotic. According to media reports, he made reference specifically to the print media for writing what he called falsehoods about his administration and for calling him a dictator.

He is also said to have accused the media of manufacturing lies about him because they want to sell their papers. 'They never write about the good things my government has done, because they know that the truth is boring. Instead, they call me a dictator and accuse me of using the Directorate of Intelligence and Security to spy on Batswana. They know that this will make profits for them,' Khama was quoted as saying.

This was however met with criticism from some analysts who believe that the media rates very highly on the patriotism bar. They noted that patriotism does not mean writing misplaced novelties about a serving president and that it does not require one to agree with everything that his country does but would actually promote analytical questioning in a quest to make the country the best it possibly can be.