Welcome BMD, but the world is hard!

| Friday May 14, 2010 00:00

There is a newborn political baby, the Botswana Movement for Democracy. There is certainly a visible crack in the BDP. A new doubt has forced itself into our minds as a political equation and particularly so in the mind of the BDP itself. Its reaction will vary from a possible panic that may lead to friction and violence or to a sober realisation that times are changing.

There is a new urgency for political clarity and principled unity in action. Remember every party says 'Ke nako!'And the question that remains to be answered is, 'Ke nako for what?' Certainly not posturing. Yet with this new formation, what have we got? Some kind of reformist, messianic organisation of semi-religious posturers. Or are they real revolutionaries prepared to smash the edifice of their former state? That is unlikely because to do that they must turn Marxist, which they cannot. Secondly, there is no room for reform. The BCP is well-placed and thriving in that corner. Would they join the BCP or galvanise a merger between the BCP and the BNF? Can they provide the necessary glue? Now that they have formed a party of their own, they cannot be allowed to keep talking hard but acting soft. Are they a bat or a bird? It is scary to think the establishment of a new party may be the working of agent provocateurs. An action calculated to make our country descend quickly into heightened intolerance and political violence as the BDP overreacts to its loss. They seem to.

The leaders of this organisation are making the right noises with their proclaimed readiness for opposition unity, which is part of the opposition agenda. The question that remains is why they did not simply join existing opposition parties. That they formed a party speaks volumes of them. The opposition must be careful and vigilant even in the stated pursuit of unity. They must talk unity with this new group on their own terms. They may be lifting an olive branch while at the same time trying to steal solid ground from underneath the feet of opposition. Sidney Pilane may be an advocate at law, but he is certainly not the common man's advocate. Botsalo Ntuane, with his deceptively innocent baby face, cuts a sorry figure. He is a hustler in his own right and has more to offer as the one who invigorated the then dying BDP into urban boldness that robbed the opposition of its agency. However, he will find out now, that he needs is more than talent. He now, also needs strong institutional backing.

And all jokes aside, there is going to be the hard work, gentlemen (and ladies, if there are). Not only of acclimatising to a hostile opposition environment but also a change of paragmatic gears. It appears the leaders of the new party have not yet come to terms with the fact that  they are part of the hated 'other'. They are still missing their flatterers at Btv. And they genuinely seem surprised when the reporters are nowhere to be found.The reporters are 'working' and they take instructions from their superiors. Any complication?

Well, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi has made it abundantly clear that those reporters at Btv are BX and therefore BDP property. No more letsoku decorations on those stylistically shaved heads or 'washing of spears' by the 'vanguard' of political novices returning from opposition bashing. The opposition has long asked for an even political playing ground. But then you thought people were mad, because as it was stated, the BDP is not into a coalition government. You are educated people and so must remember the crazy guy who says that man's major drive is the single desire to dominate others, how far is he from telling the truth of our era. Lwa re ke a go somolela jaanong. It is only that I am tiring of the base taba e ya rona le bo rre Mhlongo le mma Mhlongo, Maokaneng a tsatsi le letsatsi go sena ditshutiso.

Something proximate to the level of our national parliamentary debate where nobody follows up on the state of our nation or raises the necessary questions on what the previous speaker was saying, but merely collaborates by way of 'throwing a tiny measure of stick over the large body of a python' a latlhela tlhware legonyana la kgang as all the specially nominated without any constituency are wont to do. You can think of that ignoramous slayer-o-hyenas scratching the itchy stump of his beard, trying to figure out a law that will effectively forbid workers from ever coming out in protest. Think of that old man in the grotto, the general who cannot fire a straight shot, making it clear that it is his time to eat, preferably with little or no disturbance. Think of the many who are just in there so they can leverage tenders, aha!, you have a recipe for rapacious looting. And all those are hand-made political bigots of special nomination.

Unfortunately, that merely whets greed and self-conceit. It triggers real competition of wills. Sometimes I think you guys with fingers on the airwaves and eyes on the far microphonic horizons don't really see what we see lying at your feet. I also think you could create more room out there, open more space to air this mouldy experience. I was not going to jump into the singing bandwagon about a palace revolution because it is nothing to write home about.  I was waiting to hear substance. I sincerely consider it unproductive and deceitful to ask Batswana merely to reform the general lines of their present misery. The spectre of an imperial presidency that these guys have helped to create for this country is, to say the least, scary.

Many of my readers have challenged me to express an opinion in writing on the latest political fracas taking place in our country. I have been reluctant to have anything to do with what I perceive as an inconsequential internal wrangling of the BDP. Outside the usual purview of mud-slinging and ubiquitous personality cults on both warring sides, the all-powerful A-Team with its platoon of generals and its civic alter ego the Barata-Phathi faction, have not convinced me that their differences were or are about fundamental political issues of republicanism, not even those of good governance proper, based on a clear separation between party and state. The one-man-show oligarchy that the BDP has descended into is not entirely an accidental development, nor, for that matter, one from which we may fail to detect the bloody mischievous hand of some of the leading lights of Barata-Phathi now turned Botswana Movement for Democracy.

Their names betray them as still tied to their mother body. They are stylish though, in that even before they create a creditable party, they already imagine themselves a 'movement'. One of them has said he was part of the plot to haul the current president from the army into politics, an act which fundamentally changed the course of national politics. Another was introduced to parliament by being hoisted through the window and for five long years he was in the 'gravy train' and ultimately walked away with a hefty gratuity, which he then ploughed into the 2009 electoral campaign. Now it is the fruition of this politics by other means and the erosion of civil liberties that has so riled Barata-Phathi. Well, we sympathise, but our sympathy is not oblivious of history.

It is not clear the economic blue print that this new group envisages for our country. We all know the trickle down capitalist formulation of the BDP. We still have to learn what the BDP baby, BMD, has in store for us. But that says nothing of the economic distribution in a rich country like ours whose major problem seems to be its endemic failure to translate the wealth of the state into that of citizens. I know the BDP has, through a mischievously underhanded and self-serving formation, LENO, tried to hide away national assets through the infamous LENO company that is owned by people highly placed in government. Mogae seems to have tried to revive the idea with a handful of his old cohorts and the former Chief Justice in a company that is now before the courts threatened with breaking apart because of disagreement on share arrangements. Then he took a beeline to the economic constellation of the Choppies chain stores. And all this is water under the bridge for Barata-Phathi who are now asking us to give them their chance to do their own chopping and continue with their Letsema.

Their biggest gripe is not issues of general abuse and corruption in government, but the succession dispute to the presidency and a disapproval of a system of hand picking people as specially elected to council and parliament, and not that any has ever turned down the same hand picking offer. We shall not begrudge the new party for the hand of its members in the problems now besieging our country. In this country people are 'born-again' every day. So far Barata-Phathi have been brave even as they tried to steal agency from the opposition, an endeavour in which they were much aided by the private media. We need an aggregating new oppositional politics of bridge builders so that retrograde forces can be isolated.

Now that Barata-Phathi  have come into their own, I think they deserve to be taken a lot more seriously and be given an ear, sympathy and honest advice. The birth of their movement is a vindication of the position we have always advanced. That in spite of periodic elections, the BDP as a party and government does not practice democracy. The intelligentsia should not lose valuable time bickering but recommit to the process of winning back democracy and freedom, improving on it and creating a free and healthy society of citizens bound together.Certainly the national constitution that places some above the laws of the land is due for review.

As we embrace these political fugitives, we must have courage to honestly introduce them to the harsh realities of opposition politics, that, which as Motswaledi (and he is a courageous man) is reported to have said, they have not been accustomed to. They should be welcomed to the struggle. For years they were trailblazers sowing the BDP catechism, oblivious of the infamies of the political party in power. Prestige and power had closed their eyes to the deprivation that characterizes the lives of the citizens of this country. The point is not who but how we will change this country and restore its wealth to its citizens.

I don't think Batswana are ready to COPE with fringe parties. The political waters have been muddied and it is difficult enough to cope with a profusion of parties without politics.

You may not go back to the BDP, it is fine, separation and aggregation are normal ceremonies of life. So, gentlemen, (or are there ladies as well?), do find a new political home in the ranks of the opposition. Look carefully to a party or parties espousing the same issues as you yourselves and seek accommodation. The political spectrum is already too full. Reformism is already adequately represented in a constellation of political hues. Otherwise take a tall order and radicalise and get ready to dismantle the state, at least in its present form.

Politics is not protest; that you should leave to single issue demonstrators. Politics is a conscious and calculated enterprise which most of the time, is a long-term investment. There are no short cuts, gentlemen. The best the new party can do at least is to distance itself seriously from the ruinous BDP economic formulations. It has to interrogate the dreams of our demoralised and demobilised youth. It can only expect to draw away a fringe support from the members of the ruling party. The BDP will also be doling out favours to arrest a haemorrhaging support base. The truth being that the BDP is sick scared of not only the rapture but also the possibility of a united opposition.

There is only one condition for the effectiveness of the babe party, its ability to transcend its own prejudices - what is its attitude to the proclaimed materialist political landscape inhabited by opposition? What is filtering through of its political orientation is a hybridization of jivist populisms only possible in Botswana. And they can be forgiven for fumbling.

Liberalism and the myth of free enterprise - who except the car magnates and comprador retailers they have worshipped has capital enough to enterprise? Mogae and Masire seem struggling as it is, notwithstanding their largess. With their perceived belligerence, CEDA loan schemes are going to be out of their reach. And more substantially, what is the new party's economic blueprint, its attitude to the 'open sesame' economic management they were until yesterday a part of? Will it be bitterness for the old jobs on the chop?

What is their understanding of free enterprise? What if Khama had not been a tyrant they charge he is? Would it have been okay to continue running a country through select families simply because they would have had their own snouts in the trough? And this is the stain our comrades are bringing to the playing field.

There is absolutely no need to trivialise the new party in any way. Parties may start off shaky, but soon firm around key issues. But that happens when people are prepared to put issues on the table. We must quickly disabuse the new party.

They are now orphaned. There is no longer going to be any free-loading. It is going to be hard work, back-breaking work, a definition of issues, commitment to solidarity and unity in action in the trenches of the struggle.There are going to be many moments of uncertainty. They can also expect discomforts, there is no longer going to be any promotions, no more 13th cheques to take home and party funded travel unless they are quick to attract big business.

The way ahead may be scary and bumpy for the uninitiated. There are no longer going to be any rides on the presidential helicopters. They are going to get scrawny and thin as they traverse the length and breadth of this vast motherland. And they may fade into the imposters that many suspect them to be.

No longer the certainty of three meals (or is it six?) a day. They have to discard old attitudes because this is the brave new world that they have opted for. And it is not only brave, it is also ruthless and quite unforgiving.

To make it here they will have to sema marokgwe ba hupa tedu and simulate the actions of a tiger in pursuit of a duicker. They will have to draw a roadmap of their political vision because Botswana is not a political tabula rasa. There are established political traditions they will have to contend with.

If they are the patriots that they claim to be, why could they not find a home in any of the existing opposition parties? Is their identity as Barata-Phathi more important than the boosting they could bring to the national opposition, which they correctly expect to cooperate with?