Political Perspective
By: Gwen Lister
THE long and the short of the state of our nation, largely speaking, is that the greater part of our country’s population needs help, while the powerful, elite part needs a swift kick in the butt.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s take on it wasn’t necessarily bad, and was obviously heartfelt and well-intentioned, but we are really at a stage in our history where action has to speak louder than words in order for us to achieve any fundamental change to a deteriorating status quo in so many respects.
WE may argue that we know what our problems are, but these need once again to clearly be identified in order of their priority, adjust them when they’re skewed, propose solutions, and ensure consequences (or incentives) are given in order to reach our goals. We talk and we make promises and we are quick to say what needs to be fixed, but we’re not as sharp about saying how it should be done, and getting down to do it.
Just after independence, when the country faced the problem of scores of unemployed combatants, all of whom couldn’t be taken up into the NDF, I made the suggestion that government call on the companies in the private sector each to employ a former fighter in one or other capacity, and offer the business in question tax breaks to do so. It just might have made a difference to the problem. We need to find innovative ways to employ people, and we must not only be talking about it, as so many do, but keep a scorecard on a month-by-month basis as to whether we’re making any dent at all in the statistics. We generalise our figures and to be truthful, I’m not sure they’re at all accurate given that we don’t seem to be diligently keeping track. Again government are failing all the tests. They should be in a position to tell us what we need to know.
If we take the scourge of rape and violence against women and children, for example, we know Pohamba means well if he ‘urges’ the nation to ‘join hands’ against this evil, but nobody’s going to listen, least of all the perpetrators. While many of us may be angry enough to agree with the sentiment recently expressed by Swapo’s Elijah Ngurare that we ‘castrate’ or put offenders before a ‘firing squad’, we know we can’t do that and it wouldn’t solve the problem anyway, because it is deeper and inherently societal and violence will simply beget more violence. So what can we do that will make sense and that will make a difference to this problem? Not all proposed solutions will have an immediate effect. But we can start by insisting schools address this topic from an early age, and the church and families must do their part too. It’s a vicious circle which must be broken. We can also name and shame all rapists and make sure communities know where repeat offenders are living if they’re been released from custody. While the well-publicised Caprivi treason trial has been going on for years and cost millions when we’ve all but forgotten what happened, we need to make crimes of rape and child abuse and corruption ‘treasonable’ offences. What could be more apt? They are killing our women and hurting our children and stealing from the poor. Right now offenders in this regard simply serve their time, or get early release, and it’s a case of forgive and forget, especially if you’re someone known.
I’ve said several times before, we need to reset our moral compass as a nation, and I’m not talking about religion here. We must demand excellence and honesty at the highest levels, and not settle for second best, as we so often do. We must also develop an ethos as a people of treating all living beings, especially the most vulnerable, in a respectful, humane manner, and those who transgress must not simply be jailed and forgotten about, they must be made to work and work hard for the crimes they have committed against our people.
Like many others who seek solutions, I am merely trying to find a way through the morass of platitudes and state-of-the-nation addresses that may mean well, but simply don’t solve anything except alleviate the consciences of our executive and legislative branches of government for a while.