'No longer politics as usual'

| Thursday January 10, 2013 00:00

 

Once again, the ceaseless march of time continues as another year draws to a close. Ordinarily, the nation should be united in celebration.  The sad reality of our country, however, is that there is painfully very little to celebrate.

The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) continues to script a narrative of unspeakable suffering for our country and its people.  The abuse and filth of this government is staggering. The most degenerate elements of the ruling BDP have found their way into Botswana's cabinet.  It is now a cabinet marked and defined by the most astounding levels of corruption carried out without the slightest twinge of conscience.

It is a cabinet that displays the most incipient hostility to transparency and good governance.  The roll call of ministers implicated in acts of corruption and impropriety increases by the day. The shameful spectacle of cabinet ministers appearing in the courts to defend charges of corruption while clinging to public office continues.

The arrogant complicity of the Presidency in the institutionalisation of corruption is astonishing.  As the country moves closer to the 2014 general elections, of one thing there can be not the slightest doubt: the country is poised on the brink of final devastation from the BDP's reign of error and terror. Something has got to give.

It bears no rehearsal here, save for emphasis, that the government maintains its assault on the most basic of our freedoms. The heart wrenching irrationality of the Traditional Beer Regulations promulgated late last year pursuant to a new definition of traditional beer contained in the Liquor Act is but one painful illustration. The new definition accords with neither logic nor common sense. It dramatises the embarrassing failure of this regime to reason its way lucidly through challenges and fashion appropriate and sensitive solutions. The wholesale impoverishment of the small alcohol trader wrought by these regulations can only be a source of pride to the most queer and sadistic leadership.

These regulations are a sequel to yet another monumental failure of the government's alcohol control initiatives.Available data indicates that the alcohol levy and its attendant restrictions, apart from destroying the means of support for many Batswana, have not yielded any meaningful outcomes. The policies of our government continue to manufacture poverty at an alarming scale. This regime is determined to pile up an additional workload on an already poorly resourced and overstretched police service. The police must, without receiving any additional support, now take on the enforcement of these alcohol regulations.

Add to this explosive mix the destruction of the cattle industry and the plundering of Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) by this corrupt government. Throw into this powder keg the decay and destruction in our education and health systems. It becomes immediately imperative to pronounce upon what is plain for all to see but only few will admit. The present regime poses a real and imminent danger to the peace and stability of our country. It remains unmoved by the latest statistics that indicate that only 14 percent of our population qualifies for housing finance with our banks.

Of course, it is not enough to merely point out the obvious failures and indiscretions of the ruling party. We are called upon to fashion and present a credible alternative to this mess and muddle. When the workers of our country stood up for their rights and engaged in the most protracted strike in our country's history, they condensed their message into two words; regime change. They were fully conscious that the problems facing us as a nation can only be effectively addressed through a change of government. That message remains true and relevant. It was partly in response to that clarion call that leaders of serious opposition parties engaged in unity negotiations that have seen the birth of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). This year is remarkable for this stunning and ground-breaking success in our politics.

The opposition is under obligation to take the masses of our people seriously. It must respond to their pleas and yearnings for change by casting aside all ideas and tendencies that undermine opposition unity.  We must recall that when the Botswana National Front (BNF) was on the verge of unseating the ruling BDP in 1998, certain individuals, together with their children, precipitated the most painful split in our party. They went on to establish themselves on a platform of incessant hostility to the BNF. Many of those individuals are now in the evenings of their political careers, facing the prospect of political oblivion.

They leave only that tarnished legacy in history even as they insult and criticise the ruling party for its failures.They condemn the BDP in their words but affirm it in their actions, just as they did in 1998. Some of them claimed superiority on account of their involvement in political battles of our neighbouring countries and their sojourns in foreign prisons. They continue to occupy acres of newspaper column space seeking a validation of their hollow and empty political lives.

Their sojourn in these foreign prisons has rendered them impervious to meaningful and humble political discourse. They have elevated their long held hatred for the BNF and opposition unity into a personal pastime. In this way, they have made themselves a willing ally of the BDP. In a dramatic realignment of affinities, they have entered a pact to destabilise and undermine the Umbrella.

As the Umbrella lingered, waiting to be born, to erupt and to claim the mantle of meaningful opposition, these doomsayers proclaimed that it would never see the light of day. It took a margin of only six votes in the Sebele-Block 8 by-elections to send the chilling message across the breadth and dimensions of this country that the Umbrella was for real.

Those six votes stunned and silenced the boastful noises of both the BDP and its pact partners. Those six votes announced the potency of the Umbrella and paved the way for a most successful launch of the Umbrella at the historic GSS Grounds in Gaborone. We all converged and stood on those enchanted grounds to deliver on the solemn promise and undertaking we had made to the workers and the people of Botswana. We demonstrated our political maturity and a rare ability to transcend separate political identities in the abiding quest for a united alternative to the BDP. Another victory in the Maboane by-election paved the way for the successful launch of the Umbrella for Democratic Change in Francistown.

Challenges still remain. The loss at Metlojane was a shrill reminder to our activists that we must not allow complacency to creep in. We must intensify our efforts and coordinate our campaigns better. It must also be stated that the Umbrella continues to cleanse and purify itself as some of its erstwhile members, who disagreed with its efforts and were an obstacle to its success, have left to perch in other organisations. We can only thank them for whatever help they may have given us on our journey and wish them better luck where they are than they have enjoyed in their political past.

This year the leadership of the Umbrella took its message outside the borders of our country to Europe and the United States of America. The Umbrella's footprint on the international stage is unmistakable, positioning it as a real alternative and moulding it into a government-in-waiting. Credit must go to all Batswana who have waited for this organisation and supported the leadership of the cooperating parties in pulling off this amazing feat. Our people have overcome the inertia of established attitudes and pushed frontiers to chart a new path of hope.

The Umbrella represents a new hope in the politics of our country. The outpourings of goodwill it has and continues to enjoy are a humbling reminder that our problems as a nation have not been so much from any reluctance of our people to follow as the failure of the leaders to lead. Appreciation must go to all the brave leaders of each of the cooperating parties for their resilience.

As I doff my hat to them and salute their heroic efforts, I now understand fully that good leaders have a history while great leaders make history! I round off by reminding all members of the UDC that Lenin cautioned and counselled in his seminal book aptly titled, 'What Is To Be Done'. I turn to him to make the point for me. He says: 'We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance, almost constantly under their fire.'

I am proud to enjoy the pleasure of your company in this epic journey. I wish all our people a safe and restful festive season and a more politically charged 2013. To the nation and our country, as the incandescent heat of this scorching African sun beats down on our country, mitigated only by the meagre beads of rain that have touched our famished land, we extend good wishes and a reassurance that it is no longer politics as usual. As we march with the chime of time to claim the wide vista of this new and yet unclaimed landscape of unity, hope and promise, we encourage you to work even harder to reclaim your country and return it to the status of the growing democracy it once seemed poised to become. May the good Lord visit his grace upon all of us.