An Australian academic who was a strong critic of Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and was deported from Rhodesia in the 1970s was given 48 hours to leave Botswana after he had written a paper which criticised that country’s presidential succession.
Kenneth Good had lived in Botswana for 15 years and taught at the University of Botswana.
The Botswana Centre for Human Rights quickly stepped in to stop the deportation.
Good got into trouble because of his paper entitled: Presidential succession in Botswana: No model for Africa.
The paper criticised Botswana’s presidential succession, in which the president resigns in mid-term and the vice president automatically succeeds to the office, thereby creating a system of perpetual incumbency.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 05GABORONE257, A PAPER TOO FAR: U/BOTSWANA ACADEMIC SERVED
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
221459Z Feb 05
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(SAS) /000W
——————BC8F12 221809Z /38
FM AMEMBASSY GABORONE
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1734
INFO SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
NSC WASHDC
UNCLAS GABORONE 000257
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED
DEPT FOR AF/S DIFFILY
E.O. 12958: N/A
SUBJECT: A PAPER TOO FAR: U/BOTSWANA ACADEMIC SERVED
WITH DEPORTATION ORDER BY GOB
A) GABORONE 00056; B) GABORONE 00243
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The GOB served a 48-hour deportation
order to U/Botswana academic and Australian citizen Prof.
Kenneth Good on February 18. Good is a 15-year Botswana
resident and critical observer of its politics. His
attorneys obtained a stay of execution from the High
Court on February 19. The High Court has ordered the GOB
to show cause for the deportation by March 7 and hearings
were scheduled to begin on February 22. At issue is a
seminar paper entitled, “Presidential Succession in
Botswana: No Model for Africa” co-authored by Good, a
political scientist, and circulated prior to its
presentation on February 23. The paper criticizes
Botswana’s presidential succession, in which the
president resigns in mid-term and the vice president
automatically succeeds to the office, thereby creating a
system of perpetual incumbency. Human rights and media
organizations, as well as UB’s faculty and staff union,
have rallied around Good. The incident reveals the
current sensitivities within the ruling Botswana
Democratic Party to criticism of any kind. Post has given
Australian High Commission in Pretoria information on the
case, per its request. Post also recommends a demarche
with like-minded countries should the deportation be
carried out. See para 15 for suggested press guidance.
End summary.
¶2. (U) On Friday afternoon, February 18, around 4:00 p.m.
five officials from Botswana’s Immigration Office
delivered a notice of deportation as a prohibited
immigrant to Professor Kenneth Good, of the Department of
Political Science and Public Administration of the
University of Botswana. The notice, brought to his
house, gave Good forty-eight hours to leave the country;
i.e., until Sunday afternoon, thus calculated to leave
him little recourse with official authorities as business
hours would not resume until after the weekend. No
reason was given on the paper, signed by the chief
immigration officer. Kenneth Good, an Australian, is
seventy-one and in frail health. He has lived in
Botswana for the past fifteen years with his daughter,
now seventeen and attending secondary school in Gaborone.
He has published extensively on political developments in
the country. His contract with the University of
Botswana, which was renewed in fall 2004, runs until
December 2006.
¶3. (U) The Botswana Center for Human Rights immediately
sprang into action, and within a few hours, Ken Good was
represented by lawyers Dick Bayford (who stood as
presidential candidate for one of the smaller opposition
parties during the October 2004 election) and Duma Boko,
one of the lawyers representing the First People of the
Kalahari v. Govt. of Botswana in the case currently
before the High Court. They worked through the night to
prepare a brief and found Judge Marumo willing to hear
their case in chambers at the High Court on Saturday
February 19. The judge ruled the deportation null and
void on technicalities, demanded that the government show
cause, and commented that the order raised problems of a
constitutional nature regarding freedom of expression.
Marumo gave the government of Botswana until March 7 to
show cause why Ken Good should be deported.
4.(SBU) At issue is a double jeopardy for the U/Botswana
academic. Having the distinction of being deported from
Ian Smith’s Rhodesia in the late 1970s, Ken Good’s left-
liberal views have not deviated; he has been an
unremitting critic of the establishment-any
establishment-for the past decades and champion of the
underdog. After moving to the University of Botswana in
the early nineties, he focused his attention on the
elitist nature of Botswana’s democracy.
¶5. (SBU) He has regularly published articles challenging
the received wisdom of Botswana as a model African
nation. In the past years, he has written and published
several articles highlighting the plight of the Basarwa.
These articles criticized the Government of Botswana’s
relocation policy. Botswana journalists writing for
independent newspapers who want an alternate view to the
government line regularly consult Professor Good. In
short, Professor Good’s status has been something like an
official gadfly. Although on occasion a GOB spokesperson
would rebut Good’s views, by and large the impression was
cultivated that Good was tolerated, occupying something
of an iconic place in the world of Botswana’s public
discussion.
¶6. (U) The context for the deportation order is likely
the combination of the following factors: South Africa’s
Human Sciences Research Council is currently engaged in a
project of studying comparatively presidential succession
in Africa. A number of scholars were invited to draft
papers on this topic: Professor Good and his then-
colleague, Dr Ian Taylor, now at St. Andrews University
in Scotland, co-wrote a paper, presented at a December
2004 Cape Town conference. Subsequently, the paper was
revised and was to be presented by Professor Good in the
regular Departnment of Political Science seminar series
of the University of Botswana on Wednesday, February 23.
Last week, Professor Good circulated copies of his paper
prior to the presentation.
¶7. (SBU) The scholarly paper, entitled, “Presidential
Succession in Botswana: No Model for Africa”, almost
certainly is the cause of the GOB’s deportation order.
It is highly critical of both the automatic succession
from president to vice president, and of the current Vice
President, Ian Khama. It cites instances of high-handed
decision-making and harps on his military background as
contributing to an increasingly visible authoritarian
tendency within the ruling Botswana Democratic Party
(BDP). In the GOB view, this is tantamount to subversion.
¶8. (U) But none of these points are new or original: in
fact, Professor Good relies on media articles to
substantiate his views. All of the possibly inflammatory
language in his paper in fact consists of direct quotes
from these articles. Moreover, the topic has been under
public discussion for the past year or two. What is
interesting is the timing of this reaction on the part of
the GOB.
¶9. (SBU) The context for the ruling BDP is in fact the
end of its long glide on the wings of power: the party
is, so to speak, encountering some updrafts and
turbulence. The 52 percent of the popular vote the BDP
garnered in the October 2004 election set against 48
percent for an admittedly divided opposition does herald
a shift. Moreover, losses in what were previously
considered safe districts on the district council level
are a BDP cause for concern. The advent of personable
young opposition leaders is another factor with which the
BDP must contend.
¶10. (SBU) There are deep public reservations about the
Vice President’s political skills (Reftel A). Opposition
politicians recently raised in parliament such issues as
automatic succession to the presidency. They also have
questioned cabinet decisions such as the location of the
second university (Reftel B). It is the intersection of
an opposition that is finding its way and an
internationally known academic repeating these concerns
that no doubt accounts for Ken Good’s deportation order,
by “presidential decree”. In fact, a member of the
cabinet stated privately that the cause was Good had
“circulated subversive documents.”
¶11. (U) The University of Botswana has rallied round to
express support for Ken Good. The seminar in which the
paper is to be presented is still scheduled for Wednesday
afternoon at the University. The Botswana Center for
Human Rights issued a statement, “Deportation of Ken Good
Violates Fundamental Human Rights Principles” on February
21, and MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Botswana) circulated a statement, “Deportation of
Professor Kenneth Good on P.,I. Status”. Independent
newspapers carry headlines and editorials decrying the
GOB action: typical is The Monitor’s February 21
editorial, entitled, “Barbarisms that belong to a by-gone
Era”.
¶12. 12. (SBU) Batswana attending a Bank of
Botswana function February 22 told Charge that this was
not the best step for the GOB to be taking and could
damage its image abroad, especially considering the
growing visibility of the Basarwa case. She also heard,
however, that a cabinet minister (not the one mentioned
above) had commented that Professor Good was a “racist”
and that it was about time this happened to him. As we
know, Batswana frequently use this language in response
to criticism when they mean something else.
¶13. (U) As of this afternoon, February 22, hearings on
Good’s deportation order are scheduled at the High Court.
Post is attending and will report on the outcome. One
of the attorneys representing Professor Good, Duma
Boko, reported to MMEGI (independent daily newspaper),
that he had received death threats from an “anonymous
caller” yesterday at around noon. His office passed word
of the call to him in Mahalapye. He did not know if it
might be a prank.
¶14. (U) International colleagues of Professor Good have
indicated that they will contact media in the U.K. and in
South Africa and alert them to this overreaction on the
part of the GOB. Charge and Pol/Econ Chief met with
Professor Good February 22. We also passed press reports
to the Pretoria-based Australian High Commission, which
contacted us for information. Post also recommends a
demarche with like-minded countries should the
deportation be carried out.
¶15. (SBU) Post suggests the following press guidance on
this issue: The United States notes with concern the
Government of Botswana’s decision to deport Professor
Kenneth Good as a prohibited immigrant. This action
undermines the freedom of expression guaranteed in the
Constitution of the Republic of Botswana. The United
States notes that the deportation order is pending
further judicial review. We urge the Government of
Botswana to continue its tradition of respecting freedom
of speech as an essential component of a democratic
society.
AROIAN
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(31 VIEWS)
