Michael Dingake
12 March 2008
column
Help-me-cross-the-river, ntlodise molatswana No game has more tricks than the political game. Though all games are played by the rules, the rules are consistently broken by competitors who mean to win by hook or by crook.
The umpires know it; they know too, they cannot guarantee a flawless game however vigilant they may be.
The BDP Palapye primaries re-run recently elicited disparate comments from political practitioners, some trying to explain away, others non-committal and still others critical of the habit of violating primary elections regulations of the party concerned. According to Mmegi of 26 February, 2008, Comma Serema, the Executive Secretary of the BDP, has alleged the infiltration of his party, by members of other parties, to 'destabilise' his party. He is not amused.
The phenomenon of what Serema calls 'infiltration' is not new in the primary elections process. We heard of it right at the inception of the Bulela ditswe concept in the BDP in 2004. 'Ntlodise molatswana/help me across the river,' was street-talk of amusing braggadacio. The BDP members who had long been aggrieved that representatives for parliament and councils were not selected by members themselves, instead of playing by the rules, were curiously resorting to irregular practices to choose representative candidates, by inflating their members' registers with false members, that is, members for convenience.
The reason for this disgraceful practice is that in Botswana, like other developing countries where employment is unavailable, political office is an employment opportunity, eyed enviously, by employment-seekers, particularly those who fancy a cut-above the rest, status-type of employment. In the circumstances, the winning of party primaries becomes the objective of the innovative and the most cunning.
The carefree nature of Batswana, in general, to the whole newfangled political processes is of course grease to the mill of chicanery. Add to this, the culture of family connections, bontsala/cousinship, and you have potential for a mixed bag of political deceit
Nonetheless, let us take heart. This apparently untoward tendency was to be found in the United States where the concept of primary elections originated. The Americans through their War of Independence, lessons from the French revolution, the Greek city state democracy and their own experience in the North-South states civil war that led to unification and the abolition of slavery, accumulated vast experience in the theory and practice of democratic organization and related principles. We can therefore glean something from their experience on primaries.
Initially the American States, had two types of primaries: 'open' and 'close.' Open primaries were open to all and any eligible voters, irrespective of party affiliation. Close ones, were restricted to the members of the party that was in the process of conducting the primaries; it is the type, all Botswana parties have adopted. The Americans later discovered, as we have discovered, that members who were not genuine party members, could vote in rival party primaries to elect the weakest candidate who would then go to face, an ostensibly stronger candidate in their own party! As a result of these potential manipulations, the majority of the American States, not all, drifted to the 'close' primaries.
There are still States who have stuck to the 'open' primaries, deliberately. They argue that, in any case, though in theory, party members are presumed to vote for their party, in practice, it does not always follow that indeed they vote for their party in the general elections. Voting for one's party, very often, depends on whether one's party has fielded a quality candidate, a candidate in whom intelligent individual voters have faith in his/her capabilities, to articulate issues of public and self-interest, satisfactorily. When and if a voter thinks, own interest and public interest will be better served by a candidate in the opposite camp, the voter will choose a candidate, not the party. As more and more eligible voters realize that where political ideologies of political parties do not diverge significantly, what is important in the elections, is not so much the party, but the caliber of the candidate, they will vote for the candidate!
Political parties in Botswana are not poles apart in ideology, except for MELS who are uncompromising on their Marxism-Leninism-Engelsism-Stalinism ideology. Otherwise the rest of the parties, whatever their propaganda rhetoric, advocate for Social democracy in its various strands and tendencies, in practice.
Whether they know it or not, political parties, particularly in the developing countries are mirror images of the United Nation Organisation forum. Variations emerge on how they administer, organize, implement adhere to, interpret the principles, declarations, the legal framework and institutional guidelines formulated and adopted by this august international body.
Within this political spaghetti-route engineering, ntlodise molatswana in Botswana party primaries will live, grow and persist. In the circumstances the most urgent task for parties obviously will become how to ascertain the relevance of political parties, who graduate to ruling parties, as perfect and adequate vehicles for the delivery of political goods and services to the community.
We need to break down the definition of democracy: "Government Of the people By the people For the people." Government, naturally is Of the people; but government is not always By the people, except in a fully-fledged democracy where free and fair elections and referenda on controversial issues are held, where all parties operate on a level playing field; the majority of world governments however are far from being For the people. The 'people' being the majority, namely the poor, the underprivileged and the marginalized; have no government For them, except in the negative. Governments are positively for a few: the Buffets, Onassis', Bill Gates, Motsepes and Dadas, and to a very large extent to the colluding political leaders, the Bushes and the heads of state including our own - look at all the goodies he can accumulate in a round trip of the country!
I am not, at all jealous, only expressing the home truth, that only a privileged few persons of capital together with the politically powerful with whom they collude can boast a delivery of goods and services to themselves. Until and unless government is FOR the people, 'help-me-cross-the-bridge' will remain a political impropriety we are destined to live with; here and everywhere in the world!
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