Sydney — IT IS quite convenient for politicians across the world to sidestep the truth in pursuit of whims of political ambition and Lt-Gen Seretse Khama Ian Khama of Botswana is fast shaping himself into an amazing political Pharisee.

When Botswana's Foreign Minister, Phandu Skelemani, tells the world that his mysterious President Ian Khama took the decision to boycott the Sadc Summit in South Africa on account of his "principled stance" on democracy, we are all expected to solemnly believe the glorious rhetoric.

The grandstanding is that the ill-advised decision by Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw from the June 27 presidential run-off election was an endorsement and affirmation of the illegitimacy of that particular election.

That Ian Khama slatternly resigned from the army the same day Quett Masire was retiring from his presidency in 1998 and was illegitimately appointed the country's Vice President when he did not even have a parliamentary seat does not really matter when the guy is directing his energies towards a man the West views as a common enemy.

That the Botswana Democratic Party has been in power for over 40 years and that they openly preach that 28 years is too long for Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF is not an issue when one considers that the BDP is basically a party that was founded as a British ally.

Zanu-PF, on the other hand, is a liberation movement that won power by fighting against British colonialism.

Ian Khama is the son of Sir Seretse Khama and Lady Ruth Williams Khama, a couple which cemented its relations with the British Crown through the bond of matrimony.

Sir Seretse Khama's fight for the throne of founding president of Botswana was more against the apartheid racists in South Africa who vigorously opposed his marriage to Ian's mother than it was on the political front.

He, Khama Senior, was "permanently" exiled in Britain to avoid the embarrassment of a white First Lady in an African country in a deal that involved apartheid South Africa and a conservative British government.

Under pressure from communist and human rights groups, the "permanent" exile was reversed in 1966 and on return to Africa, the 13- year-old Ian Khama enrolled for high school education in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia.

This is the history that made Ian Khama the youngest Botswana brigadier ever, at the age of 24.

This history and not democracy is what made Lt-Gen Ian Khama quit the army in a huff in 1998 in a behind-the-scenes deal that infuriated many in the leadership of BDP.

Ian Khama seemed to be getting everything from his birth-roots.

Botswana's political history with the BDP is like biblical genealogy.

Seretse Khama leads the country from 1966 to 1980 and dies in power; gets succeeded by his vice president, Sir Khetumile Quett Masire, who retired in 1998 in a deal that handed over power to Vice President Festus Mogae.

The day that Masire left office, Lt-Gen Ian Khama also "retired" from the army and was subsequently unconstitutionally nominated Vice President by Festus Mogae in a dynasty-like deal that Ian Khama obviously mistakes for democracy.

It took a by-election to legitimise Ian Khama's vice presidency and yet the man knows how to spell the word illegitimate through his overzealous foreign minister, a man most certainly smitten by the zeal of the novice.

On April 1 2008, Ian Khama was again unilaterally elected to the presidency of Botswana the BDP way, by the very man who appointed him vice president when he was not an elected parliamentarian, Festus Mogae.

When Ian Khama signed the pugnacious decree to deport Caesar Zvayi earlier this month, in an apparent overruling of university autonomy and academic freedom the reactionary forces behind this barbarism called it an expression of democracy.

The BDP elites have a notorious history of abusing the immigration law to settle political scores with what they call "undesirable immigrants".

In 2005, an Australian citizen, Professor Kenneth Good, expelled from Rhodesia by Khama's namesake Ian Smith in 1973, was once again expelled by the duo of Ian Khama and Festus Mogae for questioning the undemocratic succession patterns within the BDP.

Like Caesar Zvayi, Professor Good was an academic lecturing at the University of Botswana and he had tirelessly served the institution for 15 years.

On passing judgment on Professor Good's appeal against deportation, the judge conceded that the rights of Professor Good "may have been indirectly violated", but he nevertheless ruled that "by declaring Professor Kenneth Good an illegal immigrant, he (the President) acted within his powers".

Commenting on this, Professor Good said: "I thought the judges would take other factors but they simply upheld the power of the president."

This is the reckless and crude power that totally ignored the whole essence of contract law and the principle of compensation when Ian Khama wielded his pen to flex his muscle against a newly appointed lecturer by the name Caesar Zvayi.

No doubt, Ian Khama calls this democracy and he probably believes that the applauding by Zimbabwe's vindictive opposition members is a measure of his political acumen and competence.

The baseness, stupidity and irrationality behind the barbaric deportation of Zvayi cannot pass for democratic principle from however many a number of angles one might consider.

Professor Good's lawyer, Dick Bayford, put it well when he asserted that the deportation of his client "shows that there is no democracy in this country. People will be afraid to criticise the government".

Indeed, people in Botswana are afraid to criticise a government that deports church leaders because their congregations are deemed to include opposition members.

When Ian Khama was quietly and awkwardly taking over power in Botswana on April 1, the world did not notice because their eyes were all fixed on the Zimbabwe March 29 election.

Most certainly, Ian Khama must have mistaken the undeserved silence as approval to the undemocratic BDP succession politics.

He even dares tackle the topic of legitimacy with the temerity expected of an elected leader.

With the full knowledge that the Seretse Khama-British Crown alliance is far from threatened Ian Khama can afford to sidestep the truth about the democratic status of his own political career in the pursuit of international recognition by Western powers in particular -- that by fingerpointing at the political process of Zimbabwe.

There is no doubt that Ian Khama thinks he is making history by boycotting a Sadc summit attended by all other members.

That he does this when every other Sadc member is seeking the success of negotiations meant to end the Zimbabwean crisis does not matter for as long as the son of Lady Khama can push the British bidding on the Zimbabwe talks.

Well, Ian Khama must be reminded that Zimbabwe is not an ally of Britain and that Zanu-PF is a liberation movement and not a post-protectorate British controlled organisation run by men ever jostling for the title "Sir".

It is a revolutionary party founded on the blood of gallant fighters who stood to the very people from whom Ian Khama's ancestry sought help in the form of protection from apartheid South Africa.

In Zimbabwe, it is always homeland or death and together we will overcome.

Reason Wafawarova is a political writer and can be contacted on wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk or reason@rwafawarova.com or visit www.rwafawarova.com