Our constitutional democracy provides for political parties to fight elections and, if they win, deploy the people who appear on their party lists to Cabinet and the National Assembly.

These appointments are done entirely at the discretion of the winning party, and we have no quarrel with that.

However, once people are called to serve in the Government or in the opposition, should they do so in their capacity as public representatives of political parties or should they preferably be serving the broader interests of the nation without taking instructions from the parties that provided them the wherewithal to be in the Government or the opposition? Swapo clearly believes that its public representatives should serve the party interests first.

All deployments are at its behest, the party argues.

It shares this position with the ANC in South Africa, which at its Polokwane conference ousted President Thabo Mbeki who was seen as moving away from the people, and in ANC terms, moving "away from the ANC".

In Namibia, allegiance to the ruling party is considered primary.

No one is placed in key Government positions without the blessing of the party's head office.

While this may sound good and well for holding its representatives accountable to the party line, what does it mean for the President of the country, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and their deputies and the permanent secretaries? These people are there to serve the broader interests of the Namibian nation, and not only should they be seen doing this, but they are also constitutionally required to do so.

And yet, all these people get criticised and/or stripped of their posts when they utter statements that, in Swapo's view, are not in line with "Swapo thinking" and the dominant ruling faction in the hierarchy at the time.

Simply put, are the State and Swapo one? The answer is not straightforward, as the issue is complex.

Top public officials should have the vote of confidence of the nation.

At the same time, their political credentials are drawn from the party that put them in power, and so they should have the vote of confidence of the party's top decision-making body.

But wearing a Swapo hat in the deliberations of national decision-making will amount to promoting narrow party-political and sectional interests.

While The Namibian has always respected the will of the majority, we are concerned that there has been an abuse of that popular will, often to the detriment of the national interest.

A dominant party can easily degenerate into an exclusive club of power-hungry people.

Uncomfortable as this may sound, majorities are not necessarily right all the time, and it is often the lone voices of minorities that bear the hallmarks of truth.

Our challenge in Namibia is to find the balance between the functions of public representatives and their party-political affiliations.

Perhaps we should be guided by the separation of powers spelt out in our Constitution between the executive, the judiciary and the legislature.

While Swapo has a mandate to govern the country as the dominant political party, its elected officials should not be beholden exclusively to the decision-making of the party's head office.

At the same time, politicians appointed by Swapo should take enormous care not to lose sight of the fact that they are serving the interests of the nation.

There have been a number of occasions in the past where party and national interests have clashed, and there will doubtless be more in the future.

Uncomfortable though it may be much of the time, Swapo has to acknowledge that the national interest is paramount.

All elected officials swear oaths on the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia, which they promise to abide by and uphold.

They do not swear an oath on the Swapo constitution.

A political party in power is undeniably there to try to keep to the promises made in its election manifesto, and so the party-political interest is undeniable, but at the same time must be subject to the Constitution of the country.

For this is one document which must bind us together as a nation over and above narrower political interests.

It would assist Swapo in situations in which there is a dilemma - to use the Constitution of the country as its guiding light above all else, and in so doing, to govern as inclusively as possible.

Columns Of The Last 48 Hours

•  Let Us Heed the Voices of Sanity
•  Political Perspective
•  Andimba Ya Toivo's Political Morality: A Weapon To Transcend The Logic Of Cruelty
•  Rural Water Supply Reform: Success Story And Poverty Trap
•  From the Sidelines: Time for change