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The subtle levity of Lesotho’s politics

Business

By: Theko Tlebere

While everyone is astonished by the current shenanigans happening in the National Assembly of Lesotho, I was also personally tempted to engage on those debates about Member of parliaments’ (MPs) petrol sager. But I decided otherwise when I realized that most of the debates are not helping the country nor the future of this country which is the youth. I therefore decided to bring you all down the memory lane about the core theme of our column when we started in 2019. Allow me to indicate that I am truly impressed by the veracity shown by some young people in our country on making sure that they despise everything that they believe is meant to derail the country or ambush the noble political atmosphere that we have.

Discussing politics in Lesotho nowadays is pointless, just because all of us (myself included) are definitely inclined to a certain political group making it very difficult to constructively engage each other on matters that affect us. Even where an issue is a straight forward cumbersome that alludes to the current state of economy, for the sake of our political inclination and political scoring we tend to turn a blind eye on the realities and truths we are all facing as a country. Moreover, there are ample issues that have been trending like the Tsepong nurses sager and today the Mps petrol allowances that have double edged effects yet we all tend to protect and or finger twinkle those to whom we want to put the blame on.  But we solely forget that we are one nation. I want to make a definite reiteration that my dream about the levity of politics is to engage young people of this country, from all walks of life, those who are learned, uneducated, rich, poor, passive, and charismatic and all folks who claim to love our country Lesotho, to start thinking differently about their involvement in developmental issues of Lesotho.

The idea is just to trigger our minds to take a deep breath and think about why certain things are happening and why we are acting the way we are doing. That quote I like most about, ‘not remembering the past, then you are condemned to repeat it’ makes more sense than ever today looking at how young people are debating the current political trends. In essence I simply want to urge our young cadres to think deeply about where we come from, as a nation. Maybe we can even take it as far as going back and taking a very close look at some of the good attributes from our late Basotho nation founder King Moshoeshoe I. For the sake of our own sanity we may even further expand the horizons by taking a broader glimpse of the African continent, on how our own world is intertwined in the buildup of the Africa we want. It may further again be extended to  breaking it down to issues of Africanism, spirit of service, youth development, pan-Africanism, black consciousness, African youth charter, Agenda 2063 and many others that will help answer the questions of what kind of Lesotho do we really want? 

Allow me to unequivocally indicate that today’s article was solely triggered by a number of factors, one, the Mps petrol allowance sager, two, the role played by opposition and ruling party MPs in the whole entanglement. It has has actually come to my realization that as young citizens of Lesotho we tend to be so ignorant on issues that seem not to affect us directly now but have a long term bearing on us in the near future and  actually  play a largely significant role in hindering economic and youth development.

 The energy invested by our young people made me realize the veracity of the hell hole we are digging for ourselves because of the party inclination syndrome that has dethroned us from constructively looking at issues.  I will not dwell much into whether government was right or wrong but the very trends I mentioned earlier reminded me of a story that motivated me some time ago to say or do something if I am not happy with any polity apathy in my country.

The story is about someone who was just about to go to bed and had just used their bathroom, and started hearing drops of water from the tap in slow successions, but since it was dropping into an empty bucket, they decided to let it be. But then when they woke up the next morning at about 5:00am the bucket was almost full, they were surprised that just drops even in such slow successions could produce that much. They couldn’t help it, ‘Just drops?’ they questioned rhetorically.

 The story continues to tell us that the following night they made sure that the tap in their bathroom was locked completely and checked the bucket as saw that it was empty, though wet and went to sleep. The next morning obviously the bucket was not wet as they had left it, but it was now dry. That’s when the story teller realized the importance of a drop and how much difference it can make in all ramifications of one’s life compared to a dry tap. It further urges us to imagine letting the drops be for a year, how many drums would be filled at the end of this year! 

I want to conclude by saying attesting to the fact that the idea of making a drop of a voice on issues that affect the masses is key, as it is tantamount to the hope of filling the whole country with drums of knowledge, wisdom and hope that one day Lesotho will become a better nation and the Lesotho we all want. The future is Now!

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