random thoughts -ho thiba senqu ka matsoho

Today, Monday 12, March, at one of Maseru's surburbs and growing business districts the electricity cut-off at about 7:00am. This is probably the sixth time in the last two months that we have a power outage. Every time there is an outage the traffic lights up the road are also affected, just as they were today. Incredibly there were three police officers manning a "speed trap" 30 meters from the lights who did not care that motorists were not obeying the 4-way stop rule just thirty metres behind them. It seems that their job is not so much the maintenance of law and order, but rather the stuffing of pockets, whether the state's or thiers. The maintenance of "order" has become peripheral.

On, a different note, rumours that the government of the day wants to shutdown topix.net continue to circulate. I have tried to apply myself to whether government has grounds to do so, I am convinced that they do, however, I can not see how they would effect the ban. There are three ways to effect a ban on an Internet site:

• get the owner of the site to take it down
• get the owner of the site to restrict access to certain classes of IP address (ie, those registered to Lesotho entities)
  
• compel ISP that are licensed by you (i.e. licensed by the LTA) to block the offending sites

Of the above, it would appear that only the third option is viable, however, it is not practical since, we can still use proxies which most ISP's do not block to get to the said site. Censorship and territoriality in the Internet age is quite interesting indeed.

Why I think government has grounds to block topix.net: simple the forum has been used to undermine the constitutional rights of some Basotho. I will dwell on the strongest case only, Chapter 4 for the constitution states the rights of all Basotho, among the rights stated there is the "right to respect for private and family life". The forum has been particularly harsh on the assistant minister of home affairs, to the extent that I would claim that her constitutional rights have been violated. Regardless, of how much we may believe that her appointment makes her a public figure, we don't automatically gain the right to disrespect her, particularly to make allegations about issues that are not only in the past but are completely unrelated to the discharge of her duties.

topix.net

This blog was inspired by the comments and the energy that is the Lesotho Forum on topix.net. Topix has a major flaw, it has no rules, the discussions while raising important issues are directionless and the degenerate into insults. Despite this, various interesting topics have been brought up for discussion, I wish to single out the following:

• the role of the monarchy
• qualities required from a minister
• graft and corruption

The role of the monarchy: the questions and discussion on topix.net indicate that there is a need to explain the role of the monarchy to the populace there is a belief that the monarchy is out of touch with the ordinary people and adds no value to their lives. I have advanced my own arguments in the same forum about the role of the monarchy, however, the monarchy should itself justify its existence in order to ensure its continuity.

Qualities required from a minister: there is significant criticism of the PM's selection of Lineo Molise as assistant minister of home affairs. Other than the peripheral issue of her not winning constituency elections the two main issues that have riled most people seem to be:

• the assistant minister is too young
• she is alleged to have been appointed to the post as quid pro quo for sexual favours granted to those power.

I have argued that the minister's gender and youth have nothing to do with her ability to discharge her mandate, the alleged sexual trysts also have no bearing. I have asked that we should clarify and codify our expectations of minister or those in power, we seem to want to hold them to a certain moral level, perhaps we should explain what this moral level is, and prescribe a code of conduct for parliamentarians and senior government officials. Will any of you offer to write the code of conduct?

A disturbing issue has been the extreme misogyny that was demonstrated in the forums, I posed a question, and pose it again: would this be such a big issue if the appointee was a man?

Graft and corruption: a petition to boycott certain filling stations because they are allegedly owned by current and former cabinet ministers and that the said business does not pay taxes in Lesotho was widely circulated. The proponents of these allegations have failed to substantiate any of them, and have also refused to take their claims to the appropriate authorities, they have instead chosen, in my view, to undermine the rule of law by failing to report a crime that they claim to have been committed. Not paying taxes is a crime. Laundering money, which is what the proponents claim the business does, is a crime. Circumventing financial regulations and fiddling tenders are also crimes. Perpetrators of such crimes should be brought to book and evidence should not be hidden. Corruption continues because none of us will speak out, when we do find our voices we fail to use them effectively.

Doing my bit

The Chinese say the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. We have taken that step, we have acknowledged that all is not right in our kingdom, we have found our voice. Make your voice count, stand-up for what you believe in. I am planning to set-up a wiki with three main goals:

• consitutional review and comment
• review of current electoral laws
• development of parliamentary and civil service code of conduct

The nature of wiki's are that they evolve and take on a whole life of thier own. This will be my and your contribution to participative democracy in our beloved country. This will be the people's parliament. Will you take this journey with me?