Political Perspective
By: Gwen Lister
ONE of the positives about an environment of free speech and opinion is that people can complain; this is one of the rights they exercise vigorously, and complain they do. Which is good. However, it is one thing simply to complain, and quite another to do something about it. It would be good sometimes to see that people, instead of simply venting about everything that is wrong around them, take an initiative to bring about change.
IT is not always ‘someone else’s problem’. Sometimes they are our own. And the person who once said that “in a democracy, people get the government they deserve” is not far from the mark. One can’t help notice that in the wake of the public furore after the rape and murder of Magdalena Stoffels, and people jumping on the bandwagon of clean-up campaigns and marches and the like, there is silence once again. That is, until the next horrific incident of this nature! One is forced therefore, to question people’s commitments to finding solutions, in this particular instance, to the dangers of school kids walking in remote and lonely areas to get to and from school. No one’s cleaning riverbeds now, and the communities aren’t looking at solving similar problems in areas other than the one where Magdalena was attacked and killed. So how have we taken this campaign any further? There are a few cleaner riverbeds for the moment, but the bushes and grass will grow again and will only be noticed when the next victim is found. It may sound cynical, but not only have we failed to make our children safer when walking to school, but we’ve also failed to dig deeper and try to find the cause for these horrific attacks. Namibians complain a lot. Any reader of our SMS pages will pick this up very quickly. They are absolutely entitled to do so, but one would like to believe that people are themselves, just like the politicians, going to put their money where their mouths are in order to make a difference. We will be having regional and local government elections in the coming months. The public should long since have woken up and started to ask the difficult questions of their elected representatives at both these levels of governance as to what they’ve done for the towns and areas they represent. I only yesterday received a letter from a Grootfontein resident, who maintains that the councillors they’d entrusted to bring about much-needed economic development to the town and environs had failed to do so. They question in fact whether there has been any development at all, short of the burgeoning informal sector of shebeens and kambashus and an increase in crime. If this is so, then it means that the local government and law enforcement are not even making the town safe for its residents, despite taxes collected for this purpose. The writer added that taxpayers’ money was wasted on local/international trips, yet the councillors came back empty-handed, failing even to give feedback to its townspeople, and further proving their incapability, according to the letter. The writer in question challenges the councillors to prove him or her sworn by telling the townspeople what they have done for the area since taking office, and the councillors, if they’re worth their salt, will take up this challenge. These are precisely the questions that voters should be asking, whatever level of government they are voting into power. Are the city councillors meeting their mandate of keeping the town clean and safe, collecting garbage, ensuring the provision of services such as water and electricity, among others. But also just as importantly, developing the town, and preventing it from dying through lack of investment in the local economy. No matter the political persuasion of the councillors, local or regional, the people should be asking what they’ve done and what they’re planning to do. Were the promises they made the last time around met, or were they simply to get the vote from people they’ve since pushed aside and marginalised. Most of these officials will want to be re-elected come the elections later this year. The people of this country in general, and the voting population in particular, have to make their choices. They can turn out in droves at the polling stations to unquestioningly vote the same way they’ve voted for years and continue to whinge thereafter, or they can start to demand accountability from their elected officials which will result in concrete improvements in their area. Democracy does mean choices, and this includes the choice to complain or start taking a more active interest in our own affairs.