Khama Should Save The BDP Ship

Editor | Monday March 18, 2013 00:00

 According to the findings of an investigation instituted by President Ian Khama in the aftermath of losing three wards in Block 8, Tswapong and Mmathete, all fingers pointed to the BDP members as the ones who stabbed the party in the back by literally sleeping with the enemy.  How revealing!

But this is funny indeed.  For how does any investigation manage to find out who voted for whom during a secret ballot at the polls?  It is tantamount to witch-hunting in which anyone suspected is condemned and stoned to death as the witch.  The BDP problems surely must be lying somewhere else.  It is also comical that this BDP investigation has unearthed a certain plot by the opposition in which members of the opposition partake in BDP's famous primary elections, specifically to have a say in the outcome of the primaries so that the weaker one wins, all to the advantage of the opposition, come the general election or by-election.

While one is tempted to applaud the opposition for their flawless art, who needs rocket science to tell that such scenarios are near impossible in the current political climate of Botswana.  For a start, we want to assume that card carrying members of other political parties are well-known in their localities, and therefore easy to sniff out and bar from any attempt at electioneering.  Besides, the BDP surely knows who are their card carrying members and who are not, unless we are made to believe that these highly tricky and manipulative opposition forces first pretend to reject their parties to become new BDP members specifically for cheating purposes.  Even if this one was to be believed, the question is, how long really could they hold on to their tricks without being caught?  Talk of clutching at straws and ignoring the real challenges that the party is facing today.

Education, water, power, high water tariffs, constitutional issues, minority rights, eroded buying power of the pula, unemployment, rampant corruption at the top echelons of power, an unhappy civil service; all these have never really been acknowledged as urgent national problems that need to be nipped in the bud with urgency.  Playing blind to these and pointing guns at fellow democrats can only exacerbate the mighty BDP's woes and pains, and who knows, before long the opposition could really rattle the BDP, or the comical excuses must be put to a stop immediately.