Africa-Press – Lesotho. If you were to place a glass of water on a table in a cabinet meeting and ask the ministers a simple question, “What is this?” Sefapano sa Molimo, you’d get one hundred million different answers.
A simple question, “What is this?” I wouldn’t even ask whether the glass is half-full or half-empty? That one would just crack their minds. This is the biggest challenge we have with our coalition politics.
We have politicians with wide-ranging views and personal interests that converge to form a government of compromises but fail to agree on simple things.
Simple and obvious things like re-opening the Basotho Canners factory. Or widening the Main North One Road to Ha Foso or widening Main South-One Road to Thota-Moli (aka Mazenod).
Or an upgrade of Kofi-Annan Road for heaven’s sake! The reason why our politicians fail to make simple and straightforward decisions comes as a result of this mess we are in named coalition politics.
This issue (ea kotopo) of floor-crossing in parliament, without going for elections has caused even bigger problems for the nation. We’ll continue to have one government after the other until this country is finished.
All this political madness comes at a very heavy cost because no one will invest in a politically unstable environment. As a result, unemployment will be a reality for some time if we continue to maintain the status quo.
We need to change gear. This gear named democracy is not working for us as a nation. I could be working for a few that are still able to put bread on the table but for the vast majority, things are not working out.
We need to reboot the system or to cleanse it. You know, there comes a time when a computer or cell-phone is slow and simply fails to respond to the instructions that you are giving it.
When that time arrives, what do you do? You reboot the system by switching it off and on again. Thereafter, the computer and cellphone will respond back to your instruction with the speed of lightning. Scenario two.
When your digestive system fails to work optimally in a sense that you can’t go to the toilet at regular intervals or there’s just a very “loud” smell that smells like a dead rat when you leave the toilet, what do you do?
You reboot the system by cleansing or fasting. I learnt this trick of fasting in order to reboot the system from my good friend Tšepang Ledia and it works like magic.
I don’t have to use toilet spray after my visit to the small office because I leave it smelling like roses. Scenario Three: What happens when the mind fails to work optimally in a sense that it is slow, tired and the body is sluggish? You go on holiday or a retreat.
However, holidays are not a common practice in our society in Lesotho. We work until the breaking point. That’s the reason why there are so many angry and moody people in Lesotho.
Just take a look at the 4+1 drivers! Do they ever go on holiday? The human mind is not designed to work continually without resting. It needs a break from time to time.
That is why God added Sunday in order to reboot the mind and recharge the batteries. Let’s reboot our politics! We need to allow the system to cleanse itself and come back with a fresh new mandate.
Our politicians need to take a break. They have reached a level of confusion and madness. Ebile ba se ba tella sechaba (they an obnoxious lot). Let’s allow them to take a chance to go home, gather their thoughts and reboot their minds.
We are also tired as a nation. But truth be told, we can’t go on like this. We simply can’t. The current political instability in the country gives evidence to the fact that democracy has failed because it has been undermined by a group of fickle minded individuals that serve their self-interests ahead of the national mandate.
We unfortunately have to suspend democracy and give ourselves an opportunity to re-unite and re-build this country. Otherwise, if we continue like this, we’ll continue fighting and killing each other until this country is finished.
Following these developments, I would like to table something. Let us give His Majesty, King Letsie III an opportunity to have executive powers and rule this country until 2032.
This will give us an opportunity to reboot our democratic processes and to rethink things afresh. We can re-start the democratic process in 2032 with a fresh mandate.
At the moment, the current reforms won’t work because of this dirty system we are in. It’s not because I hate democracy. Democracy is a good system only if and when politicians respect it.
Currently, we have politicians that undermine democracy and the rule of law. Let us reboot our politics. I guess the main issue would be on the how. Maybe we should have a national referendum and give the nation an opportunity to decide whether His Majesty should take the reins or not. Should I submit a petition to parliament? Will you support it?
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