Botswana politics is for the people of Botswana

DR EDWARD T MAGANU | Thursday September 8, 2011 00:00

The split in the ruling party, the civil service strike, the continuing defections of MPs and councillors and the Julius Malema statements (and threats) have all made sure that our press have had nice sensational news to keep their papers alive.

Depending on whose side one is, one could find fault with the government press for singing praises of government and the President and ignoring important news, while on the other hand, one could find fault with the private press for sensationalising news, seemingly praising and encouraging lawlessness, and generally demonising the government and the President in particular.

One does hope that our country, helped by the press, will find ways of discussing issues in depth and enabling members of the public who are objective in their approach to interrogate subjects.

What we are getting now is that the media is dominated by subjective discussants who enter debates to simply push particular agendas, and the debates are dominated by politicians, some academics and the journalists.

Unfortunately the result is usually rhetoric and polemics, aimed more at discrediting opponents than at examining topics from an informative and objective viewpoint. This became most intense during the public service strike and in the period immediately following the strike.

Perhaps most disconcerting has been the comments made by Julius Malema of the ANC Youth League about Botswana. While anybody can comment on any country, especially one who is not in government, what was disturbing about Juju's comments was that he was talking on behalf of a youth movement of a ruling party.

So one was not sure to what extent his views reflected those of the government of South Africa. What was even more disturbing was that he did not merely give an opinion, unflattering as it was, on the Botswana government and ruling party.

He also promised intervention in the politics of Botswana by sending a 'Command Team' to support the opposition.  Of course to many of us, this is completely unacceptable; the people of Botswana have ample opportunity for electing their own government, and it is not in their interest to have a foreign government or political party coming to influence or tell them who to vote for.

It is simply not done, especially if the countries concerned have diplomatic relations and their relations are supposed to be cordial.  Can the British Labour Party send a 'command team' to France to campaign for a particular party?

Talk of an African Agenda is also interesting. Whose Agenda is it? Who formulated it and who adopted it?Interestingly, the Malema outburst was commissioned by some in Botswana who have even attempted to defend it.

It is only when they realised that Batswana generally felt very insulted by the external interference in their affairs that they toned down on their embracing of Malema's comments and declared intentions. Interestingly, subsequent comments from various South African analysts and others have shown just how condescending and paternalistic South Africans are to us and no doubt to other neighbouring countries.

They are sitting up there and commenting on us from a distance, but their comments show just how ignorant they are about us.  Several examples came up in their discussion programmes in the SABC and in their newspapers.

One political analyst claimed that Botswana's democracy is questionable because the Khama family has been ruling since independence.  Really!  Another analyst, no less a person than Moeletsi Mbeki, aimed to show that Botswana National Front (BNF) and African National Congress (ANC) have had a long relationship by stating that 'he understood' the President of the BNF had been a prisoner in Robben Island as an ANC activist for many years. 

Now these things show how ignorant our neighbours, who want to choose a government for us and to control our foreign policy are about Botswana. 

A prominent columnist in a Sunday paper, after questioning the direction of our democracy and in essence supporting Malema, quipped that there is nothing exciting in Botswana except the mooing of cows and the hanging of criminals.  Talk of a condescending attitude!

Anyway, I do hope our politicians, in their craving for power, will confine our politics to Batswana and will not enlist foreigners  to come and campaign for them and to dictate our foreign policy. 

That there is some 'African Agenda' run by Malema and company that we as the totality of Batswana are not party to or even aware of means that somebody is claiming to have committed us to it without our knowledge.  The whole thing is reminiscent of the rhetoric of the 1960s that ended up with high sounding slogans and collapsed economies.  I believe the people of Botswana should be allowed to choose their own governments in peace, certainly without foreign command teams.  Our politicians should have the confidence that they can convince us to vote for them.