A Luta, Continua!
YOUR columns of Friday will enter the history books of the ‘freedom fight’ of Namibia.
The Namibian was always something special as a newspaper, but the Friday edition last week stands out!
Yes, it seems to us as if that was a well-orchestrated operation. However, even if it was, what is wrong with such an attempt to wake up Namibia? Namibia needs the loudhailer, the big bell.
The reaction of Minister of Information and Communication Technology Joel Kaapanda shows that our ruling party has no clean conscience – it feels guilty and its reaction displays that guilt and a certain amount of fear, the fear of the public opinion.
The problem is that too few in our society, including many of our ministers and government officials, understand democracy and they do not understand the role of the media in a well-run democracy.
Criticism, which is necessary even in the best democracies, is something seen as insulting, as an attack and, in this case in their eyes, even seditious. Ignorance is very dangerous and when coupled with greed it is a time bomb.
But then, the fight for freedom was never something for the faint at heart!
Kaapanda should, if he is the man of the image he would like to present us of himself, be grateful to the ‘The Namibian’ and the other papers who are very serious about their democratic duty in our rather autocratic state. These papers fight the battle our erstwhile liberation movement Swapo (et al.) should still fight for us but don’t.
No liberation fight will ever be over; the fight for freedom never ends for us human beings.
And this I have to say in conclusion of this letter: It is, if an error has to be made, much better to err on the side of democracy than to err on the other side! I say “A luta continua, viva ‘The Namibian’, viva the free media of Namibia!”
Olga Tsammata-Bantjies
Walvis Bay