By Kabelo Mollo
Politics or, politricks. It just depends on your viewpoint. This is an apolitical column, but that doesn’t mean that politics and the state of them aren’t constantly top of mind. Whether it be in Lesotho or beyond, I like to keep abreast of the politics of the day.
In fact, over most holidays you will find my family poring over some of other story related to politics or the geopolitical essence of one or other thing. It is my understanding that everything, almost literally everything is influenced by politics or the machinations of political players. They are all around us whether we like them or not.
I have heard and seen many a young person on social media or in the daily grind we call life talking about how they are unlikely to vote in the forthcoming election. When I enquire why that is, the popular refrain is that politics and politicians have let them down so egregiously that they have lost any appetite they might have had to participate. They have in essence been beaten in to submission by the country’s failure to deliver a brighter tomorrow.
Fair enough I retort, but to not vote is to vote for the status quo I tell them, and I can’t understand how said status quo can be acceptable to them, specifically if they’re completely disheartened by it. Often whoever I’m engaging on the matter will have an impassioned speech about how they were so passionate and driven, and now they really can’t be bothered. That always stings. It doesn’t matter how many times I hear or read it, it stings. In my understanding change is supposed to be led by the youth. Our youth have been bro beaten in to submission, and it’s worked.
Here in the Kingdom a new fad has emerged over the last little while of voice notes and now video clips of politicians acting the fool. I use the words advisedly and have no desire to belittle those caught on video or voice note, and no it’s not because they are belittling themselves… Instead I mean it as term of endearment, these politicians record videos and voice notes of themselves as a way to communicate their message without filter.
I have no doubt that they have every idea of what they’re doing when they record them. We chuckle, then share them precisely as hoped by the originators. It strikes me that these players have understood our society. They’ve understood that largely this thing is a show, and the biggest showman will get the lion’s share of the bounty. Whether that player is lucid, sound of thought or preaching destruction is neither here nor there, so long as the player is visible and top of mind throughout the silly season heading to elections.
I have seen a clip of Lesotho’s second (but first) Prime Minister-post independence bemoaning coalition governments, and stating almost categorically that it won’t work here. He looks like a prophet now because that system of governance well and truly has not worked here. We have had three governments in a space of a five-year period. Political stability is a mere pipe dream for us, though fortunately our national reforms are on the horizon which will hopefully set in motion a better system than that which is in place currently.
Anyway, I watch that video and am reminded of the reality that we have in our politics today. Many, many chiefs too few Indians. How many of our political leaders take the ‘servants’ part of ‘civil servants’ seriously? Have you ever been passed by one of them in their blue light car? Have you ever had a meeting with them that wasn’t about enriching you or them and found them amenable to your proposal? Have you seen them arrive at funeral and be whisked off in to a private space where they’ll be more comfortable? How can you be a servant for the people if you don’t know the people and they’re reality? Our civil servants augmented reality has made them removed from the situation which makes them forget that last part of their title is about service.
The Independent Electoral Commission is undoubtedly going to go on a campaign to entice people to vote. The median age of the country is 25 years old. We need that age group to have a say in the forthcoming election, but what is the IEC going to say to them to entice them to vote? What are the parties who require those votes going to say to those voters to get them to register and then actually turn up to vote?
I am truly interested in all of that because as stated earlier, I am fascinated by politics. All of that notwithstanding, I really hope people of all ages, all walks of life and denomination go register and then vote. I hope everyone adds their voice to the discourse and asks for better service delivery, improved civil service and politics that are less tricks than anything else!
