Trip in the US great eye-opener

I was part of the delegation which was nominated through a Botswana government single exchange programme with the US. The Programme is called the US State Leadership Programme which focuses on the federal, state and local election guidelines and regulations, voter registration and get out the vote initiatives, voter education and party politics.

We visited three States (Washington DC., Philadelphia, and North Carolina) and we learnt a lot on various aspects of Democracy which made me realise more that Botswana still has a lot of work to do to improve its democracy and call itself a shining example of democracy.

Our first trip was at Washington DC. We interacted with several democratic institutions in Washington. However the most appealing ones were the Obama Political Campaign Team in DC and the Federal Election Commission. We found so many volunteers in the Obama Political campaign office and they were busy making phone calls, sending sms to potential voters.

As we entered the office, the front desk officer, a black lady said 'hello and welcome, everyone who gets in here has to be obamatised''. She then placed Obama stickers on our tops, including those of officials of the US State Department who accompanied us. You could tell there was so much excitement of elections among the Obama campaign team.

We were handed over to the Campaign manager who took us through their campaign strategies which he said included; house to house campaigns, making over 4200 calls a day. Their campaign was mainly supported by college students who had taken semester offs to volunteer in the campaign. Volunteers worked without any money allowance in the campaign. The Campaign manager and other workers had taken off leave in their workplaces to throw their energy in the campaign.

At the Federal Election Commission, we learnt about party funding as the Commission is charged with administering and enforcing the federal campaign finance law. This is where we learnt about the public financing of Presidential campaigns. The Party funding in America is optional; one can opt out of public funding and get private funding which Obama did while McCain settled for public funding. Unlike the public funding, the private funding is advantageous in that it has no limit to finance - seal. For instance McCain could get a Presidential public fund of eight million US dollars, whereas Obama could raise as much as he could from American citizens. Only individuals and not corporate entities are allowed to fund the Political Campaign at a maximum of seventy dollar per citizen.
In Philadelphia (which means the city of brotherly love in Greek), we also met several civil society organisations who encourage civic responsibility among American citizens. But the one that you can never forget about Philadelphia is the Constitution Centre.  The National Constitution Centre is an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organisation dedicated to increasing public understanding of, and appreciation for, the Constitution, its history and its contemporary relevance, through an interactive, interpretive facility and a programme of national outreach. The Centre tells the story of the US Constitution through more than 100 interactive and multimedia exhibits, photographs, sculpture, text, film and artefacts.

The meeting was ended with a tour of the Constitution museum where we had the chance to watch a play on how the American Constitution was formulated and amended. We walked through the museum where we saw clips of the Constitution, sculptures of the 55 men who drafted the Constitution and the quotations of the former US presidents on the Constitution. The visit of The Constitution Centre provoked our thoughts in having us realise that every democracy begins with the historical background of its Constitution. I think the Botswana government should give its nation that background; who wrote Botswana Constitution and when was that, how were Batswana involved in its formulation and what does it take to make amendments to it.  

Our last trip was in North Carolina and this is where we gained the practical experience of America's electoral process. When we were in North Carolina already early voting was taking place across the United States of America. So, we visited one of the polling districts at a place called Durham, where we met with Chatham County Board. The electoral process in America is different with the Botswana one on a number of things. For instance, the Electoral Commission of America conducts both the primary and general elections.

This helps to avoid or reduce voter trafficking of members of the political parties in that elections will take place on same dates. Every citizen of America can help in the voter registration process such that voter registration can be found in shops, post offices, and nightclubs and at any other convenient place.  Voters are allowed to vote 10 days before the declared national voting day. This is called early voting and it enables the registered voters to vote in large numbers and gives the opportunity to those who would be held up during the national election day.

Candidates can canvass for elections during elections at polling stations but they have to be 50m away from the polling station. The US electoral law also allows for same day registration and voting. An eligible voter who had not registered during national registrations could register during the national elections and vote at the same time.
The American electoral system leaves a minimum space for exclusion of eligible voters.  For Botswana to improve its electoral system, they need the political will in Parliament to introduce electronic voting as it is the one which makes the elections of America so voter-friendly.

While in Durham, we also learnt about a Kids Voting Programme. The Kids Voting Programme teaches children from kindergarten age about democracy through a combination of classroom and community activities, an authentic voting experience and community and family dialogue. The children do vote during the general elections; they have their own polling stations, polling booths and ballot boxes. During the kids elections, the Kids vote among the actual candidates of different parties. Their elections just like the national elections attract media coverage and their results are announced through media. The Kids Voting Program teaches children to develop interest in politics at a very early age. It also encourages parents to get to vote as children would remind parents.
We ended our trip with a rally at Raleigh, North Carolina, which eventual winner Barack Obama addressed. When we arrived at the rally at 0930, we found thousands of people whom we were told had been at the venue as from 0700 hours when the rally was scheduled to start at 12:00 noon. You could tell that American citizens take their democracy very seriously as they waited patiently in lines of at least three kilometres length to go through the Rally entrance. Obama campaign teams were busy promoting Obama and other Democrats candidates. They announced about early voting which was taking place 600m away from the rally. They were also issuing ballot papers to potential voters and urging people to make use of the early voting process. When Obama arrived at 12:30, many people were already tired as some collapsed from the heat and long hours of standing up. However, there was uproar from the gathering in welcoming Obama. They started chanting 'Obama, Obama, Obama''. He delivered his one-hour speech on 'the hope to change America from the super  - capitalistic Republican politics.''    

In summary, what I learnt is that the internal processes of democracy in the United States are very strong. Yes, its imperialist foreign policy is very terrible as we all know how it has damaged America's reputation. But the people take politics as a way of life in America, as they cannot afford to leave it to few elites and privileged families.

They use every media type (Internet, films, papers, phones) to discuss politics. As they say 'being an American citizen is a full time job.'' It is worth mentioning that young people, especially young whites played a significant role in Obama's victory. They managed to convince their parents that indeed a black person could rule a country dominated by whites.  

I also learnt that each state in America has its own constitution, policies and programmes such that it is a mixture of political systems going on in the US. Washington would be regarded as a complete capitalist State whereas North Carolina would be social - democratic though they would not want to address themselves along political ideologies. For instance, public transport is free at a district called Chapel Hill, which is in North Carolina from 0500 hours to 1800 hours.

The American experience showed me it is very possible to have United States of Africa. The problem we have in Africa is its political leadership which copied colonial mentality of bringing about development; amassing their countries' wealth for their personal gains, using the military forces to intimidate the watchdogs of democracy in their own countries and the territorial attitude or founder syndrome of having same families clinging to power.  Monarch and autocratic rule have its roots deep in the hearts of African leaders.