We don’t need a new definition of politics, but the same old demonstration

By Teboho Polanka. Teboho is Social Worker, Writer & Inspirational Speaker. He is passionate about Christocentric missions.

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What is an emergency? I’ll tell you what it is.It is a situation of such extreme need as will brook no delay; a now or never situation.

That’s where Lesotho has been ever since its supposed independence. In just a few minutes, let’s delve into why that is the case.

History has it that within the pack of BOLESWA member states, Lesotho led the pack with regard to development. The first, if am not mistaken, to ever have a university. But looking at where it is today, it becomes a normal reaction to yawn before asking questions.

What happened that led us to the bottom percentile of this scale? Have we somehow been too proud to see that we were lacking behind? Or were we deceived about our supposed rank in the past relative to Botswana and Swaziland?

Lesotho is imbued with plenty of natural resources, but has become poorer with every extraction of the likes of diamonds. Why is that? Could there be fundamental determinants of socioeconomic development we’ve somehow failed to realize?

Given the quantities of water, wool and mohair to include diamonds, aren’t we supposed to have advanced? Many developing nations have climbed up the socioeconomic scale through their exports. Why is Lesotho an exception?

Lesotho’s economic freedom score is 53.9, making it the 136th freest in the 2018 index. Apparently, its overall score hasn’t changed, with significant improvements in scores for the government spending, investment freedom, and judicial effectiveness indicators matched by a steep decline in trade freedom and lower scores for tax burden and government integrity – 2018 index of Economic Freedom.

The idea behind us not developing is engraved into our “lousy” political arena. Politics should be leading nations towards prosperous future with good governance, and not toward some silly covetousness that characterizes Lesotho politics.

2018 index shows that Lesotho is ranked 25th among the 47 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa region, and its overall score is below both the regional and world averages.

The index further argues that the economic policy in Lesotho has been overshadowed by political instability and prospect of international sanctions. Political fragmentation has delayed infrastructure improvements that would’ve encouraged needed economic diversification.

Greatly disturbing is the fact that, the index explicitly brings to light the fact that Lesotho has constraint investment flows. At this juncture I wish to divert our attention to Botswana and see how it has managed to be where it is today.

The economic success of Botswana can precisely be thought of as the by-product of its historical development of institutions that sought to bring stability and accountability to the forefront after its independence. The propeller being the desire to adopt as good economic policies as were at its disposal.

For Botswana, independence meant the striping away of inessentials such as a rule by an individual from a “royal family” even when he is incapable of moving our nation through unfamiliar waters of development.

Ever since that time, it began to experience rapid economic growth coupled with sustained free and relatively fair democratic elections.

Interestingly, for Lesotho, independence meant just the opposite. Now isn’t that amazing? Independence bombards us with political instabilities, poor, uncaring and terrifyingly corrupt leadership. Features that are quite unknown to Botswana, not that they have problem-free existence.

Learning from foreign lands about the progressive politics can help us in experiencing significant amounts of development. Politics can be rightly viewed as the horse-power engine to lead us into future greener pastures.

The idea of a democratic government is that failure of those in power to undertake their suggested responsibilities should be met by a nice voting out of office. Look at South Africans, failure of presidential office to carry out all things with the best interest of the nation at heart is met by social actions without hesitation.

Democratic nations believe that there should be accountability by political officials, so should we as Lesotho. We seem to tolerate mindless and often impractical propaganda. That is, prior to every election those campaigning for office should account for their previous fleshy promises.

And if they’re found not to have delivered their promises, they should let the communities know why they failed and how they plan not to in future with a significant amount of honesty. Consistent failure should disqualify the concerned candidate as incapable.

Have we not been made to believe that Lesotho is a democratic nation all these years? This will probably not earn me friends, but do we honestly know what democracy is?

Maybe the time has come for us to bury our ignorance and admit our need. We need to look at developed nations and learn a thing or two about their art of politics. We need to be serious about having checks and balances enforced on politicians and the idea of dispute resolution that we may create good governance.

Equally important, political knowledge should be disseminated to our communities. The fact of having misinformed voters translates into no accountability by the candidates, which is to our own peril.

For us the issue is not whether or not HIV/AIDS continues to kill thousands, our most pressing issue is whether or not going alongside our current politics unchecked won’t lead us into an even poorer Lesotho. We need a paradigm shift in our politics.

Most notably, if we’re stern about our pursuit of a democratic government, every cent should be accounted for at the end of every financial year. This will help minimize incidences of misuse and/or coveting of the nation’s funds meant for the public good. Isn’t that what democracy looks like?

Regardless of how terrific our present conditions are, if we would, akin to nations like Botswana, adopt both political and economic policies advocated by mainstream political analysts, economists and the World Bank our maladies will fade as the thing of the past.

With the current politics unaltered, politically we remain stagnant. Economically we’re journeying back to the stone-age.

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Teboho Polanka
Teboho is a Social Worker, Writer and Inspirational Speaker. He is in pursuit of MSc. in Managerial Psychology. Graduates are able to apply psychological principles and methods to tackle challenges in the work environment and provide effective practical solutions. Acting as industrial-organizational psychologists.