Political Perspective
THE Swapo supporters may be ululating and celebrating the outcome of the court case by nine opposition parties challenging the recent elections, but they’ve rather missed the point! In some ways the dismissal of the case on a technicality has left the country with more questions than answers, and may further increase rising apathy among the electorate.
MEANINGFUL participatory democracy should mean so much more than just which party won elections. It is obviously important, but it’s just the outcome. Rather it must be the inclusivity of the process that is key, and people from all walks of life, colours and creed, need to know that their vote can make a difference and that it will count.
The outcome gives us little reason to celebrate. That the judiciary saw fit to throw the case out on a technicality is not under dispute. The nine opposition parties and their legal representatives should have got their act together and submitted their challenge timeously to ensure the case was heard on the merits. But they didn’t and so it was thrown out.
It was probably a great relief to others that this is so. Had the case been heard on its merits, and had the judges determined either a re-election or a re-count, it would have meant a long drawn-out and increasingly costly process that could even have caused something of a constitutional crisis. I’m not convinced, that even if a re-count or re-election had been ordered, that it would have changed the status quo dramatically, but again, the point is not this one.
It is rather that our country and our democracy should seek excellence rather than be satisfied with mediocrity and even worse, dismally low standards. Which is what brings me to the celebration of a process that was second-rate.
If this is the way we want to conduct elections in future, then we shouldn’t really bother about democracy. Democracy is and should be a meaningful process. Wherever the votes fall, people need to know that their vote counts, which is precisely one of the slogans used in the campaign.
After the court verdict, people really don’t know one way or another. Yes, those who voted for the ruling party won’t feel aggrieved, but the many thousands of Namibians who cast their ballot for other parties and who didn’t vote at all, will be increasingly apathetic in time to come. They won’t buy into or believe the process. It is highly unfortunate, because while we claim to be a multi-party democracy, in actual fact there is low tolerance in ruling party ranks for those who exercise their constitutionally-guaranteed rights and they are seen as trying to cause havoc.
This in turn will contribute to increased marginalisation of people and groups who feel they are not included, and worse still, victimized. What’s the point, they may argue, to vote when the process is flawed and riddled with irregularities and possibly even rigging?
Does Swapo, which also prided itself on being a party for all Namibians, really want to go the route of drowning out all dissenting voices? If they cared enough about the fate of Namibia and the nation that lives in it, they would not indulge themselves in arrogant celebrations, but instead reach out and accept others in their diversity of opinion, and be mindful that they need to be an inclusive Government now or they may pay the price in the future.
People need to be assured that while they may not be Swapo supporters, this does not deny them their national identity and feeling of belonging in this diverse country.
And while the opposition needs to go back to the drawing board to establish why they haven’t done better in the elections or had enough pulling-power with the electorate, Swapo in turn needs to be both humble and magnanimous as the ruling party. They’ve won with a more than two-thirds majority, by hook or by crook, some may say, but their victory hasn’t been because they’ve made a success of things. A 50 percent unemployment rate isn’t something to celebrate either!
So it would be my hope that Swapo would turn its attention to making good governance a priority in the next five years. If they don’t, the opposition will still be waiting in the wings. And the work only starts now for them. Not to be opposition for the mere sake of it, but to ensure they lead by example, develop role models and community leaders who mean something substantive to people and who earn their respect as well as to rigorously review their policies and plans and programs and get to work at grassroots.
And hopefully in 2014 the next national and presidential elections will be won or lost on real issues.