Jan.24, 2010, 4:21:21

The manner with which the ruling BDP has held on to power, for close to fifty years now, can only be described as both dazzling and mesmerizing, so much so that even the sworn enemies have at different times been privately conceding that for the sake of all of us the BDP machine has to run on and on.

During those years, a few things have stood the test of time - the ruthless techniques used to disparage and marginalize opponents and the propensity to rubbish those holding different views.

It has always been the BDP way to discredit as liars those that disagreed with them on how best to run the country.

An amazing ability to question the integrity and good faith of its opponents has remained an accepted order that has proved crucial to the BDP.

Pushing their envelope of trickery to the limit, we all know how in their tightly defined world of central control, manipulation and deceit, the BDP has over the years been able to refine their policies of smear, ridicule and belittling of opponents.

Trashing and flagrantly misrepresenting the motives of those citizens who dared to express opinions different from the ones espoused by them has remained just one of the many unsavoury schemes that have ensured the BDP’s continued hold on power.

Thus, with breathtaking success the BDP has over the years been able to increase their stranglehold as controllers of the public debate discourse.

But we are glad to say it’s catching up with them.

The last two weeks have provided a very interesting insight into the inner workings of the BDP machinery.

There are indications that cracks could be beginning to appear from within.

The ground has started to shift and we may be headed for a collapse.

When it comes to their old ways of cheating the juggernaut is no longer as refined as it used to be.

Papers recently passed to The Sunday Standard indicate that for close to 30 years, the BDP, a ruling party, in whose executive and central committee has sat State Presidents, finance ministers and wealthy businessmen, has actually been conducting itself in a manner not very much different from the mafia.

The story that this paper has carried for the last two weeks has all the elements and possibilities of degenerating beyond a political scandal and into the realms of criminality.

If that happens then ‘humiliation’ would be the best word to sum it up.

For us the outsiders these are interesting times.

For many years a string of BDP leaders turned down calls for state funding of political parties.

To argue their case against state funding, these men and women gave some of the most bizarre, mind-boggling and disingenuous reasons.

While in public they said state money should never be used for political party politicking, we now know that in private they were receiving public money from De Beers.

By lacing their arguments with such pretentious integrity, BDP big shots have actually been arguing for the status quo, in which only their party had infinite and unfettered access to the public till.

That has been disgraceful, to say the least.

Personally, I will not be joining those queuing up to drag De Beers on hot coal.

To me, De Beers has proved itself a shrewd company that successfully cut itself corners by using its financial muscle to buy itself control, power and influence.

As it was, for a very long time that money has given De Beers executives an opportunity to be real king makers behind a corrupt and venal African regime that was too happy to be obtained at a price.

For De Beers, that has been money well spent. A very good investment if you may!

Any business minded entrepreneur in the position of De Beers would have been too happy to use their money to buy themselves access to politicians that were all too happy to trade their souls.

After all, access is power. And real power is what companies like De Beers seek.

The fault, therefore, is not with De Beers. Rather it is with our BDP leaders who found nothing wrong mortgaging themselves, along with the country, to De Beers.

What BDP leaders have been doing is much more than just political opportunism.

What they have been doing is much more than a misuse of state resources, which, in anyway, has now become synonymous with their culture.

In a big way, there is a damning hint of acts that border on criminality.

More than any of their wretched and disgraceful ways, it is probable criminality that I think is what should strike us as a nation.

Hence the need for criminal investigations and possible criminal charges!

What does it say of us as a nation if for close to 50 years this country has been run by Mafioso who saw nothing wrong with engaging in unbridled acts of money laundering?

While I look ahead with excitable anticipation, acts of possible money laundering are for me not on their own earth shattering discoveries.

I am one of those people who have always suspected there was something rum about the BDP’s finances.

How on earth is it possible that a ruling party claiming to be clean and transparent sees nothing wrong hiding the identity of its donors?

In a totally unintended way, the new developments on how the BDP has over the years sustained itself have at the very least shed some light into exactly why the ruling party has for so long been steadfast and resolute in its rejection of a sensible suggestion to introduce a fair regime of state political party funding.

Looking back, with such unfettered access to the blood tainted bounty what incentives really are there for the BDP to introduce political party state funding that could only help level the playing field?