allAfrica.com: Namibia: It Boggles the Mind (Page 1 of 1)

ONE thing is increasingly becoming crystal clear. Despite truthfulness and forthrightness being a good virtue, and one that public officials should hold dear and espouse, it seems this is a virtue that comes dearly to politicians.

How the public continues to put its trust in people for whom honesty is not a virtue only boggles one's mind.

I am referring to the two different versions that we are getting from what are supposed to be credible leaders regarding the averted political flash over the weekend between the Swapo Party of Namibia and Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP).

What is most disheartening is that there is no pretence by either of the political parties for each to give its own version, albeit differing in some minor details but not in substance. One detects a deliberately hackneyed account by each meant to mislead and misinform the public. Yet this is coming from people who in the near future, with the national elections on the horizon, may feature on their party lists as candidates.

Do the two political parties really expect the public to have trust in their integrity if they do not seem forthright and honest with the public on such an important national issue like political intolerance, which if the police did not act judiciously and dutifully as it did, could have led to bloodshed?

Depending on how they perform, either of the two political parties may be forming the next Namibian Government with either of the two gentlemen assuming one or the other position of public trust. However, the two conflicting versions tell us that one or the other is either not fully informed about what may have transpired, or is deliberately hoodwinking the public for own narrow political interest.

Political intolerance, which is the subject of discussion in view of the fracas or averted fracas over the weekend, is not a simple matter. If allowed to spiral out of control it can have dire consequences for the entire country. If it goes unchecked 18 years of political stability, peace and tranquility politicians are so fond of trumpeting at every available occasion, and on which they put high premium, can all go up in smoke in no time.

Our two respected gentlemen can be equal accomplices and are part of the solution. As leaders it does not help to exonerate one's followers knowing very well that they may have erred in one way or another. In fact, it's a mark of good leadership to admit erring whether by self or one's followers. If our leaders are not able to accept erring by self or their followers, and accordingly make amends or reprimand followers, surely this is then a recipe for a disaster.

The two may not be alone. Neither can we say we never saw it coming. In fact, what we are witnessing has to some extent been sown by some of our national leaders. There is paranoia among some of our leaders to see anything else other than self as enemy, puppet, national safety risk, and other labels imaginable only in a society of malaise and political insanity. One wonders whether last weekend's averted political clash is what some of our trigger-happy and incautious political leaders could have been referring to as a risk to safety ala new political formations? If that is the case then some of our leaders have interesting views of our democratic dispensation and one of its important ingredients, the multiplicity of political parties. Instead of multiplicity being an important tenet of our constitutional order, it seems to some of our constitutionalists and stateswomen and - men, undesirable and an anathema to the wellbeing of our democracy.

Because of such attitudes the public is fed a staple diet of unsavoury labels and SOSs bordering on hatefully crafted venom against such political formations and their would-be leaders.

The ultimate result is what we just saw last weekend in Okuryangava. Okuryangava is only but the latest of the signaling flashes of political intolerance. What has been strange is that all of a sudden comrades-in-arms for years are now made out to be arch enemies of long-standing. Who is fooling who? Looks like in Namibia the word enemy is rapidly becoming synonymous with political difference as much as there may be little ideological tinge to it. As the latest Okuryangava debacle shows, Namibia is slowly running the risk of degenerating into Totalitarianism where political ideals have little space.

Most ominous is that some of our leaders have been at the very front of this degeneration with their unguarded and contaminating missiles coated as public interest pronouncements. Worse, such missiles have gone unchecked.

Because of that, in the eyes of our people who have proven not so much impervious to the ideas of their leaders, however unsound and questionable, such pronouncements have become law. It is the very law that we have just seen at play in Okuryangava. Who knows what is the next avenue for its display and outlet?

Despite that, soon we shall be seeing the very same leaders who have been sowing these seeds of political intolerance and incitement in an unprecedented public posturing without any remorse, condemning political intolerance. Such is the calibre of some of our statesmen and women.

As long as these leaders who at will hurl hateful verbal missiles aimed at sowing public mistrust in the political multiplicity of our democratic dispensation, are the ones we continue told hold in high esteem and continue to entrust with guarding the principles of our democracy, I am sure we are destined for more political flashes in the mould of Okuryangava. That is the beginning of retrogression into lawlessness, chaos, poverty and all the evils and ills associated with a dictatorial political system. We start today with shutting out different political opinions. Tomorrow is religious intolerance and the day after what?

The signal from Okuryangava is alarming and must not be allowed to spiral out of control. One of the fundamental guarantees of our constitution is the right to freely participate in a peaceful political activity of one's choice. This means the freedom to form a political formation of one's choice. Coupled with the freedom of assembly this also gives one the freedom of space for one's political gatherings. This means that within the confines of Namibian laws and within what is humanly prudent and acceptable no space in Namibian is political island for one or the other political home.

This is the gospel our leaders are best advised to send throughout the Namibian world and not the instigations at intolerance and fear instilling they often engage in. There is no way that our leaders are blameless, or innocent of dereliction of duty by pushing back the tidal wave of political intolerance as has been stage managed by some of our political leaders. It is by no means late. The political stability, peace and prosperity that our leaders put so many premiums on are in the end meaningless if they equally do not value political tolerance and give equally premium to it.

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