Chasing the dots ... The Devil in Divide and Rule?

Chris Smith

Chris Smith

I look at Egypt where the elected boss who appeared to be leading the country into a governmental system where religious practice was to be imposed upon all and has now been replaced through military means by the “other half” who, while in the majority are Islamic, do want to be ruled by a democratic process where religious rites are though choice not compunction. A dichotomy indeed and I fear one that, while ultimately will be resolved, has a long and painful road to run.

Broadening this thinking I look with equal concern at our big brother neighbour and source of most of our supplies with equal concern as the ruling party there seems intent on drowning its identity and following in multitudinous court actions to both squash internal strife and rising followings of opposition parties through a seeming failure to deliver services as their policy of appointing “followers” rather than “competents” to positions of power from village to ministerial level is collapsing around their ears!

I believe what is happening that the basic driving force of any society is a willingness to submit to discipline when individuals have at least some belief that this will make life better, not worse. This wish to be disciplined is fading as simple needs are disappearing and the arrogance of power is showing; only lawyers and the elite are visibly benefitting.

This trend is worldwide and gaining pace. Looking closer to home, Namibia is showing small signs of rebellion. The rapid distancing of union officials from their flock, the persistence and growing numbers of the “struggle” kids and potential dissatisfaction of MIX residents over “formality” of their life are all small but significant indicators. And the feelings are not anti Swapo as such but more about how Swapo is failing to deliver as it seems intent on feathering the party nest at the expense of political promise.

Looking deeper into the problem there has always seemed to me a fundamental conflict of principle between the way management has to operate with its employees and customers in the private sector and how the public sector attempts the same.

The public sector makes more and more laws, complete with penalties and other bad things to force the people to do what they want; they are also not subject to a “bottom line” as they are not in a competitive market or subject to real performance achievement rewards or penalties.

The private sector certainly has rules but as any decent manager knows, running people by a rule book is a recipe or constant battle, the only way is to have employees captured within the company belief system such that rule breaking is seen as bad!

These are two totally opposite ways of working - intimidate and bully versus self-discipline and good relations. No wonder we have so many complaints by customers. But in business customers complaints mean a loss of business. different to the public sector.

In parallel with this it is equally true that the public sector rarely reaches of across vertical or horizontal organisational lines to improve its impact; it is more likely to expand its own remit internally with the often unintended but inevitable consequence of cross sector duplication and increased confusion! The private sector is skilled in crossing organisation lines even to the extent of sometimes creating collusive competition with its closer relationships - even sometimes unhealthy.

But now look at our favourite bodies, the SOEs with their overpaid, often incompetent CEOs, increasingly raiding the national coffers to fatten their own goose. The sit in the middle of this dichotomy with monopolistic presence and the right to “tax” the customer for little in return! Equally our SOE system has divided operations from a logical grouping of state activities into competitive units intent on destroying each other.

The classic example is TransNamib which in 1994 had under its umbrella railways (freight and passenger inc. ex RSA), NamPort, Air Namibia, Airports, road haulage with freight capacity in rural areas and a strong property business. In NDP1 it proudly stated that this grouping remained free of government subsidy! Now we know how its division and multiple hopeless managements teams are sucking on the GRN mammaries.

The same can be concluded with information, energy and the explosion of GRN ministries. We divide and misrule, jobs for the ???, and ultimately the death of the activity.

The beauty of NDP documents is that each new plan shows what has not been done and needs more money. Perhaps our planning commission should review on this basis! Ultimately we are dividing less and less into small and more expensive packages and delivering less.

Maybe many of the SOEs should return to the ministries from whence they came. Accountability would then return to the elected. Something has to change and soon.

csmith@mweb.com.na