Chasing the dots ... Political Will or Political Won’t
By: Chris Smith
I LOVE the times when our leaders talk directly to a mass of people as opposed to the formal boredom of the official speeches. They can get carried away in the emotion of the moment.
I will never forget turning up at the first Ongulumbashe celebration after a long and sandy ride through the bush with a passenger, a couple of bottles of liquid courage and hard tack for survival. A trip where the main dangers, apart from occasional falls in the sand, involved avoiding PLAN trucks, loaded with rural people and driven by lunatics whose basic intention seemed to be to wipe us of the planet! But we survived and after multiple checks were allowed into the scene of action – and slept until the following morning despite the incredible noise of “the troops” celebrating. It was fun despite being a little scary.
The next day thousands of people were massed behind an enormous wire fence in front of the podiums and luxury seating for the new leaders. And off it went, multiple speeches that I could not understand or half the time hear above the natural noise of an excited crowd. And it was an exciting time. But I do remember two main things. The NBC (then SWABC) with Auntie Norah commentating at maximum speed at a table under a tree and only disturberbed when a friend of mine’s test satellite phone rang; this unknown noise, the ring of a telephone, in the middle of a speech, instantly silenced everyone! Including Auntie Norah! Never before had a telephone ring been heard before, it seemed.
The other thing was that Uncle Sam’s speech promised that by next year a broad tar road would be built to Ongulumbashe from the Oshakati–Ruacana road. Are we still waiting? Some years later I remember Uncle Sam being a bit naughty at a similar event when he suggested my head (and those like me) should be reshaped with a certain construction tool. These off-the-cuff speeches often harbour the real truths but are usually the result of political enthusiasm and ego-tripping.
More recently Uncle Hifike has made revelations. The two I remember best were his recollection as police minister (then Home Affairs?) about how he flew a helicopter over the bush looking for all the rumoured crooks that were supposedly hiding there, but finding none. He reminisced how this made him realise that the real crooks were not hiding in the bush but were living around him! This time, I am very proud to say, Uncle Hifike recalled how he once listened to a member of the opposition, found he was telling the truth, and fixed the problem in 24 hours; he admirably used this argument to support a view that GRN / Swapo should start listening to the “opposition” as they may have valuable ideas. Wow!
However, I would like to partially correct him by stating that those with different ideas are not necessarily “opposition” but often in policy agreement with GRN / Swapo but have alternative ideas how things should be changed. Many Swapo members have good ideas but feel concerned that putting forward ideas or reason-based criticism would adversely affect their well-being. This has to change as the blind obedience to present implementation strategies, which are obviously flawed, is why Namibia (and often Africa) fails to make sufficient progress.
BIG, arrogantly pushed aside, could offer many additional opportunities in the statistical field, give opportunity and raise up our major source of wealth, our poor, to put Namibia on a better growth path, even banking for all. For two to three billion per year. Incentive works, see Brazil.
TIPEEG seems increasingly to be a failure. How many toilets have really been built and are in working condition in Oshana – 1 300? Did anyone check while they were up there? Or do we want to hit the rocks?
See previous articles on the above! Our ways have to change but we seem to have more Political Won’t rather than Political Will.
csmith@mweb.com.na