Speaking outside his script, Mogae seized the opportunity to address MPs who have become increasingly assertive in the just ended session of Parliament to the chagrin of his government. Their rejection and vehemence in opposing the intention to retrogressively implement the Judges' Bill, suspending the Air Botswana privatisation talks and the Intelligence and Security Bill have been fully justified. They were doing their job as the peoples' democratically elected representatives. They were probing and asking the key questions that ordinary citizens have about the envisaged bills and privatisation.
In doing this, they owe nobody an apology and nobody should threaten them, however powerful, in a democratic state like ours. It is very alarming that this is the second instance within a very short time that the President has found it fit to castigate MPs - and by extension Parliament - for doing their job as the ultimate watchdog in any truly democratic state. He first did it during the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) national council meeting recently. It would appear that the 'we and them' scarecrow that the President tried to use against ruling party MPs has failed. Days after they were publicly rebuked and ridiculed for disloyalty at the council meeting, most BDP legislators went on to sponsor the motion that halted talks to privatise Air Botswana. To the President and those advising him, this must have been construed as defiance of authority or 'bagolo' as they say in the BDP. The 'defiance' must have been stinging to the President. This could have been the reason why he went and read the riot act to the absent MPs to ululations and cheers of BDP women. This time around the President chose to make a major response to MPs in Serowe - the BDP's bastion. Mogae portrayed MPs as a motley crew of money fiends whose only interest is to force the executive hand through extortion. The President did not stop there. He suggested that he and the Vice-President Ian Khama, are against the MPs' self-serving postures.Without reading too much from his intentions, it is well known that Khama has in the past earned accolades when he fiercely slammed MPs' attempts to hike their salaries. Perhaps Mogae had hoped to reap the same goodwill that he and his deputy had when they opposed the MP's salary bid. The President should accept that parliamentarians have a duty to the voters and to uphold the constitution and not to dance to the whims of the executive.
