By Kabelo Mollo
It’s early in the year but already something feels different. If you were wondering what it is exactly, it’s an election year, meaning campaigning season. Yuup, time for empty promises, printed t-shirts, sloganeering and leaders who lack self-awareness “coming down to the grassroots level” and other such condescending things.
There will be lots of singing and dancing, die hard loyalists will sing praise for their party’s leadership and more party apparatchiks will appear out of the proverbial wood work. It’s always shocking when people nail their colors to the mast, because “hey didn’t he belong to party x last time around?!”
What I call the “traditional” parties are in government and so will have the resources of the state at their disposal. I wish we lived in a utopia where the resources of the state are left to be and not plundered for the whims of the political elites but to assume that is the case would be to bury one’s head in the sand. Anyhow, the big guys will no doubt hit the ground running hitting far flung areas in the country with their food packs and t shirts in tow.
They’ll remind communities of all they’ve done for them and then promise them even more in the future. Oh, you guys don’t have water and sanitation? Well guess what, I as your elected MP will make sure you get it. Oh, you guys don’t have jobs? Well don’t you worry, my investor friend is bringing a project which will have all of you working in a jiffy. Electricity? The good people at LEC have promised me we’re next in the rural electrification line. Some of those promises are true, some less true than the previous one while others are downright lies, but what’s a little white lie between friends?
Politicians have earned themselves reputations as “skelms”. In effect when folks go out to cast their ballots they’re deciding who of the crooks will best serve their interests. Few are interested in the greater good anymore, in fact very few even believe in such a thing now. The masses now just want their corner of the world habitable. They aren’t asking for much to be honest, just basic service delivery. Water and sanitation, roads that aren’t potholed, public transport that’s reliable and safe, an opportunity to participate in the economy and their children to have access to quality free education.
Public health care and a clean environment too! Basic service delivery that really should be so easy to do for any and all executives. It beggars belief that with only two million people calling Lesotho home, we aren’t able to do that. This place ought to be utopia, we should be an example to the rest of the world and yet the example we are is how not to do It. How not to govern with coalition politics and how not to deliver basic services.
Promising pensioners an improved welfare cheque around this time has also become en vogue. Those poor people deserve so much more dignity then they’re being given now, it breaks my heart. I wonder what increase they’ll be given which will then be attributed to the current prime minister. The increase will see a small change in the fortunes of those pensioners and then the politicians will score points with it until that day when we are asked to go and put an X next to the one we want to see in power for the next little while.
I wonder which party is going to have a more sophisticated campaign? Which leader is going to capture the hearts and minds of the potential sleeping giant that is the youth vote? Is there a party ready with smart online campaigns where the kids are? Is there a party looking to unleash the creative and disruptive force that is the youth? I doubt it. The voting bloc that is 25 and under if engaged properly has the access to information required to make a change in the current discourse. I suspect that’s what our politicians fear. That real change that might leave them out in the Cold. That disruption that will be at odds with their interests. They will be really accountable to the society if they awaken that voting pool and I doubt accounting is high on the priority list of our esteemed politicians.
And so the pink elephant in the room. Our leaders will be cutting ribbons and making public appearances of all sorts to remind us of their existence and also that they are “of the people”. The fewer opened pizzerias the better. Everything isn’t a noteworthy event, and less is more in terms of charm offensive. With all of that said, best of luck to all those competing. My vote is up for grabs, so…
