Do not re-elect them!
And so we have been reminded, thanks to attorney Rantao's social media posts that for the last ten years our parliament knew that the constitutional provision that ushered in former presidents Mogae and Khama is flawed. Attorney Ndulamo Morima has followed up with revelation that then Attorney general, Dr. Atalia Molokomme conceded that the relevant section of the consitution needed to be amended TEN long years ago, when Khama became president. This was TEN long years after Mogae became president through the same constitutional provision. And yet the offending constitutional provision remains intact to this day. No amendment has been made. This begs the question: what have our elected members of Parliament been doing for at least the last ten years? Why do they think they deserve to be sent back to Parliament in 2019?
It is bad enough that the offending constitutional provision is an assault on our democracy - a president appoints his own successor, who comes with full executive powers. However, the lack of clarity caused by bad coding of the offending constitutional provision leaves one gasping for breath at our so-called legislators! In my opinion none of them deserves to be re-elected back to Parliament.
It does not matter whether they are ruling party MP's or opposition MP's. If they truly believed in our democracy, and they were denied the opportunity either by the Speaker of Parliament or by their party caucases to submit their constitutional amendment proposals, they could have, indeed they SHOULD have, taken the matter out of Parliament and into the streets for us the PEOPLE to protest and demonstrate against the undemocratic constitutional provision. What is clear is that the interest of the MP's is not centred around the peoples' well-being, but solely around the MPs' own livelyhoods. That is why they defect from their political parties if they lose the primary elections. That is why they spend fifteen years talking about constituency allocations, to the complete exclusion of any dialogue on constitutional, economic or political transformation.
A democracy is only as good as the people who get voted into Parliament. It is these Members of Parliament who make the very laws that govern our lives. Where dictatorship stands in their way of enacting democratic laws, they have the ultimate weapon - bring down their own Government if need be. But looking at the lot that has been sitting in Parliament for the last ten years, no such recourse could have ever crossed their minds. Ours is a democracy under siege; a corrupt dictatorship has fashioned its perpertuation under the guise of "peaceful" transfer of presidential power from one actor to the next, and our "elected" representatives couldn't care less. Just why should we send any of them back to Parliament in 2019?
This posrt should not be misunderstood to mean that I advocate taking part in 2019 general elections if electronic voting machines (EVMs)are going to be used. If EVMs are going to be used in 2019 general elections, not only will I NOT vote, but I won't even register for the election.
It is bad enough that the offending constitutional provision is an assault on our democracy - a president appoints his own successor, who comes with full executive powers. However, the lack of clarity caused by bad coding of the offending constitutional provision leaves one gasping for breath at our so-called legislators! In my opinion none of them deserves to be re-elected back to Parliament.
It does not matter whether they are ruling party MP's or opposition MP's. If they truly believed in our democracy, and they were denied the opportunity either by the Speaker of Parliament or by their party caucases to submit their constitutional amendment proposals, they could have, indeed they SHOULD have, taken the matter out of Parliament and into the streets for us the PEOPLE to protest and demonstrate against the undemocratic constitutional provision. What is clear is that the interest of the MP's is not centred around the peoples' well-being, but solely around the MPs' own livelyhoods. That is why they defect from their political parties if they lose the primary elections. That is why they spend fifteen years talking about constituency allocations, to the complete exclusion of any dialogue on constitutional, economic or political transformation.
A democracy is only as good as the people who get voted into Parliament. It is these Members of Parliament who make the very laws that govern our lives. Where dictatorship stands in their way of enacting democratic laws, they have the ultimate weapon - bring down their own Government if need be. But looking at the lot that has been sitting in Parliament for the last ten years, no such recourse could have ever crossed their minds. Ours is a democracy under siege; a corrupt dictatorship has fashioned its perpertuation under the guise of "peaceful" transfer of presidential power from one actor to the next, and our "elected" representatives couldn't care less. Just why should we send any of them back to Parliament in 2019?
This posrt should not be misunderstood to mean that I advocate taking part in 2019 general elections if electronic voting machines (EVMs)are going to be used. If EVMs are going to be used in 2019 general elections, not only will I NOT vote, but I won't even register for the election.
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