With a hero like Che Guevara, Arafat Khan can't be courteous

| Thursday July 24, 2008 00:00

The victim of this cold blooded murder was Eutimio Guerra, an ordinary peasant and army guide. And the bold executioner who later described this act is none other than Ernesto Che Guevara, Arafat Khan's hero. No rational being should therefore take pride in eulogizing Ernesto Che Guevara. In Botswana we don't hero-worship those who revel in the cold blooded killing of their political opponents as Guevara. For Arafat Khan's own information Guevara falls in that category.

Talking about the execution of another victim of his orgy of summary executions, Guevara said, 'I carried out a very summary inquiry and then the peasant Aristdio was executed. It is not possible to tolerate even the suspicion of treason'. Chilling stuff from Arafat Khan's idol!

It is a great pity that we have sat back and allowed a vocal group of misguided radicals such as Arafat Khan to poison young minds by offering the likes of Guevara, Karl Marx, Lenin and Stalin as romantic heroes. Worse still we have, in keeping with the values of a free and open society, allowed our hallowed academic halls to become places where people unashamedly spew the nonsense about the greatness of these despots. We have done very little to engage these fanatics in a proper debate.

It should not come as a surprise that Guevara has become an iconic figure whose poster adorns many university students' T-shirts. We therefore have a civic duty to educate them about the darker side of Che Guevara. 

If you draw strength and inspiration from the likes of Che Guevara as Arafat Khan ostensibly does, you are not going to have time for those who preach civility and courtesy in political debate. You will be obsessed about those who pick up your 'gun' in peaceful and stable Botswana when you 'fall'. 

No amount of propaganda and spin by Ararat Khan and his fellow travelers will revive the dying BNF. The glory days are over. The BNF is coming to an end. Batswana want people who are committed to providing practical solutions to their own problems and not those who waste time praising Che Guevara. They prefer a leader who is always concerned about the plight of the people and not discredited political theories. Isn't it ironic that most ardent communists are those who have never lived under the system? All we have are textbook communists such as Arafat Khan. Those who lived under the repressive system are happy to have been released from its bondage. Those who still cling to the system like Arafat Khan just can't see beyond textbook theories.

For the years that I have lived there has never been seriousness, substance and commitment to policy making by our opposition political representatives in parliament. All they are good at is criticism, criticism and criticism. None of them have stood up in parliament to offer sound alternative policies. All they have bred is angry, embittered, fire spitting political militants like Arafat Khan..

There is drought of good character and integrity in what the BNF has bred. Integrity requires that one be faithful to the truth even if it is politically inconvenient to do so. The likes of Ararat Khan, are cowards who lack consistency, endurance, patience and stamina. Integrity requires one to be true to principles regardless of consequences.

In his last article, Khan continues to launch scathing and unprovoked attacks on President Khama even though Khama is busy bringing about safety and voice to the ordinary men and women of Botswana. Ararat Khan should therefore stop being lazy and offer more than just labeling his opponents 'bootlickers'. Arafat Khan makes much of me being personally unknown to the President. That is neither here nor there. My duty as a member of the BDP is to articulate and defend the values and principles of my Party, which is led by President Ian Khama.

MacDonald Peloetletse
GABORONE
MacDonald Peloetletse is a member of  Culture and Publicity sub committee of the BDP. (However writes in his personal capacity)