By: Theko Tlebere
This week I want us to conclude the long series we have been talking about in the past two weeks. Initially I had hoped to bring up the issue of the South African President Thabo Mbeki but I have decided to leave it at the level of the United Kingdom and the United States of America (USA). The idea is to make sure that we fully comprehend the analogy of recalling and be able to replicate some of the best practices, more specially now while Lesotho is fully occupied with the completion of the National reforms. Therefore we shall kick it off by making a short narrative on some of the key reasons for a President to be recalled, taking a close look at the United States of America’s constitution. As we do that, I would like young people to look closely at some of the reasons that will follow and bring them back home, with the aim of clarifying some of the reasons why Tom Thabane was recalled.
Sometimes it is essential to unfold some of the reasons for a recalling in countries like the USA, my reasons are intuited by the fact that it is the world Hegemon hence many countries look up to it with many things. Yes a leader can be recalled if he/she has lack “of fitness, incompetence, neglect of duties or corruption, act of malfeasance or misconduct while in office; violation of oath of office; failure to perform duties prescribed by law; wilfully misused, converted, or misappropriated, without authority, public property or public funds entrusted to or associated with the elective office to which the official has been elected or appointed. Discretionary performance of a lawful act or a prescribed duty shall not constitute a ground for recall of an elected public official. neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties when that neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties has a material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office, or upon conviction of a drug-related misdemeanour or a misdemeanour involving a “hate crime” â€.
These are just a few reasons that I wanted to point out because as it is in Lesotho, a vote of no confidence is passed over a seating Prime Minister without giving enshrined reasons that are black and white in the constitution. It makes it even worse that when political party disparities engulf they normally tend to affect the seating Prime Minister, leading to a lot of regime changes in a short space of time. For the above mentioned reasons to take effect they need to have tangible evidence for them to hold water and be able to see light in parliament. It therefore becomes difficult to recall a seating PM without valid reasons.
A vast number of people will agree with me that the notion that UK was once one of the powerhouses of the world makes it one nation of interest when it comes to political issues. The ambivalence of UK and the US actually gives a vivid comprehension of why leaders who did not conform to the majorities’ needs were recalled. But the allegiance of Kennedy as big a man as he is, was disappointing because the cause of his death had a lot of embarrassing connotations which led people like myself to doubt terribly their integrity as a political leader. I personally stopped respecting Kennedy as a political leader when I learned that some of the reasons he was killed were “sluttish†oriented.
It is further prudent to nonetheless mention that the Kennedy administration feared to fight Castro simply because they feared their women would be killed. This noble act of this renowned world leader is actually what forced his recalling (which later culminated into his killing). There is a resemblance of what happened in UK with what happened in the US, remember that I mentioned before that the basic reason for the recalling of Prime minister Chamberlain Neville was his fear to take the responsibility of war against Hitler, and the nation started doubting this strong man. How I like women empowerment but I started hating it badly because these two leaders made women aware that political leaders can be pulled off and On but sadly one died and the other was recalled by being forced to resign.
Next week or at any other time that will allow us, the focal lenses will look at some of the critical reasons why former President Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa was recalled. We must be aware that some are written but some are so inferred that most of us will be very surprised. But we should put our in-depth focus on how political leaders conform to their political party’s constitution, mandate and policy structures knowing very well that, “the highest endeavour of the mind and the highest virtue is to understand things by intuition.†The future is Now!!!