At face value, the process of passing the Bill was democratic because a majority of the MPs endorsed it. After all, a major tenet of democracy is that the will of the majority prevails on the minority.
It is not our inclination or desire to invent another definition of democracy. We are, however, saddened by the despicable way in which Parliament would want to handle national issues. It is not just a giant leap of imagination but for the sworn democrats that we are, we feel our democratic heritage is raped and defiled by those who should know better. Anyone who says that what was achieved on Monday was another feather in our democratic cap should pause and think again. Democracy is not about scheming to silence dissent and alternative views. Democracy is about allowing ideas to compete through robust debate and introspection. This is not what transpired in Parliament on Monday when an insidiously bloated executive hell-bent on pushing through a Bill referred to the committee stage flexed its muscle on a day that the backbench was only half full.
In Botswana, the executive suffers from a bout of peer pressure. This means members of the executive invariably support all Bills presented by fellow cabinet ministers. There is nothing democratic about this blind loyalty. It is amazing that a Parliament that not long ago had agreed to refer the Bill to a special committee has without reason backed off from such a principled stand. The current recapitulation means that the Bill goes through notwithstanding the key concerns of oversight and executive abuse.
