allAfrica.com: Botswana: Etcetera II - Merely A Coincidence (Page 1 of 1)

Coincidences do happen, but was it really a coincidence that the dreadful Intelligence and Security Law came into effect on the very same day that we were all enjoying the installation of our new President?

Or, even more remarkably, that the date of its implementation was published by the Government Gazette only four days earlier? By then, as per report, the old Special Branch of the Botswana Police Service was already being dismantled, its role having been taken over by the new Directorate of National Intelligence Security Service which, bluntly, sounds like a title adopted from an old style Stalinist state. We may not regret the passing of the Special Branch but we would be wildly misled if we welcomed its successor.

My impression during the past momentous week has been that most commentators, very much including those at UB, have taken their eyes off the ball because whilst they were variously reflecting on the implications of a new style ex-military led government, its first priority - security, not life giving water - was already being implemented. For myself, I have a long-standing interest in military, particularly naval, history (I was once, long ago, a junior rating serving on what was then a very large British aircraft carrier) and from this have understood that many of even the best of military commanders have made only indifferent national leaders; Ulysses S. Grant on the one hand and the Duke of Wellington on the other. And in Africa, in more recent years, the record of rule by military personnel has been ruinous.

In this sense, therefore, it is hopefully understood by those in power as to why there are genuine grounds for current public concerns. But all may be well, and this country will hopefully show, yet again, that it is Africa's exception to the norm. But the new Intelligence and Security Directorate is another matter altogether. I did my best to set out the kinds of questions that needed to be asked about it when it was first presented as a Bill, not least those relating to cost. Seemingly, they were largely ignored by those in Parliament.

Now the new Director General of this agency, Lt. Col. Kgosi, has told the Guardian that for security reasons, he cannot divulge how many officers are on his pay role, the nature of their training or what that training is preparing them to do. This is particularly disconcerting because the role and responsibilities of the Directorate were described in the Bill which was considered by the National Assembly and approved by it without amendment. The training now being given to the officers must therefore be directly related to those roles. So it can only be a secret - even to the MPs who voted it into existence - if it is diverging from those roles. But in that event, there is nothing they can do about it because, incredibly, they signed away their right to know. But then Kgosi had apparently also told officers of the now disbanded Special Branch, who were concerned about their future, that (under the new law) they would be automatically liable to three years in jail for divulging ANY information about the new Directorate, (Mmegi, 27th March). On my reading of the law, he was correct. In other words, members of the old Special Branch could at least tell their wives where they worked. In contrast, officials, military and civilian, of the new agency may be in serious trouble if they even divulge to their spouses the geographical location of their work place, let alone what they do there. Knowingly, we have now created a new, very secret State within a supposedly transparent State and the prospect is frightening. Even though we are barely past day one, people are already being threatened with jail for expressing routine, normal concerns, which cannot possibly have anything to do with national security. Those who did not previously understand must now know how the wind blows.

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