Our performance in this house is not going to be measured necessarily by the number of questions we ask and motions we pass through this parliament but by their relevance to the lives of our constituents and how they ultimately translate into resolutions.

Democracy

The international observer missions have made their pronouncements on the conduct of the elections. Unfortunately they usually come at the tail end of a long process and evaluate the event. Some come from political cultures where the concept of fairness is defined differently depending on the dictates of the moment, and the rule of law is an unknown phenomenon. Such people will always give Botswana's general elections a free and fair verdict. We all know and the BDP knows that they had more than a fair share of the use of government media before and after the writ of elections was announced. We also know that in the last two weeks in the run up to the Election Day the BDP rallies enjoyed an unfair share of BTV coverage. When namola leuba jobs are created overnight and dished out in Gaborone South to coincide with the elections, under the guise of poverty alleviation we are creating a cargo cult mentality amongst our people - the belief among hungry people that on the election eve a fairy ship will dock in their harbor laden with every goody they have always dreamed of possessing.

When people in Bobirwa, after suffering for so long from the influx of Zimbabwean criminals who rustled their livestock into Zimbabwe, raped the women folk and commandeered their fields, can only get some relief from the deployment of the BDF on the election eve, after the visitation by the Vice-President of this country, that is also not fair. I hope that when the 2009 general elections dust has settled the IEC will do a dispassionate postmortem of the election process to get to the bottom of the glaring clerical errors in the voters roll which disenfranchised a lot of voters. Many people were returned from the polling station for this error.

Voter trafficking that occurs when the voters' roll can no longer be scrutinised is making a mockery of our democratic process either in council or in Parliament.

The use of underhanded methods to coerce voters to vote for a particular party by giving them the impression that it is only when they vote the ruling party that the developments can reach their area give impression that developments were withheld from a constituency because it is opposition held. Let me take this opportunity to thank KBL for their magnanimity and generosity in donating P2million to be shared among the parties that took part in the 2004 general elections. This gesture hopefully will serve as a lesson to the BDP government that political party funding is after all a good thing.

Security in Botswana

Police Service

The merger of the local police with the Botswana Police is yet to yield results. It is too soon to do an evaluation of their performance. Suffice to say however that capacitation of such a service is central to its success. The Minister of Defence, Justice and Security should ascertain that there is no discrimination in the treatment of those who joined from the local police by their new authorities. The Police Service must be equipped and the personnel properly trained to deal with sophisticated criminals who use latest technology. There should be an elite unit service in the Police service that are trained to be equal to the intensifying criminal activities.

Human rights

Justice the world over is becoming very expensive and unaffordable for the ordinary citizen. Legal fees are making it impossible for ordinary Batswana to access justice. Some countries have mitigated this situation by the creation of Human Rights Commissions as some of the structures that can dispense justice especially for those members of our communities who cannot afford lawyers.

The extra judicial killings that have occurred recently have eroded the rule of law in this republic. Unless government calls a stop, this unfortunate trend where the state apparatus become law unto themselves Botswana will soon be thrown into lawlessness. The role of the civil society must be accentuated. The creation of a human rights commission is long overdue to address human rights transgressions in this country.

Health

The HIV/AIDS pandemic and other opportunistic diseases like TB and the recently announced threat of Swine Flu spreading from the north of the globe have certainly reversed the strides that Botswana made in achieving health for all by a certain period. However, some problems are self-inflicted. The first world governments have, for example banned the use of chemicals such as DDT which we understand are being re-introduced in Botswana to kill Tsetse fly. It is counter productive to eradicate one disease by introducing others. This is clearly a case of pharmaceuticals in the first world seeking market for the products that the first world cannot consume.

Asbestos roofing was abandoned a long time ago in a lot of countries. Unfortunately there are people in this country, public servants, who are accommodated in houses with asbestos roofing.

It is a medical fact that people who live in houses with such roofing are likely to contact cancer.

Poverty alleviation

There are occasions when conflict between people, survival and environmental issues make decision making difficult.

The landboards and other authority are currently seized with the issue of controlling informal sector operations especially those working from homes. The landboards should allocate big plots as one stop centres from where they can do their businesses in a jointly owned plot. A centre from where different services can be delivered and accessed.

Maintenance of government and council buildings has always been a cause for concern in this country. Batswana tradesmen should be encouraged to form themselves into cooperatives from which services can be sourced as and when they are needed. In our communities there are unemployed bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters who can benefit from occasional small tenders from councils and government and it is from these one stop service centres that they could operate.

CEDA's Young Farmers Fund is a partially successful youth empowerment fund. It should be made more inclusive by extending it to other areas of business.

Privatisation of public utilities

Public utilities like Telecomms, Water Utilities, Botswana Power Cooperation, BHC and others were formed to provide a service. The BDP government is now desirous of privatizing some of these entities. What are some of the reasons for selling these utilities?

The efficacy of a capitalist system was put in bold relief and seriously challenged by the current economic downturn. Large companies in the west collapsed due to undisciplined pursuit for more and arrogant neglect by the top leadership. We at the BNF, therefore contend that privatisation should not only be put on hold but done away with instead government should seriously pursue organisational transformation through interventions such as PMS, Balance score card etc for they can yield results if they are properly implemented.

Agriculture

The NAMPAADD (National Agricultural Master Plan for Agriculture and Dairy Development) and "ISPAAD" do have a role to play in the diversification enhancing agriculture in this country. We believe there is virtue in the identification of areas in Botswana which are blessed with underground water and availability of surface water as in dams to target for irrigation.

Education

BNF believes strongly in education with production, we are therefore hopeful that light is beginning to shine in the BDP's camp. The statement that "the education system will need to produce more industry relevant graduates through development and delivery of quality academic programmes at all levels," makes us hope that our system will stop creating false expectations for automatic employment amongst its graduates. It must provide survival skills for the graduate. University of Botswana, as an institution of higher learning, has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of student numbers, academic and support staff.

As an institution of higher learning it is bound to produce students with critical minds. For government to try to suppress free flow of political aggression and thinking would be harmful to proper development of future leaders of this country.

Land

Land is a finite resource which must be handled with utmost care. Unfortunately some of the changes in the Tribal Land act have worsened the scarcity of land in some districts.

Olebile Gaborone is a member of parliament for South East North and Leader of Opposition in Parliament. This is an excerpt of a speech in the house this week in response to President Ian Khama's State of the Nation address delivered last week.