The dress code is discriminatory

| Friday March 26, 2010 00:00

Around 1974 or 1975, a curb reporter by the name of Mpho Oliphant interviewed the then permanent secretary to the president-them, Phillip Stenkamp, on the dress code with special reference to women wearing trousers in the public service. Women public servants then were not allowed to wear trousers as this was seen as the domain of men. But because Sir Seretse Khama's government believed in quality of man women, the restriction was immediately abolished as it was sexist and discriminatory.

During the same period Sir Seretse Khama's government abolished the regulations of tradition beers and Chibuku through licensing process. It is not cost effective and criminalises innocent people who want to make ends meet.

For any rational person to reverse such important decisions that had become part of our tradition and norm a through evaluation should have been conducted to give the next decision legitimacy. Haphazard and erratic decisions would lead to disastrous consequences.

When Masire took over he redefined the role of the intelligency. In the initial stages, the Special Branch got involved in local politics and in some cases interfered with legitimate political activities of innocent citizens and registered organisation. Masire re-directed the intelligence's role to forecast on external forces that threatened our democratic values and institutions. The agency's activities complied with the international norms in western democracies where innocent citizens are not terrorised by state agents like in communist countries and dictatorships. Mogae strengthen some of the democratic values that this country cherished over four decades.

What took dictators such as Hitler, Banda, Mobutho, Amin, Mugabe and many others in Africa, over five year to destroy, has taken President Khama less than two years to accomplish. On scale of 1 - to 10 his dictatorship qualities far surpasses those his counter parts others as he scores 10 plus. The killing of innocent citizens by state apparatus occurred within the first days his ascendance to power. He reserved democratic values built over decades by a stroke of a pen through his numerous directives, which come at a supersonic speed. He is becoming a joke just like Amin in his hey days where 'money was never a problem as long as there was paper in Uganda for the central bank to print more'. How many pet projects are receiving against the advise of experts (economist and financial experts' Botswana survived and experienced growth because Masire and Mogae never spend a thebe against the advice of their professionals. It is worse when this is done by a president who has no tertiary education.

Dictatorships strive on creating fear on the public at large and resent intellectual and vibrant debates of issues of the day. They like to control citizens' way of lives. Culture or traditional dress is not static as we live in a changing world. We moved from caves to houses, from wearing skins to modern clothes.

Fashion trends dictate the way people dress not directives. Flogging of children and people happened in the pass and they now belong to dustbins of history. It used to be fashionable to keep slaves like trophies in America where flogging was the order of the day. Today if a politician where to advocate for these practices which used to be the norm or culture of the whites or Europeans, the world will collectively condemn that as barbaric and sub-human treatment, Botswana included. But when government does that to its own people we think its okay.

Sycophants such as Skelemani, Merafhe and Seretse are the first to join the cheering choir as if their brains have suddenly escaped them.

If Khama had done some basic history on dictatorship at University level (unfortunately like Amin and Hitler education is their taboo), he would have realised that national code of dress is assorted with primitive communism where people dress the same. Remember Chinese during Mao's time or North Korean looked the same as enlarged school kids in a primary school. This practice suppresses the artistic talents of people. Today China dresses the whole world including the biggest capitalist and democratic America because the Chinese can now express their talent. Hugh foreign exchange comes to that country wise leadership saw the advantage of liberalisation and restoring human dignity to the ordinary people. The Khama dress code dehumanise our women folk, it enslaves them to the men's desires instead of allowing them to express their beauty as they wish like in other countries. This control is very insulting and reduces the status of women in our society. What Khama and his cronies should be doing if they were not famous for their double standards, is to abolish wearing of animal skins during major occasion such as independence celebration. This dressing exposes both women and men who will be semi-naked to entertain Khama and his foreign dignitaries. Do we have to entertain our foreign dignitaries in this manner by exposing our naked people? This is what needs to be addressed and discussed frankly instead of the current abuse that our traditional dancers experience. We can not glorify nakedness at one point and castigate it at another point. Nakedness is nakedness, or indecency accompanying traditional dancing should be equally shined.

What is surprising is that women who have been gender activists for years have been conspicuous by their silence on the banning of certain dresses. The code has wide implications ranging from discrimination and potential abuse. Non tribesmen will be saved from some of these barbaric codes and that is discrimination according to my limited understanding. I challenge the Attorney General to assist in understanding the legality of these codes.

Does this not affect our freedom to choice our decent way of dressing. What measures will be used to judge whether this dress is too short or long and what qualification is required.

The attorney-general should ally our fears that there will be militia that would terrorise people under the enforcement of such codes like we same in Iran and Malawi. Abuse of women will definitely increase. Even in fundamental states in the long run dress codes can not withstand the forces of change. The use of DIS to listen to people's phone and monitor their daily lives to see who talks to who and who sleeps with who is just a waste of public funds. How do you take a country to a higher level of development if you are still embroiled in archaic traditions and cultural values that do not have incremental value to our lives? A progressive leader must have a forward looking outlook of culture and tradition while a back-ward looking dictator risk being voted out of power through anger by people. For once the president must listen and listen to the ordinary citizen instead of listening to folk tales. He should listen to problems and what solutions can be put in place from experts, instead of applying fake military tactics to every human problem. He should appreciate that there are many disciplines that specialises in specific areas.

The president must appreciate that a society that is led by sadists can not prosper. Quality leisure should be provided for citizens rather than being reserved for foreigners as is the case right now. Bars in hotels and holiday resorts have liberal opening and closing times yet locals have restrictive hours. This is partly because the country's leadership owns many safari lodges and camping all over the country. They want their businesses to strive at the expense of the ordinary person. It has been proved scientifically that entertainment and fan plays a major role in developing countries to reduce birth rate. Khama is reversing those gains. So watch the results of the next census the birth rate will go back to 3.5 percent as young people try to entertain themselves through sex.

I challenge the Attorney - General to publicly guide us on the recent pronouncements as I feel the rights of women are being trampled on with impunity by insensitive politicians who have given themselves the right to decide on issues that affect our lives without our input. Those advocating for so-called moral regeneration have no family values, which are the cornerstones of societal morals or values. How can man who have no families or women who are unmarried have the audacity to lecture to seasoned married fathers and mothers? The male chauvinistic tendency of the ruling leadership should be challenged without delay. All women who have fought for gender equality should refuse to be treated like part of the enlarged military garrison where the whims and wishes of one leaders prevail without question.

There are weighty issues that the nation needs to address instead of these trivial matters. Ministers are looting the public purse at will. When asked about conflict of interest Seretse recently said the President does not see any thing wrong. Why because it is his cousin. In other countries this minister would be fired not transferred to another Ministry because he will do the same there. Why should be president be the one to judge whether it is okay or not. This minister I thought is accountable to the public rather than to his cousin. Our values and norms dictate that he should resign or get fired.

It will take much more than the breaking of the ruling part to fix the damage that is being perpetuated by the currently leadership and its sycophants (the three puppets).

K MereroGABORONE