Dr Elmon Tafa
3 July 2009
opinion
The BNF Temporary Platform condemns in the strongest anatomy of terms the latest act of political madness by the BNF Central Committee, which has just expelled BNF MP for Gaborone West North Comrade Robert Molefabangwe.
This is further testimony to the observation we have long made that the BNF leadership has been hijacked by a bunch of traitors. We will soon run out of adjectives to describe the countless acts of political suicide committed by this most despicable faction masquerading as the BNF Central Committee. The expression - he who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount is very true of the Central Committee. They have now effectively boxed themselves into a tight corner, they are trapped in a never ending cycle of expulsions and suspensions and can only be stopped by party members themselves by ejecting them out of their illegitimate positions. Even quarrelling with the BNF vice president in a bar is the basis for expelling a comrade from the party! I think even during election day they will still be expelling their own members, while at the same time dreaming dreams about winning the forthcoming elections. It is a political circus of unparallel proportions the likes of which has never been witnessed before in the BNF. As I bought a copy of Mmegi carrying this story one ordinary citizen remarked; Go raya gore go tla sala ene Moupo a le nosi! Literally meaning, Only Moupo alone will survive these expulsions. This is reminiscent of Stalin's purges which wiped out all of Lenin's Bolsheviks except Stalin himself and Lenin's wife! Thank God Moupo does not have state power otherwise all of us would be six feet underground by now!
Effectively the Central Committee is fighting three of its sitting MPs - Comrade Magama, Comrade Modubule and Comrade Molefabangwe. A leader who expels his former Secretary General Cde Magama, his former National Chairperson Cde Modubule and his former Secretary for political Education and former National Chairperson of the Policy Forum, Cde Tafa especially when elections are around the corner is either literally mad or simply working for the enemy or both. This, by all accounts is something out of the ordinary.
Such breath-taking acts of political hara-kiri are simply unheard of in serious organizations.
How does a party win 29 seats when it is busy dismantling its hard won political strongholds? We know for a fact that a decision to expel Magama has long been taken.
We also know that Moupo himself, of all people - somebody who is by all accounts not electable, would like to stand in Gaborone South, not so much to win but in order to spoil Magama's chances of winning and hand over the constituency to the BDP on a silver plate. That is the role he assigned Comrade Koosaletse in Lobatse, Comrade Kgosipula in Mogoditshane and Comrade Mumba in F/town South. They are political spoilers, pure and simple! Even newcomers have immersed themselves in the unenviable mess of dismantling the party of Dr Kenneth Koma, the party of Mareledi Giddie, the party of Comrade Frank Marumo - all of whom must be turning in their graves at this tragic turn of events. Moupo cannot even win a council seat. He is the biggest liability in the BNF.
Given his catalogue of scandals, he must have resigned not once, but several times for the sake of the organization. Even if some BNF constituencies were to survive in the forthcoming elections they will be surviving in spite of, and not because of Moupo's tragic leadership. That is why various party structures have long demanded that he must resign with immediate effect. He unashamedly refuses to accede to their demands as per the party principle on the right to immediate recall of non-performing party activists. One of the things he is strongly opposed to is to discuss his political differences with comrades either within party structures or in the media because he knows he cannot defend himself. And yet he likes abusing Lenin's statement that the party is not a debating club when he knows he does not entertain any debate with comrades who happen to hold views different from his.
Moupo's demolition squad will not go away easily. He has already publicly stated that he would like to continue he job of finishing-off the BNF by contesting the party congress elections next year. This traitor has already started rigging next year's congress elections. During his tenure in office, like a typical African dictator, Moupo has perfected the art of rigging his party's elections. The strategy is use the party office to steal the elections. BNF members will have to rise to the occasion and stop this traitor in his tracks once and for all, unless they want their party to be relegated to the great dustbin of history, the limbo or museum of the forgotten past. We have all the confidence in the power of the masses to rescue their party from the clutches of the traitors but nothing must be left to chance. They must start now organizing seriously for the removal of the cancerous BNF Central Committee.
The time-tested BNF principles of criticism and self-criticism as well as political education if properly applied would obviate the need to expel any party member.
Comrades who inevitably make mistakes in the course of carrying out their duties are supposed to be constructively criticized, advised and rehabilitated politically to become loyal party activists again. Only in extreme cases and as a last resort can a recalcitrant, non-repentant or seemingly incorrigible activist be expelled from the organization.
However as a progressive organization the BNF is not supposed to write off any comrade.
That is why in our policies we believe that even criminals can be rehabilitated so that they can become law abiding morally upright citizens. Marxists believe that the neuro-physiological structure of human beings is very plastic and that people therefore have immense capacity for learning and unlearning certain things through political education and rehabilitation.
These faceless clowns calling themselves the BNF Central Committee are clearly set to make history. They will certainly go into the annals of history as the most inept and politically irresponsible Central Committee the party has ever had. In the past even where there was a genuine case of indisciple involving prominent party members during an election year the party leadership exercised caution and restraint in dealing with such comrades for the simple reason that drastic measures such as expulsions always have far reaching implications beyond the constituency of the comrades concerned.
They severely tarnish the name of the party and dampen the spirits of the voters throughout the country who would have otherwise wanted to vote for the BNF. Not many people can take the BNF seriously when there is such an obvious lack of political leadership. In my house to house campaigns BNF members express deep concern at the repeated betrayal of their interests by the BNF leadership. The effects of such a callous disregard of the feelings of party members and sympathizers are much wider than what this myopic Central Committee imagines. The entire party suffers. It is tantamount to punishing the entire party for the alleged mistakes of one individual. The entire party will pay a heavy price. It will certainly reap the whirlwind in the forthcoming general elections as a result of not one, but a series of monumental errors of stupidity. The chances of the party doing well, let alone winning the elections, are dealt a mortal blow time and time again. Unfortunately that includes the extraordinary efforts made by ordinary well-meaning comrades who sacrifice their meager resources to try and win council and parliamentary elections or campaign for the party they love. That is why I used the words 'political suicide'. Many people are asking themselves the question; what is the point of voting for a party without political leadership?
Precisely at this time when the country is desperately crying out for a strong BNF in order to counter the ever growing threat posed by the military junta which staged a palace coup when former President Mogae stepped down Moupo's treacherous leadership delivers the exact opposite - the systematic destruction of the once mighty BNF - the only party potentially capable checking the excesses of Khama's military junta . The next five years of this military junta will see the complete withering away of the country's democracy, peace and tranquility. Right like Kamuzu Banda's notorious Young Pioneers the overzealous DIS (Directorate on Security and Intelligence) has swooped into every nook and cranny of the society creating a network of Ian Khama's spies. And very soon freedom of speech will be a thing of the past. Extra-judicial killings are becoming the order of the day and over the next five years they will involve prominent politicians, journalists, human rights activists, trade unionists, and champions of the rights of minority ethnic groups. Once again another golden opportunity which had presented itself for the BNF to capture state power is being squandered in the most spectacular of fashions by Otsweletse Moupo. This is betrayal not just of the BNF members , but Batswana in general and it will be remembered as the worst ever witnessed in the history of our beloved republic. Voters must rally behind Mekoko ya BNF as one way of fighting back.
Our comradely advice to Comrade Molefabangwe is that he must immediately identify with the BNF Temporary Platform for organized resistance. He must immediately register as an independent candidate of a special type - as a member of the Temporary Platform. The majority of the BNF members are either members or well-wishers of the BNF Temporary Platform. Once he has joined the BNF Temporary Platform I have no doubt that they will actively help him retain his seat so that he goes back to parliament as de-facto BNF MP until this mess is sorted out by the party rank and file at the party congress.
Cde Dr Elmon M Tafa, Spokesperson, BNF Temporary Platform.
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