Keto Segwai
31 March 2008
opinion
The Festus Mogae/Mompati Merafhe team has been hailed as effective salespersons for Botswana externally. To its credit, the Mogae administration has moved resolutely to build up Botswana's relations with other countries and multilateral organisations.
It was under Mogae that a fully-fledged Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation was created from what was essentially a department of foreign affairs. Merafhe gave the ministry a high profile, leading to the increase in Botswana's diplomatic missions, particularly in Africa and Asia. Similarly more countries opened resident high commissions and embassies in Gaborone. The presence of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) headquarters and the centralisation of that regional organisation's operations in Botswana also gave impetus to more countries setting up representation here. On the other hand we lost valued and long-time development partner, Sweden.
On the whole, Botswana became positively visible on both the continental and international stages. The Mogae administration effectively warded off the campaign that sought to unfairly characterise Botswana diamonds as "blood diamonds". Together with other diamond-producing countries, particularly in the region, a credible mechanism to sift blood diamonds from clean ones was set up through what has become known as the Kimberly Process. The Mogae administration simultaneously embarked on its 'diamond for development' campaign, which effectively discounted and discredited the noxious one, spearheaded by Global Witness that tried to paint all diamond production as a source of conflict in Africa.
Botswana also successfully lobbied other African governments to oppose the Indigenous Rights statute that was considered by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last year. Merafhe's ministry worked round the clock to see the proposed statute defeated. But the ministry's seemingly sterling performance was self-serving.
The real bone of contention (beef) here was the wholly embarrassing Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR) saga. For Mogae and his coterie of advisors erroneously view what is basically a human rights issue, as some national security threat being fermented by foreign legions in the likes of their nemesis Survival International (SI). Up until its dying days, the Mogae administration dismally failed to give a convincing reason why the Basarwa of the CKGR were relocated from their home in the first place. Instead the administration's lies have effectively matched those of its archrival SI. The foreign ministry and lately the Attorney General's office spearhead the propaganda machine in this instance.
Initially, government had argued on the conservation platform that human habitation is not compatible with the aegis of a game reserve. They denied allegations that the Basarwa were being relocated to make way for diamond mining. It has since turned out that a mining outfit going by the name Gem Diamonds is about to start diamond mining activities in the reserve. Now fresh information also indicates that government has plans to award tourism concession licenses for the construction of lodges to any other investors, except Basarwa, under the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP)'s tourism development plan.
The Mogae administration's obsession with the CKGR has blighted our otherwise impeccable foreign relations. Their recalcitrance on the issue has undoubtedly reached irrational proportions. This led some local political commentators to maintain that the Mogae administration's policy on Basarwa is premised on ethnic supremacy. As Dr. Kesitegile Gobotswang opined in last week's Mmegi: "The botched policy of the forceful relocation of the Gana and Gwi (Basarwa) from the CKGR became an international issue, thanks to Lt. Gen. Merafhe who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
The whole policy was and continues to be motivated by the ideology of ethnic supremacy championed by the conservative Merafhes within the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). Botswana is better off without ethnic supremacists." Perhaps as homeboys from Gammangwato, Mogae and Merafhe still customarily regard Basarwa as having no rights to talk of.
The Mogae administration's irrationality on the CKGR saga saw unprecedented declaration of persona non-grata of many foreign journalists, academics and human rights workers deemed sympathetic to Basarwa situation. The list continues to be expanded, obviously with devastating impact to Botswana's record internationally. As a result of this ill-advised policy Botswana late last year suffered an embarrassing diplomatic gaffe when authorities arrested and detained a senior visiting European Union diplomat. While all this goes on, an undisclosed (and perhaps unaccounted for) millions of Pula are being poured into "the fight against" bogyman, Survival International.
* US dimension
Botswana shocked not only her neighbours but also the whole continent when the Mogae administration signed a controversial treaty with the George Bush's notoriously war-mongering administration that exempted American military personnel from prosecution or extradition from Botswana. Bells were set ringing when a few years down the line Bush announced plans to set up an African Command (Africom) base on the African continent and they were shopping for a location.
The Mogae administration's responses to numerous queries on Botswana's stand on the American proposal were ambiguous to say the least. Many analysts believe adverse public opinion, but primarily regional and continental pressure saved Botswana the disaster that could have been the presence of the American military base in the country. SADC and the African Union (AU) were opposed to Africom base on the African soil. Significantly, the regional superpower, South Africa made it clear that any SADC member state that chose to house the unwelcome Bush contingent should be prepared for SA's non-cooperation in most sectors, including trade.
That pronouncement apparently drove the point home - or rather to our stomachs.
However, save for the Africom policy, the South Africans have failed to provide similar regional leadership in the crisis that has gripped our neighbour, Zimbabwe. The South African-inspired "quiet diplomacy" that the Mogae administration has bought into stock and barrel has proved disastrous to the region, particularly to the long-suffering Zimbabweans.
Granted that the erratic octagerian Robert Mugabe could not think twice to militarily invade small critical states like Botswana, but that is no excuse for the Mogae administration to cosy up to the man. In fact, the Mogae administration has gone to great lengths to be apologists for Mugabe's diabolical regime.
The best Botswana's foreign policy supremos could have done was to keep quiet about Mugabe and his shenanigans. But to actually go out of the way and apologise for his excesses was a marked departure from Botswana's tested foreign policy. While pampering Mugabe in return the Mogae administration has gotten only scorn and disdain.
In the early stages of the Zimbabwean meltdown, Botswana sent thousands of litres of fuel to that country. Even cash handouts cannot be ruled out. Botswana has gone out of the way to build a costly immigration centre in Francistown specifically to accommodate Zimbabwean illegal immigrants, instead of expanding the existing Dukwi refugee centre. In return Mugabe's regime sabotaged the operations of the Botswana Railways. Our neighbours' lawlessness resulted in the outbreak of the devastating foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD) in north-eastern Botswana.
We constructed an expensive electric fence, which we cannot switch on primarily taking into account our dictatorial neighbour's sensibilities. Mugabe has further rewarded us with stalling the all-important Kazungula Bridge project that connects us to Zambia. The crime rate has reached record levels, thanks to the long-suffering Zimbabweans. Botswana's infrastructural capacity has reached its limits. Yet even as Zimbabwe goes to what is clearly a flawed poll this week, the Mogae administration will pronounce them free and fair. In any case it is not amazing that the Mogae administration embarrassingly congratulated Mwai Kibaki of Kenya in what everybody, understandably with the exception of Kibaki sycophants, saw as a stolen election. Does Botswana still have any foreign policy to talk of, some have been asking.
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