HE arrived with a mixed reputation. in his favour were his charm, homespun intelligence and canny ability to insert himself amongst vry poor communities. But stuck between the impatient masses and anxious capitalists and greedy party bigwigs on the other hand he has drifted and dithered, offering neither vision nor firm government. Worse, HE has failed to tackle the scourge of corruption. The BDP under his aegis has sought to undermine the independence of the courts, the police, the prosecuting authorities and the press. It has conflated the interests of party and state, dishing out contracts for public works as rewards for loyalty—hence the bitter jest that the government is in hock to “tenderpreneurs”. This has reduced economic competitiveness and bolstered a fabulously rich BDP elite. As a result, too little wealth trickles down to the ordinary motswana. Of all the things Khama says, the most pathetic may be when he pleads with everyone to understand that he is “not a dictator.” He says this not for the purpose of exalting the separation of powers inherent in our system. No, he says it as an excuse for not accomplishing things. Why hasn’t he gotten the deficit under control? during the times tsa bo RRE MOGAE we practised SOUND MONEY... Sound money means saving in the good years so we can borrow in the bad. It means ending HEs spendaholic culture...… ...it means clamping down on government waste...… ...and it means destroying all those useless quangos and initiatives. BY THE WAY WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY THAT WAS SAVED FOR TIMES LIK THESE TSA ECONOMIC TURMOIL..Why aren’t we seeing real economic growth? Why is unemployment at its highest and still going up? Why do we lurch from one cabinet to the next? I say this is the most pathetic because Khama’s problem is not that he isn’t a dictator. It’s that he’s not a LEADER. The 3 presidents who preceded him were not dictators either, and under them we did not see constant fiscal crises, higher deficits, delibarete and arrogant corruption issues and a complete breakdown of the working relationship between Parliament and the Office President. There were certainly political battles, and I’m not saying by any means that the things that got done were always great things. But we have never seen anything like the constant drama and confrontation we’re seeing now. Let me explain the difference between leadership and what Khama does, because to him it might seem like he’s leading. After all, the polls continually show that the public takes his side in the showdowns with opposition parties. Doesn’t the mean he’s leading? Doesn’t that mean he’s selling his ideas to the public and the Opposition are just being obstinate in their refusal to go along? No. That’s not leadership. That’s POLITICAL GAMESMANSHIP with a cunning populism ability just to shoeshine it and Khama is very good at that. Political gamesmanship means that on any given day, you can convince a fed-up citizenry to be madder at the other guy than they are at you. Or you can impress the illiterates and GOVERNMENT MEDIA with the notion that you’re outmaneuvering the other guy politically, such that they praise you for your shrewdness and the public reads headlines of another “win for Khama” Political gamesmanship keeps your poll numbers looking good, but it’s not leadership. Leadership is when you honestly put forward your vision for the nation, and the public is so sold on your vision that they not only support it but demand that their representatives in Opposition do the same. The public is not demanding that Opposition to support Khama’s vision. Most of them don’t even know what it really is because he doesn’t tell them. For example, people hear Khama say he has the 5Ds Plan... What? Is that even going to take us anywhere? That’s why it’s not leadership. If Khama had a plan to create a better Botswana and rise our standard of living... Opposition might not like it but they might feel compelled to support it anyway lest they feel the public’s wrath. But since they know Khama has no such plan, and has misled the public through political gamesmanship and his populism staunts, they recognize it would criminal, misguided and dissapointing in a measurable in a Richter scale for them to support his agenda (Mananeo a ga Rraetsho) So he’s left to whine about not being a dictator. Dictators need their absolute power because they can’t honestly sell the people on what they want to do. Khama tries his best to baffle us them with useless quagons and initiatives and the government media try their best to give him cover when he does so. But leaders solve problems, and the truth is that Khama has no solutions to the nation’s biggest problems. What he thinks is the fault of his lack of dictatorial power is actually caused by this: He is not very good at the job of being president of the Botswana.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 05:50:16 +0000
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