Real MPs should stand up now

| Tuesday February 23, 2010 00:00

This is potentially a watershed moment in the history of this parliament. This is because this bill and the ensuing debate will indicate clearly, whether our members of parliament both individually and as caucus groups have the moral, ethical, intellectual and political architecture to shoulder the responsibility of guiding this country towards a more accountable, progressive and mature democracy. There has never been a moment in the life-story of this parliament and this country when Members have been called to take such a monumental a task as this one.

The need for a declaration of assets has never been more acute. We have been seized by a crisis in leadership.Our political leadership has shown a disorienting willingness to mix their narrow material interests and the national objective. In a somewhat cynical reaction we learned recently that President Ian Khama requires his ministers to submit to him their assets and liabilities. In that quick sweep we were further told that, this system, for all intents and purposes Khama's project to vet ministers for his own ends, should also serve as an explanation for the absence of a proper legislation in declaration of assets. Of course that is unacceptable.

But matters were always going to come to a head. In the 90s MP Joy Phumaphi tabled a motion with similar intentions, which was somehow, through political expediency and manouvering that can only be described as evil, turned into a code of conduct. However, the time has now come for all MPs to face this challenge head-on. The evidence is here for all of us to see. Right now we are in the middle of a political scandal. We know that recently a minister shamelessly dismissed concerns over his company supplying services to his own ministry. We also know that a former president recently indicated quite shamelessly that he had been in the books of a conglomerate with keen interests in our economy's mainstay - the diamond industry. These crises put once again into stark relief, the crisis in leadership that we find ourselves saddled with.

However, unlike the rest of our citizenry, MPs have an opportunity to do something about this crisis, and we should also be thankful to MP Saleshando for having brought this opportunity straight onto the lap of our legilature. Now the time has come for every man and woman to be counted.

Although opposition MPs often lose track, casting their eyes off the real priority we are going to believe that they won't miss this one, this time. We are thus more concerned with BDP MPs who might find themselves forced into choosing between party and nation. MPs will be threatened, cajoled and blackmailed into taking a hostile position. However this bill poses no threat to the ruling party except to the most paranoid.

We have furthermore taken this Bill very seriously and will take it upon us to campaign for its passing. This means that, and we are not threatening anyone, we take any MP who votes against this bill as an enemy of our democratic system, and thus an enemy of this publication. Let the debate begin.

Today's thought

'Democracy means the organization of society for the benefit and at the expense of everybody indiscriminately and not for the benefit of a privileged class.'

- George Bernard Shaw