Often they're more fallible than others because by the very nature of their work they're exposed to people and situations which will test their sense of ethics and honesty and determine their commitment to clean governance.

More often than not they forget the oaths they've sworn to uphold just as soon as they've made them and in many parts of the world the very word 'politician' is equated with dishonesty and corruption.

America's fear of 'big government' is largely based on this sentiment.

AND generally, politicians come and go, and there's usually quite an attrition rate as they variously get voted out of office or are forced to leave because of circumstances which have cast doubt on their integrity.

Except in Namibia of course, where the harmful things they say and do are more likely to entrench rather than remove them from the public domain.

If a Jerry Ekandjo, for example, lived in another democratic country, his rabid statements would surely have preceded his demise.

Many politicians have been cast into the political wilderness for expressing sentiments that have offended the sensibilities of one or other group.

Again, not so in Namibia.

He's not even taken to task by his own party, let alone by the people, who are then mostly led to believe it is acceptable practice to belittle and berate and insult and threaten those who don't necessarily think in the same way they do.

Ignorance of this kind is dangerous, and Swapo will soon have to reap what they sow, if their leaders are permitted to carry on in this fashion.

First it was the DTA (Democratic Turnhalle Alliance), then it was the CoD and now all is forgiven and forgotten about those two opponents because new prey is among us, by name of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP).

All of course, in Swapo vernacular, are 'puppets', of whom or what we are never told.

Which may lead us back to the question why we opted for democracy in the first place, because it obviously sits very uncomfortably with the ruling party who cannot or will not accept political diversity.

Ekandjo is someone who has good struggle credentials of course.

In the apartheid years he was an (internal) Swapo activist, who was charged and convicted under the Sabotage Act.

He served several years' imprisonment on Robben Island for inciting people to violence, but he did not emerge wise and forgiving from his incarceration like the Mandelas and Ya Toivos and others did, instead remaining the 'hardliner' that he continues to be perceived to be today.

He's also popular in the Party ranks, but he's certainly no disciple of tolerance and reconciliation.

On a one-on-one basis, he remains friendly and even approachable, but on party-political platform his rhetoric is hard to match, even by other reactionary elements of the ruling party and its Youth League.

This is why it is quite difficult for even this columnist to comprehend why he chooses to lash out so incitingly when he addresses the rank and file and his hatred of political rivals appears to have no bounds.

His most recent speech at Omuthiya, in which he basically advocates 'political cleansing' of RDP members, even those in the private sector, is alarming not so much for the sentiments he expresses as much as the witch-hunts that may conceivably happen after his encouragement to this end.

But it is not the first, and probably won't be the last, alarming speech of this nature from the man who is now Swapo's Information and Publicity Secretary and also Government Minister.

In one of his most notorious post-independence moments, he urged the 'elimination' of gays and lesbians from the face of Namibia when addressing a graduation ceremony for Police recruits.

This is clearly not the sort of thing one wants to put in the minds of our law enforcement officers, but Ekandjo got away with that then as he will undoubtedly get away with advocating the 'political cleansing' of RDP members this last weekend.

It is something of a tragedy that people like himself, who have fought the good fight for peace, equality and justice in Namibia after living under apartheid's excesses for so many years, want to bring back the past in a different disguise.

Perhaps apartheid has done its job too well and has created too many of us in its own image! Time that Ekandjo and others finally shake off the chains that bind and allow Namibians the freedom they fought for.

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