BNF 's reponse to Sesinyi's book

| Wednesday March 10, 2010 00:00

From the review of the book, courtesy of Mmegi, it is evident that the publication is a horrendous massacre on the government in waiting.

Granted, this a fiction book, but it appears that Sesinyi decided to use the book to portray the opposition in bad light. He sees 'anarchy, looting, assassinations, abuse of government property, and more doom, if the opposition assumes power in Botswana.

As a consequence, as the main opposition party we are obliged to respond and not allow the nation to be confused by this piece of fiction. The allegation by Sesinyi that there will be unrest on the inevitable assumption of power by the opposition is outrageous, irresponsible and disgusting. It is also disrespectful to opposition parties and their leadership to say the least. By this insinuation the author is taking a stance and position typical of BDP activists who have anointed and like to project themselves and their party as paragons of patriotism, morality and good governance. What Sesinyi predicts as the situation once state power is transferred to opposition is actually what the BDP is doing right now and worse for that matter. Below are some of the incidents, which are real and one would have thought they would have influenced his book if it was not meant to confuse voters;

* Not so long ago it was reported that the BDP,  which Sesinyi wants to project as an institution of unimpeachable integrity and its former president Sir Ketumile Masire  used their incumbency to mortgage the country to De Beers at the expense of national interest. Coincidentally the sell out to De beers which is a classical example of abuse of state power happened under the nose of Sesinyi. No amount of abuse of power is worse than using your position to subordinate national interest to serve your narrow personal interest.

*  Lately there has been an unprecedented and unjustifiable dismissal of senior civil servants without explanation. It is just a matter of time before the state is summoned to court for unfair dismissal. The civil service is already in a state that Sesinyi predicts will happen under the stewardship of opposition. The challenge for the opposition on assuming power is to restore confidence in the civil service so that public servants can know that they can do their job without undue political influence.

* Sometime last year the BDP president ordered the Director of Broadcasting Services to read out a partisan statement on national television. With no option the Director had to seat there and bore the nation with a message that was purely not of national concern and monumentally meaningless to ordinary people. By getting such a senior person to advance petty party factional fights the president was displaying a classic example of abuse of power which Sesinyi deliberately overlooks in favour of pointing fingers at opposition parties. A BDP Minister has on several occasions used a government vehicle including an employee on government payroll to attend lectures in South Africa. This had nothing to do with the minister's official engagements. Sesinyi's book overlooked these incidents. Its aim it appears was to portray the 'untrustworthiness' of the opposition as judged by the BDP. The BDP government has consistently used government institutions to appease their members. State resources have also been used to further the interests of the party. 

*The BDP government, though the country has had the benefit of a valuable resource like diamonds, has not really provided political leadership in ensuring that the benefits of this resource are maximised to eradicate the root causes of poverty. This is due to a political agenda and a lack of leadership to ensure that citizens pioneer economic prosperity. There is already anarchy referred to by Sesinyi in the country because of poverty and Batswana being beggars in their own country. We have on countless occasions called for the enactment of a citizen empowerment legislation (the latest being the construction policy advocating for preferential procurement of construction work by citizen owned companies and mentoring of emerging contractors amongst others).

Unfortunately these calls always fall on deaf years because of the ruling party's misplaced priorities. It is acts of parliament like our suggestion for a construction charter that will eradicate the root causes of poverty and improve the living standards of citizens.

*Currently appointments to cabinet are made along factional lines and loyalty to the leader thereby compromising delivery. This stifles debate and threatens the dignity and public acceptance of the integrity of the national assembly. It weakens our democracy as the Legislature is not able to stamp its authority and get the Executive to account for its actions.

*The current electricity crisis is a result of neglect on the part of the BDP government. Despite our advise then to generate power locally and create employment, the BDP decided to import power. This is happening while we have abundant coal reserves. Issues as important as energy supply require visionary leadership which the BDP government has proved it cannot provide. During the tenure of a BDP government, there is chaos and loss of production which is brought about by electrical load shedding. Once more this has eluded Sesinyi's book.

*The past two years have seen unprecedented cases of extra-judicial killings where people accused of crimes were shot dead without attempting to arrest them and subject them to judicial processes as it should be the case in a country that 'believes in protection of civil liberties'. The fact that there has never been a swift and proper justification or a sign of remorse from the leadership to these heinous crimes sends a clear message to the nation and shows how unsafe we are in our own land. Yesterday it was John Kalafatis, tomorrow it may be you.

Despite our calls for a speedy account to these killings and prosecution of perpetrators, there has not been any progress except for the usual 'our investigations are ongoing' or 'the docket is now with the DPP'. The expectation is that custodians of administration of justice like the Attorney General would condemn such acts and assure the nation that justice will prevail. It is surprising and hypocritical of the Attorney General to be so quite about judicial killings only to comment on a case involving the flogging of people in Kgatleng. Selective condemnation of wrong doing strengthens the general public perception about government agenda on these cases. The assassination that  Sesinyi attributes to the opposition once we assume power is happening under the BDP leadership and as it is these killings won't stop anytime soon.

*In a Democracy elections take place every 5years to give citizens the opportunity to choose leaders to represent their views. Democracy also acknowledges the existence and independence from each other of the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary.  This is meant to allow for checks and balances. In Botswana however, the Legislature is not independent. The BDP government has turned parliament into a party regulated institution where MPs cannot genuinely serve the interests of constituents. Parliament is also seen by the BDP as a platform for popularity contest where credible and progressive motions can be rejected on the grounds that they originate from the opposition and adoption thereof will endear the opposition to the general public. This is absurd and makes a mockery of a parliament as it is supposed to be a sacred place devoted exclusively to addressing needs of the constituents and ensuring that people's voices count.

*The government priorities are very misplaced. The BDP leadership can find it fit to cut the number of students going to tertiary institutions and reduce student allowances under the pretext of budgetary constraints so that the BDP leadership customised lifestyle can be financed and maintained. Since its formation, the DIS has been getting a significant chunk of the Budget though there are other areas in the country where this money can go far in advancing the social imbalances. Botswana is still at an infant stage on issues of national security especially as it does not influence any major international or regional events. So the current investment on this security organ does not pay any dividends to the nation. The money spent on DIS under a visionary leadership could be used in strengthening the police and rehabilitation of offenders or more importantly on Skills Development for citizens who try hard to make ends. The examples of BDP government disregard to civil liberties and global democratic reforms are too many to mention, yet Mr Sesinyi sees no evil and hears no evil. What a tragedy! The anarchy, looting, abuse of government property and more doom that is being attributed to the opposition on taking over state power is displayed by the BDP. The book could be more appealing and could have made the author's life a lot easier if the BDP leadership was used as a case study to inspire his writings. The only relevance of the book is that it will actually raise awareness and make its readers alive to the current state of affairs in Botswana. It will not compound our efforts to lure the nation into using their vote to punish the BDP for treating them with contempt and doing exactly what he prophesise will happen under a new government. There is irony in the book making an observation on perceived leadership once opposition assumes power just before the ink has died on the BDP-De Beers debacle. It is being published at a time when the BDP is divided right down the middle. The divisions and factionalism led to De Beers buying Former President Masire out of office and bringing in liuetenant General Ian Khama  into the BDP to quell the situation. We all know that the situation is getting worse and there is a possibility of a splinter party from the BDP.    It is probably too late to give this advise but for what it is worth, Sesinyi should desist from throwing stones because the party that he clearly has a soft spot for lives in a glass house. To us this book is just a piece of propaganda. Inevitable change which is so near can not be stopped by fiction. Change is nigh. Lets embrace it Sesinyi and not allow deep seated illusions to influence our writings.  

Moeti MohwasaInformation and Publicity SecretaryBNF