Political party funding and the dawn of a new party
This past week there was an announcement that finally the government will fund political parties. This is mainly because government as a parent does not want political parties (who are essentially their kids) asking for money from strangers. Asking for money from strangers is culturally frowned upon as the latter might visit a large dose of evil on you.
Funding political parties was first started by KBL in 2009 when it forked out a whopping P2 million, which was shared using a simple formula that perplexed those whose Maths is in Pitsville. Fifteen years later, some are still calling for KBL to be deboned. I think KBL wanted to goad the government into action but the latter didn’t have the spherical things to copy until now. There was always unease that this could result in the ruling party becoming opposition and losing the keys to the vault.
My inspiration is Lesotho. There the electoral law allows everyone to form a political party that is why around 60 political parties contested for political office in the previous elections. In Botswana when you want to form a political party, people look at you like something the cat dragged in and spew words like ‘why don’t you be like other children and club together so that you have a better chance of unseating the party in power? This apparently should be the default position for anyone with political ambition. This always sounds nuttier than squirrel poo to me. I don’t want to club with anyone and want to plough my lone furrow and see how far I get. But I have never formed a political party before. However, I see guys jaded by being reduced to sing in party choirs resigning and forming new political parties. Guys who have finally said ‘enough is enough’. I, too, hope to hoodwink a few people into a cause of some sort that we can punt to the masses and hopefully ensnare some converts.
I am currently toying with a few names. You don’t want to form a party that shares names with political parties that keep fragmenting faster than a babysitter’s boyfriend when the car pulls up. Names like Democratic, Labour, Front, Republican, Congress, which are default nomenclature for most parties, have been taken up, so I need to craft a very catchy name.
I will obviously be president. One cannot form a party and be a treasurer or a campaign manager. Besides, I have never been president of anything so this is my chance. I know the reasoning here is below blonde reasoning, which is the acceptable lower limit of idiocy but those who don’t want me to assume presidency will be disciplined and dismissed so they are free to form their own parties and become president. They will never hear me complaining about them assuming presidency in their own parties.
But the party funding issue, which is the main reason why I am planning to form a party, remains my biggest challenge. Woven into the fabric of most political parties is the inability to have peace when you have received money. This has made people uneasy about parties being funded and some see the funding as a genesis of fights and splits. But I think this thinking is very unkind and unfair.
I hope they use a fairer system to distribute the money than the one used by KBL, which only considered parties that contested pre-2009. This will leave out the new parties like mine which is a party that would most likely win elections as long as political funding is fair. I informed a friend about my plans with the hope that he will see my vision and join me and he said “common sense is like deodorant. Those who need it most never use it.” I am still waiting for his call and wondering if he will join my new party as I couldn’t decipher his statement.
(For comments, feedback and insults email inkspills1969@gmail.com) Thulaganyo Jankey is a Rapporteur and training consultant who runs his own training consultancy that provides training in BQA- accredited courses. His other services include registering consultancies with BQA and developing training courses. Contact him on 74447920 or email ultimaxtraining@gmail.com
I know the reasoning here is below blonde reasoning, which is the acceptable lower limit of idiocy