Biggie Butale: A President riding on a tiger
Former United States President Harry Truman may have had Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) president Biggie Butale in mind when he said: “Being a president is like riding on a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed. I never sit on a fence. I am either on one side or another,” WRITES DIKARABO RAMADUBU.
Although Butale and Truman are separated by at least seven decades, there is no doubt that when he agreed to ascend to the BPF presidency upon its formation by the former president, Dr. Ian Khama in 2019, Butale received very little briefing on the way forward including the fact that he will face a turbulent journey throughout.
History shows that World War II had been going on for almost six years when Harry Truman was sworn in as US vice president to Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 20th 1945. But Truman scarcely saw the president after the inauguration because critical negotiations with Joseph Stalin required Roosevelt's presence in Russia.
Truman had received little, if any, briefing on the secret development of the atomic bomb or the difficulties with Soviet Russia, when he was suddenly confronted with finding solutions to wartime problems that Roosevelt had struggled with for the two terms of his presidency.
On April 12, 1945 Truman was summoned to the White House where Eleanor Roosevelt quietly said, “Harry. The president is dead.” Truman told reporters, “I felt like the moon the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.”
As president he observed, “Within the first few months I discovered that being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed.” With Germany's unconditional surrender, Truman proclaimed victory in Europe, or VE Day, on May 8th 1945 - his 61st birthday.
Carrying out Roosevelt's policies, Truman helped establish the United Nations, and in June 1945 witnessed the signing of the Charter drawn up by 50 nations committed to preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security.
But when Japan vowed to continue fighting, Truman faced one of the most difficult and controversial decisions to ever confront a US president - whether to drop the atom bomb on Japan to finally end World War II. Truman who said, “The buck stops here,” wouldn't back away from the task.
After Japan rejected an urgent plea from the US to surrender, Truman authorised the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th, and Nagasaki on August 8th 1945 - quickly bringing an end to this devastating global war.
Butale led the BPF well from its infancy stage where he among others, participated in the heated presidential debate before they successfully managed to be the first political party formed in the general election year and made an impact by winning three parliamentary seats.
Butale is armed with the BPF constitution at his disposal to restore law and order. Being a clergyman, he subscribes to the attributes of Jesus Christ who is against revenge. He detests revenge against those who make his presidential journey miserable, but instead prefers to reason with them that politics is a game of numbers.
So far twice he was unceremoniously relieved of his position only to be reinstated through a court order after seeking redress. The latest infighting within the BPF camp is still before the Lobatse High Court.
Last Friday Justice Michael Mothabi gave Butale a sigh of relief by ordering that the matter is urgent and the same be treated as one deserving of urgency and the Rules of the court in so far as they relate to time limits, service of process and other related matters be dispensed with.
Part of the order reads, 'a rule nisi be and hereby issued calling upon the respondents or any party acting through them and, or on their instructions, to show cause on the 30th June 2023 at 08:30 hours or as soon as thereafter as counsel may be heard why the following orders should not be made final and absolute.
“The first respondent, Mephato Reatile, or any National Executive Committee member of the BPF, is hereby interdicted and or restrained from taking any act purporting to implement any purported resolution made in a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting said to have been held on 5th June 2023.
“That the letters of suspension, issued respectively to the applicants on 5th June 2023 are hereby stayed pending the determination of this application”.
The order has enabled Butale to continue with his plan of conducting the primary elections for the vacant Serowe West constituency parliamentary seat in his attempt at reconciliation and, or uniting the BPF, something which its founders appear to be disinterested in.
Butale said he is not going to take action on anybody as he fully subscribes to the belief that 'in politics there are no permanent enemies”.
In his own words his mission as the leader is to embrace all and form a united BPF as part of his contribution towards building a formidable force as the country prepares for next year’s general election.
As a way of proving that he is a man of his word, he allowed all party members to take part in the primary election process including some of the people who took part in a meeting hosted by the Khama family in South Africa where a decision to suspend him was taken.
The primary election contested by seven aspirants enabled former Councillor Onalenna Kedikilwe to emerge victorious through a democratic process where the electoral college was 900.
So far the BPF decision marks the beginning of the end of the Khama dynasty as for the first time in close to three decades there will be no Khama contesting elections in the Central District.
Butale has so far not received any message from anybody.
'We were in Serowe West constituency working together as party members. Although Mephato Reatile who was appointed Acting President was not present, but still we had Lawrence Ookeditse, Ford Moiteela, Lazarus Lekgoanyana and Prince Bosilong who joined myself and Reitumetse Aphiri to successfully produce a candidate.'
Surely with all the regular turbulent incidents, by now Butale must have learnt that, “being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed.”
This means that one must remain in position and dominance over those who conspire to overthrow him.