The State of the Nation undressed

*MONAGENG MOGALAKWE | Friday November 30, 2007 00:00

It is, however, incumbent upon the shareholders to scrutinise the balance sheet for any discrepancies. You see, I have always had this funny feeling that there is something surrealistic about the Botswana Democratic Party (the BDP). That is until I read a story about Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (the PRI). The nomenclature of the two  parties is a classic case of contradiction in terms, if not complete misnomer. There is nothing democratic about the BDP or anything revolutionary about the PRI. For close to 70 years, Mexico was ruled by the PRI, which first came to power in 1929. Mexico has held general elections religiously since then, and every general election was won by the PRI, until one day in 2000 when the National Action Party ended the 70 years de facto one party state. During its heyday, the PRI acquired the dubious description of the world's most efficient electoral machinery for its ability to always win elections, even when indicators were that it would lose. In 1938, the PRI introduced a policy in which the sitting President would handpick his successor, to guarantee continuity of the 'good work' of the party, and, needless to say, to make sure that things remain pretty much the same. Although the PRI  paraded itself as a revolutionary party that stood for the masses of the under-trodden, Mexico has been characterised by massive social inequalities and poverty. About 17 percent of Mexicans live in absolute poverty, and hundreds of thousands do menial jobs in the USA, working in strawberry fields, or as domestic workers. Thousands more die trying to scale the 3,000 km electrified border fence between Mexico and the USA. An anecdote is told about how one day, on approaching a T-junction, the driver of the leader of the 'revolutionary party', asked a passenger which way to turn. 'Signal left, but turn right' said the venerate leader, without taking eyes off the Wall Street journal he was reading. In the last presidential elections in 2006, the  ruling NPA presidential candidate won with 35.9 percent of the popular vote, whilst the left wing mayor of Mexico City, Lopez Obrador, won 35.4 percent of the popular vote, a margin of less than half a percent. Demands for re-election or re-count were dismissed by the rightwing Supreme Court, much to the delight of the USA.

Enter Botswana. The country became independent in 1966, after 80 years of British colonial rule. The ruling BDP insist however that Botswana was not a colony but a protectorate. And in a theatrical performance only reminiscent of the antics of an American 'house nigger' during the days of slavery, President Mogae shouted 'we were a crown protectorate, not a crown colony' from the rooftop of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kampala recently, as he presented the British Queen with a brooch studded with Botswana diamonds. How pathetic! But this is really not the issue, except to say that thanks to the shenanigans of the colonial state officials, the BDP which was founded in 1961, started to rule long before the March 1965 general elections. You see, the people in the Legislative Council were same people who founded the BDP. The BDP leader Seretse Khama, was then called Leader of Government Business. When the 1965 elections came, the BDP had been the incumbent party  for four years,  without having had to fight any elections. The BDP has been in power for 46 years, (1961-2007) and not 40 years. Like Mexico, Botswana has religiously held general elections since 1965, and all the elections were won by the ruling party, just like Mexico, before 2000. Botswana political and economic framework has acquired the distinction of being the best in Africa. But unemployment rate is at more than 30 percent (I deliberately include the so-called discouraged job seekers). Conservative estimates reveal that 23. 4 percent of Batswana live on less than one dollar a day, and this  figure rises to 36 percent in the rural areas.

At  the same time, 45 percent of the nation's income goes to only 10 percent of the population. Members of the Police Service appear to have been demoralised by poor conditions of service and have virtually lost war on crime. What if someone can get murdered in their presence? Last week a toddler died in its mother's arms because of the obnoxious attitude of a Mahalapye hospital nurse. More recently Happy Plant Index  ranked Botswana 167 out of 178 countries, revealing that Batswana are among the least happy people in the world. In the 2004 general elections, the popular vote for the BDP was 50.63 percent and that of the combined opposition was 49.37 percent. Like in Mexican elections in 2006, a very thin margin indeed. How the BDP went on to amass a staggering 77 percent of parliamentary seats is a story for another day, if it has not been told already. In 1997, President Masire introduced a system in which the sitting president would hand pick his successor, just like in Mexico in 1938, to make sure that no boat is rocked. In Botswana, the sitting president does not have to enjoy the confidence of the electorate, as in Mexico, but just the confidence of a cabal of BDP parliamentary candidates.

In 1988, the National  Assembly  adopted a motion calling on  government to  take steps to ensure that Botswana Parliament becomes an independent institution detached from the Office of the President where it has been relegated to the lower status of a minor department. Almost 20 years down the democratic way, (BDP style) nothing has come out of that motion. The 2003 Task Force report on the independence of Parliament is gathering dust somewhere. And you expect His Honour the Vice President, Lt. General Ian Khama, a.k.a as King Khama VI of BaMangwato, and the President in waiting, to take our Parliament seriously! I mean the man  is seized with more pressing matters of State at the Office of the President, where real power resides. Parliament is run as a department in the Office of the President and its staff are not accountable to the Speaker of the National Assembly, but to the Minister for parliamentary affairs, Mr Kwelagobe. The unelected president of Botswana can dissolve a democratically elected parliament, should he think that parliamentarians are being silly. In Botswana, parliamentarians are not silly when they play truant, as it often happens, but only when they question the wisdom of the president about his choice of the vice president.

And I listened to my good friend President Mogae, the outgoing CEO, say that he is leaving the job with no tormented conscience, even with this glaring deficit in democracy!. For a moment, I thought I heard the President say he is leaving with tormented conscience, after our Parliament (Our Pride; ha ha ha ha!) has been pleading  for independence since 1988. This should trouble the conscience of a democrat any where, even in Mexico.

But having said I must confess my grudging admiration for President Mogae, although he  sometimes irritates me with his obsession with his neo-liberal nostrums and the use of the English language, even when addressing Tswana-speaking audience! He would sometimes throw in his Oxonian credentials for a good measure. But on the few occasions, I have had a conversation with him, he put me to shame with his grasp of history and philosophy (apart from economics and finance, his cup of tea!) But what I cherish most about my encounter with President Mogae was the remark he  made not once, but twice or thrice. 'Monna, kana  BDP le  BNF are not enemies; they are just opponents or competitors'. That was vintage Festus, the Philosopher King. And come to think of it, may be Mogae is leaving his job without any tormented conscience after all. He has not sanctioned the death of any political opponents or sent any body to jail. In fact the only time Mogae used his immense powers (apart from threatening MPs with dismissals), was when he recalled Parliament and declared a state of emergency. The irony was that this was meant to politically enfranchise voters, regardless of who they would vote for. We all know what a state of emergency would mean in other countries: summary execution of the 'enemies of the state'. But to Mogae, there are no enemies, just opponents or detractors! This is one area where Botswana under BDP was different from Mexico under PRI. I use the past tense deliberately.

With Mogae's departure, Botswana is entering a new political terrain under the enigmatic Lt General Khama. Readers will know this is one political leader who has never made any public statement on any  issue of national interest. in the ten years he has been Mogae's deputy. And I have heard too many stories about Ian Khama, from  being a pampered and spoilt brat who will brook of no opposition, to a very compassionate leader committed to the welfare of his people, as it apparently happened during his BDF days.  And talking about BDF, my father saw combat action in the Middle East and North Africa, and came back as a mere Corporal. But this was when war used to be  a pretty nasty business, such as you see in Iraq today. During those days, no kid could become a general in thousand years! But lo and behold, in Botswana a 24-year-old kid became a general. When some kids were given plastic guns to play with, he was given the real thing.

About 32 years ago at Moeding College, Otse, one Alexander Von Rudloff  (we all affectionately called him Lexi, the first  anti-apartheid white person I got to know) took us through King Henry V (by William Shakespeare). If my memory of the drama serves me well, on the eve of the battle, the French Dauphin sent Henry V some tennis balls to play with. The Dauphin believed that Henry V was just a clown and a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth who did not frighten anybody. To this insult King V replied: 'When we have marched our rackets to these balls, we will, in France, play a set, and shall strike his father's {the King of France}crown into the hazard, that all the courts of France will be disturbed with chaces; we understand him {the Dauphin} well, how he comes o'er us with our wilder days, not measuring what use we made of them'.

The King of France had this gut feeling that Henry V was a deceptive fellow, much smarter than he was prepared to take credit for. He was right. Henry V went to defeat the French at the Battle of Agincourt and became one of England's celebrated monarchs. But what is the point of the drivel? I do not now if Lexi would agree with me on this, but I have a feeling that it is not going to be business as usual under President Ian Khama, and the enigma starts to unbound. He is either going to be the best President this country has ever had, or, God forbid, its worst. Whilst it would probably be difficult for Ian Khama to go beyond the achievements of the previous three presidents, his father included, it would be much easier to undo them, as it is always easier to break than to make. And there is always the  first time in history. Ag man, let us give Ian Khama  his day in court. I am nervous with anticipation!

*The writer is a lecturer at University of Botswana's Sociology Department.