BNF congress 2010 - back from the brink or deeper into the morass?

| Tuesday June 1, 2010 00:00

However, congress offers the party members the distinct opportunity to rebuild their organisation which was plunged into a crisis by the current leadership. This congress comes at time when the fortunes of the organisation were dealt a body blow by an incompetent, obstinate and  yet blundering leadership which split the party into warring factions and severely battered its image  in the eyes of the general public. It is critically important to outline some of the serious challenges facing the BNF.  Far be it from our thoughts to seek to rekindle the debate we had with the Central Committee for the last two years.  We must nevertheless sum up the main reasons for the sorry state of affairs  in which the party finds itself, not least because we must refresh the memories of the readers  and put our proposals in proper perspective.

To say that the hearts of BNF members and well-wishers are bleeding, as a result of the disastrous performance of their party in the 2009 general elections, is a serious understatement.  The BNF has been wiped out  from its traditional stronghold of Gaborone thanks to the most destructive, short-sighted and illegitimate central committee the party has ever had .  Its late founder members who worked tirelessly and achieved so much only to have the fruits of their blood, sweat and tears  undone by a bunch of unrepentant and misguided central committee leaders must be turning in their graves. The party finds itself with only one councilor in all five Gaborone constituencies. Nationally we came within a whisker  losing our status as the main opposition to the BCP.  Our arch  rivals and enemies of the working classes, the  BDP have been allowed back in on a silver plate thanks to the betrayal of the struggle by Moupo's treacherous leadership.

The BNF defeat is all the more painful because it came against the backdrop of the worst global capitalist crisis which hit the workers more than any other class. Thousands of workers in Botswana and millions globally were laid off because of the  global capitalist  crisis of over production.  Our shameful defeat came at a time when the ruling Botswana Democratic Party was at its weakest, when it was torn asunder by  unprecedented  factional wars because of Ian Khama, the control freak who delivered despicable and  corrupt military dictatorship.  These two factors under normal circumstances should have propelled the  BNF to power for the first time in its history. And yet tragically that golden opportunity was once again squandered.  The  abysmal  failure of the central committee to amicably solve non-antagonistic contradictions among comrades; their failure to rise above factionalism; the repeated trampling underfoot of the party constitution by the central committee;  the ruthless rigging of primary elections in order to impose central committee loyalists on the electorate leading to the inevitable  political and court battles which bedeviled and paralyzed the party right until election day ;  an attempt to impose a culture of silence on the movement which took the form of an orgy  of expulsions and suspensions of comrades in gross violation of the  time-tested principles of democratic centralism and organisational norms and principles of criticism and self-criticism coupled with the BNF leader's incessant  personal problems  and blunders which sapped the voters' confidence in him and  the BNF in general; Comrade Moupo's erratic and lackluster  performance in parliament,  are some of the main reasons for the party's  poor showing  in the last general elections. The BNF is in a state of disarray with most MPs and councillors, as well as many BNF financiers, defiantly refusing to make monthly  contributions to an organisation which has alienated them  and no longer serves their interests. The question, however is,  can the rank and file members at the congress  rescue the party from the brink of collapse or will they sink it deeper into the morass? Can the BNF rise from the ashes like a phoenix?

The BNF Temporary Platform is convinced beyond any shadow of doubt that although a successful recovery programme will be a massive and  herculean task it can be done, not least because in terms of political programmes the BNF remains superior to other political parties -  as it is the only one which  addresses the real concerns and aspirations of the struggling and toiling masses of Botswana. So far no political party has  claimed the political space the BNF occupies. The prophets of doom, masquerading as political pundits who claim that the results of the 2009 elections mean that the BNF project has failed, are mischievously  trying to hoodwink us to throw away the baby with the dirty tub water.

Who and how the congress elections are run may make all the difference. We must acknowledge that the party is split into warring factions and therefore set up a committee representative of both groups to run the elections under the watchful eye of some neutral political observers. No single faction can be trusted to deliver a free and fair congress election.

The BNF needs to rebrand itself unequivocally  as a party of the left and perhaps borrow a leaf from political parties in Latin America, especially Venezuela where the iniquitous policies of neo-liberalism are being effectively challenged. The BNF must adopt a political programme which explicitly commits it to a popular democratic and developmental state  challenging the neo-liberal ideology of the BDP and its imperialist masters. The grey areas in the political programme must be dealt with. For instance the party remains silent on serious issues like global warming. The problem of the BNF is the perpetual leadership crisis and unwarranted factional wars resulting from bloated personal egos of those in leadership . The political programme of the BCP is reactionary and hardly distinguishable ideologically from that of the ruling BDP. All the BCP has done is to cash in on the gross mismanagement of the BNF by the central committee by presenting itself as a stable and united party - gaining political millage from the political vacuum created by the BNF leadership. In the process of trying to cash in on the political crisis in both the BDP and the BNF inner-party democracy within the BCP is  rapidly becoming an endangered species.

As different groups struggle to cobble together lobby lists of credible comrades who can revive the party one is always reminded of the statement Lenin once made that ;  'There are no people but we have a mass of people'.Every time we elect people to leadership positions we suddenly find ourselves in this strange situation of having 'no people, but a mass of people' because over the years the party has been paying little more than lip service to political education and the training of its leadership. With commitment to political education increasingly taking the back seat in the BNF this situation is likely to get worse before it gets better thereby ultimately rendering the party ideologically indistinguishable from bourgeois political organisations. This year this strange situation is compounded by the factional divisions and a calculated move by the central committee to expel some comrades with the express intension of  denying them the opportunity to contest congress elections. These two factors have conspired to make it difficult to come up with a team of comrades who can prove equal to the massive task that lies ahead. That is why we have our doubts as to whether the team which will eventually emerge victorious will be able to rise to the challenge and  rescue the party from the edge of a precipice. Put differently,  the question on everybody's lips is whether the BNF can rise to the challenge and assume its historic role as the grave-digger of the capitalist BDP regime? Our answer is a definite, yes, provided we all close ranks, abandon petty differences and work an extra-bit harder to reclaim our position.

In many ways the success of the BNF recovery plan rests on the shoulders of the new leadership that will be elected at the congress. If the wrong team is elected the BNF may sink further into the morass. If on the other hand a strong team issues out of the congress prospects for pulling back from the brink will be brighter. No miracle is required to revive the BNF which has in the past proved to be resilient. All we need is a team of dedicated comrades who have sufficiently internalised party principles and values under an astute leader who is not blemished by debilitating scandals - a leader who is truly the first among equals, a  leader who has the gravitas, a leader imbued with the political get-up-and-go, a leader who has  credibility and a leader who is honest and inspires confidence.  The BNF needs a clean break with its past leadership. In our view the BNF must begin the strategy of constantly gauging public perceptions of the party and its leadership through opinions polls. 

Moupo's belated forced decision not to contest the congress elections is a welcome development. But  this is not just about one individual. The whole central committee is guilty by association and where they have been smuggled  into lobby lists it is in the  interests of the party that  they are ditched by the rank and file members during  elections. The BNF desperately needs a breath of fresh air. Any lobby list which includes the old guard whose gross mismanagement of the affairs of the party brought it to the brink of collapse is as ill-advised as it is unacceptable. These comrades carry a huge baggage which effectively incapacitates them from carrying  reforms required to resuscitate the beleaguered movement.

Some comrades reckon that to have members of the old guard on board amounts to reconciliation. I am afraid  those comrades are confusing appeasement with reconciliation. People who were not even amenable to comradely advice should be kept well away from a team of comrades charged with the onerous responsibility of reviving and revamping the organisation. We all know that this blundering central committee spurned and squandered countless reconciliation overtures by different comrades because of stubbornness tinged with foolhardiness. To add insult to injury they do not even have the slightest compunction and decency to accept responsibility for the mess they clearly orchestrated and  authored. They keep looking for a scapegoat by pointing accusing fingers at the BNF Temporary Platform - a cheap diversionary tactic geared towards confusing cause and effect.  For reconciliation to take place there must be a spirit of give and take on both sides. 

Under normal circumstances when congress is just around the corner, particularly when there is so much at stake,  the private media would be inundated with a flurry of articles from BNF members debating the future direction of the movement. This time around there is a deafening  silence is totally unacceptable to the BNF Temporary Platform. The article which have surface in the media are few and far between and hardly tackled the real indaba.

This is  a measure of the extent of the damage inflicted on the organisation by the sustained campaign of intimidation waged by the central committee. As far as we are concerned one of the most important reforms that needs to be carried out  is to restore the BNF democratic  culture of open debates and  a free exchange of ideas and polemics both in and outside the party. Stifling internal debate, particularly in a progressive movement like the BNF under the guise of or  in the name of some misunderstood notion of  discipline amounts to killing the party itself. Lenin's advice is apposite;

'Without pressure from the mass of workers, without tumultuous democracy and debate, which is the ordinary functioning of a revolutionary organization, it is impossible for the party to learn what is going on in the class, to discuss and debate its own experience and to formulate policy'.   Or as some have pointed out, 'a revolutionary party operates precisely by being in a relationship of 'tension and conflict' both with the mass of the working class and with ordinary members of the party who are subject to the pressure of the mass of workers'.  The BNF must revive its time-tested culture of  Puo-Phaa or Straight talk which does not break friendship because it has served the party well.  If there was ever a time when  the BNF needed  'tumultuous democracy' it is now. If there was ever a time when the BNF needed to be 'in a relationship of tension and conflict' both with the mass of the working class and with ordinary members of the party' it is now because we must honestly engage in a sober and  serious soul searching exercise in order to revive our movement. A mechanical enforcement of discipline which fails to take into account the  organizational context and  general state of the movement particularly its failure to adhere to democratic principles in its various structures of the party was always going to destabilize the movement. It is little short of extraordinary that not a single  attempt was made by the central committee to address the serious political differences they had with the BNF Temporary Platform with a view to resolving them. Instead they were quick to adopt a punitive approach which was doomed to failure with far reaching consequences. Leninist  discipline rests on ideological unity and open discussion where rights and wrongs are brought out in the open.

Consistent adherence to the principles of democratic centralism coupled with a bit of common sense could have very easily solve the problems that rocked the movement for  three years or so. Issues must always be openly debated, argued about and sometimes fought over but once they are settled, everyone - regardless of their position in the course of the debate - has to abide by the majority decision  and act upon it. Centralism is required to for an organization which strikes simultaneously as one entity while democracy is required to ensure that the blows are struck on the correct principles. Without democracy, without constant debate and discussion to check whether what the party  is doing is correct or whether there is need for change, a revolutionary party dies, and indeed during the last three years the BNF has been slowly dying internally. It is simply disingenuous for anybody to argue that the 2007 Special Congress held in Molepolole was an expression of democratic centralism because as we all know  no debate and discussion of the issues was permitted. Subsequently, at the Jwaneng conference the intolerance of the central committee assumed  silly and frightening proportions as comrades associated with the BNF Temporary Platform literally had the conference gates and doors locked and slammed behind them. Only Moupo's faction was allowed in. The Publicity Secretary then issues a statement in the private press celebrating the so-called success of the Jwaneng conference while half of the delegates were locked outside the conference hall. And when the BNF Temporary Platform set the record straight in the private media they were accused of 'indiscipline'. 

The BNF has not just lost some of its 2004 electoral gains, it has lost a good deal of its credibility in the eyes of the general public because it was led by discredited leaders with a carefree attitude to matters of good leadership.BNF is no longer the household name that it was. Indeed many now doubt if it is the grave-digger of the BDP regime it once was.  My brother  who  is a staunch supporter of the BNF captured this crisis very well when he told me  that during the party's  heydays when its name  was mentioned while he was working in the South African mines it evoked feelings of great pride and hope  because the party championed the cause of the downtrodden masses of Botswana. Today, he lamented, as a result of the current leadership any mention of the name of the BNF is met with cynicism by many people.  Given the rapidly changing political landscape of this country the BNF recovery plan must be treated as a matter of  great urgency. The BNF is under pressure to position itself to play a key if not  leading role in the changing political climate and it can only assume that role if it is strong. The numbers of MPs each party has in parliament will soon become very important.  In this regard the continued alienation of some of its members particularly its own member of parliament for Lobatse, Cde Mpdubule may be suicidal.

One of the ill-advised strategies of the old guard, which really pains me because it  dealt a massive blow to the credibility of the BNF in the eyes is the public,  is the way they even buried comrades strictly along factional lines.We do not wish to name some of the victims because their families are still grieving, but we must point out just how devastating it was when the party refused to give one of our comrades who served the party diligently as a councilor in Francistown a party burial because he had a tenuous relationship with the Temporary Platform.

Ironically, the concerned comrade had served in Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU and as a result a high-powered political delegation from Zimbabwe was present while  his own party in Botswana turned its back on him at that critical period. How dreadful and shameful! Giving our departed comrades a party burial by turning up in full party gear  is not just about honoring them, but  it is also a way of selling the party to  the public a large. We feel so strongly about this injustice that we would like to propose to the new leadership that will issue out of the congress  that all the comrades who were denied a  party burial must be identified and some kind of  symbolic reburial carried out with the consent of their families. This would go a long way towards redeeming the badly battered  image oft the BNF .  The main point we are making is that the new  leadership  must come up with a clear strategy of dealing with the credibility crisis which has gripped the BNF as a result of bad leadership. The new leadership must work hard to restore the image and credibility of the BNF as the only real grave-digger of the BDP regime. 

The new BNF leadership must uphold, respect and defend  the party constitution and regulations governing the conduct of primary elections at all times. The will of the people expressed in the primary elections must be regarded as sacrosanct and respected by all party members.  In many ways the BNF is synonymous with its constitution and policy documents. These documents define its nature and character and yet under the traitorous leadership these sacrosanct documents were reduced to playthings and  trampled underfoot time and time again.

Imagine how they decided to elongate their stay in office by three years - violating the constitution with  reckless abandon.  Related to the  point  made above is the absolute importance of the leadership adhering to its own  regulations at all times. The BNF primary elections were an unmitigated mess deliberately caused by Moupo's faction and it is this anarchy more than anything else which contributed to the party's poor showing at the polls.

Where members of the Temporary Platform beat  the central committee candidates fair and square results were simply nullified and an attempt made to impose Moupo's rejects on the people inevitably precipitating  legitimate bitter political and legal battles  by comrades who had paid P2 000.00 each  to contest parliamentary elections only to have their victory  stolen from them by the leadership. Over the last three years we witnessed the most blatant violation of primary elections regulations  by the central committee which left the party in complete disarray.  Consequently the central committee found itself in the most invidious situation of fighting on two fronts - fighting the BDP regime and its own members.

The BNF needs to review its strategy of handling contradictions among comrades. A clear conflict prevention and conflict resolution strategy must be developed.  We cannot convince the general public that our political programme is superior and that we would like to take Batswana to the promised land of no exploitation of one person by another while we handle non-antagonistic contradictions is such  an atrocious and primitive manner. In our study groups time must be devoted to teaching cadres about the correct ways of handling  non-antagonistic differences among comrades. The traitors who have hijacked the BNF leadership were much more comfortable talking to the enemy instead of  talking to their fellow comrades. Differences  among comrades were treated as if they are antagonistic while differences between the traitors and the enemy BDP were now  regarded as non-antagonistic!

The new BNF leadership must give political education the special attention it deserves. We are calling for regular seminars and workshops; the revival  of study groups;  the involvement of more people in conducting study groups - not just the Secretary for Political Education; the establishment of a library at party headquarters;    the acquisition of the necessary technological devices e.g.  camcorders to capture some of the major political events,  to mention but a few reforms. The BNF has been drifting further and further to the right of the political spectrum because it has abandoned political education. This dangerous development must be arrested through heightened political education. Political education must no longer be shunted to the office of the Secretary for Political Education where very little or nothing happens. It must be the responsibility of the party leadership at all levels and the party apparatchik who are not aversive to progressive literature must be routinely subjected to political education to avoid cooptation into the capitalist  structures of the BDP regime.

The development of a counter-hegemony of the working class and its allies is absolutely important in unmasking the capitalist propaganda of the BDP regime  and to that effect the revival of Puo Phaa is overdue. Cheap anti-intellectualism must be combated. Revolutionary intellectuals are indispensable to a progressive movement and must undertake their historic educational role of helping the oppressed classes to develop their intellectual capabilities, technical expertise and political awareness requisite to the establishment of  a socialist-oriented society. The ideological saturation by ruling classes must be countered. A progressive newspaper can help rebuild the organisation.

The new central committee must provide vanguard leadership on all national and international issues of importance. The issue of Basarwa of CKGR which the 2005 central committee had started placing on the agenda of the leadership must be restored to its place.  It is sad to note that the momentum in this regard was lost by the current leadership ironically at a time when government lies about the eviction of Basarwa of CKGR have been exposed. We now know that after a sustained campaign of  lies and misuse of the taxpayers money to fight Survival International the real reasons for the eviction of Basarwa from CKGR  had nothing to do with the  protection of the environment,  instead it was all about the insatiable greed of the bourgeois leadership and their friends in the mining multinational corporations who have since taken over the land of Basarwa and will not even provide them with a  basic need - drinking water!. 

The 2005 central committee had started working out a strategy of mass actions and once again the current leadership failed to maintain the momentum.  It is revolutionary methods of struggle which will set the BNF apart from  conservative political parties and inspire confidence in the struggling and toiling masses of Botswana.

People will rally behind the BNF if it demonstrates through action that it is fighting for their rights. Mass actions should be used to fight against major national issues such as the recent mafia story involving the BDP, De Beers and former president Masire. It is far from enough to issue an ordinary  statement or call for a judicial commission of enquiry - this matter requires concerted  political action. Masire's golden handshake extended to him by our parliament when he retired from office  must be terminated forthwith because he had already received an illegal P4m 'diamond' handshake from De Beers.

A capacity building programme for MPs and councilors tapping into the expertise inside the party and the country generally, as well as outside our borders needs to be developed. Organisations like EISA can be approached to assist with the training of our MPs and councilors whose performance has been below par for a long time. They hardly articulate consistently the party policies nor do they keep the BDP regime on its toes. The development of sectoral polices is long over due, so is  the establishment of party infrastructure to increase the visibility of the BNF in all key areas. And the campaign for the next general election should have started in earnest a day after the results of the general elections were announced because this is a cycle or a never-ending process.  A constitutional review is long overdue. The document itself must be made to look good with a table of contents page. In a democratic organization there must be a structure empowered to sack a non-performing president before the entire organization suffers from his/her shortcomings. There must be a clear limit on the power of the BNF leader to co-opt comrades (and their positions spelt out) into the central committee otherwise we run the risk of having many hand-picked central committee leaders who inevitably dance to the tune to the man or woman  who appointed them. Some positions must be regarded as strictly elective positions where co-optation is not allowed.  Over the last three years several self-respecting central committee members quietly resigned their central committee  positions and Moupo has been co-opting his cronies and poodles endlessly.

Even the Deputy Secretary General was hand-picked.  In our view a  review of the BNF constitution must include the revival of some  old party structures which served the organization well. We spell out some of these structures.Chairpersons of BNF regions must again be ex-officio members of the central committee. This will help the flow of information from the CC to the lower structures and vice-versa. We need to revive the National Executive Committee which was  made up of the Secretariat, the Chairperson and secretaries of the regional monitoring committees, the Chairperson and secretaries of constituency committees, the Chairperson and secretary of the Women's League, the Chairperson and secretary of the Youth League, the Chairperson and secretary of the Student Council and the Chairperson and secretary of the Music Council. Central committee members could attend the meetings by invitation. The National Executive met whenever the situation demanded.

At its meetings the National Executive received reports from its component bodies which it discussed and passed resolutions for implementation. The BNF also used to have National Executive Conferences and Congresses made up of the National Executive Committee, the Secretariat, the Chairperson and secretaries of the regional monitoring committees, the Chairperson and secretaries of constituency committees, the Chairperson and secretaries of ward committees, the Chairperson and secretaries of women's leagues at all levels, the Chairperson and secretaries of the youth league at all levels, parliamentarians, councilors and the Chairperson and secretaries of Student Council.  Central committee members participated on an ex-officio basis. 

We still need these structures Although the Botswana Student Council no longer exists at UB we have the Mass Movement  and currently there is hardly any formal structure linking it directly with the rest of the BNF structures.Indeed even when it comes to voting sometimes some  comrades claim not to recognize the Mass Movement.  The revival of some of these structures would create an important forum for debate which does not seem to exist currently.Again in the past the BNF did not have the post of Vice President, like most progressive movements. It had a Presidential Commission of four comrades. The BNF needs to think again whether the creation of the post of Vice President has enhanced its performance or not. In our view this post has resulted in a false official view held in the party that the next senior person after the President is the Vice President when in fact that should be the Secretary General.  Some comrades have gone further to ask whether it was worthwhile to create the post of Secretary for Publicity and Information when in the past that role was effectively shouldered by the Secretary General. The current publicity secretary has committed blunder after blunder and clearly confused publicizing the movement with his porcupine defense of a discredited BNF leader.

The point is keeping  these two positions is both a duplication of effort or a dilution of the role of the Secretary General. If the publicity of the movement is deemed to be important it might be worthwhile subsuming that post under the office of party Secretary General.Comrade Moore