Baggage, Legacy and Vision

The State of the Nation Speech disappointed.  An assemblage of good bits of the MTEF budget document with repetitive promises to improve productivity, service delivery and ‘cutting the fat’. It did little to inspire future vision or the need to adapt to take advantage of opportunities in our rapidly changing world.

The State of the Nation Speech disappointed. An assemblage of good bits of the MTEF budget document with repetitive promises to improve productivity, service delivery and ‘cutting the fat’. It did little to inspire future vision or the need to adapt to take advantage of opportunities in our rapidly changing world. As recent comments in this newspaper indicated there are the good and the bad guys within organisations but we remain committed to the average: no bottom kicking!
Business as usual laced with increasing complacency and backward looking. Old men seeking legacy upon the baggage of the past – sad. And yes, many good things are happening, talented staff work their butts off and some challenge the increasing intellectual vacuum of compliance and patronage. A look at the management cadre shows the same old faces and tired ideas; few changes there apart from those who escape to the mollycoddled world of the SOE and multilaterals.
Policy sterility, diplomatic baggage and volumes of recycled strategic documents constipate progress. What consequences were there to our failure to win two gold medals at the 2004 Olympics (see Vision 2030)? Add to this the well intended wishes to have a single African currency, free trade, freedom of cross border movement and many more when we can’t even keep enough passports in stock! And all this in a continent so rich in natural and human resources but entrenched in poverty amidst the elitist few; a continent full of youthful energy, rhythm and survival abilities.
Why do I get frustrated? Michael Porter (Harvard) said (roughly), many years ago, that he could never decide whether policy implementation in Africa was about strategic action or ‘deals’. Short-term advantage versus long-term progress? This I suggest is at the base of Africa’s problems. Deals win; Africans suffer!
Fortunate to be born as a ‘baby boomer’ when Europe was tired of failure, war and poor living standards in an age when leaders realised that change had to come. The ‘Iron and Coal’ alliance of the early 50’s grew into the Treaty of Rome in 1957; subsequent economic developments have provided a period of unprecedented peace and economic growth that have allowed me and my family to have grown up without a major European war. Trade, wealth and people contact proved to be a better option. Sure, after 60 years, financial crises and local unrest have happened; a rethink may well be necessary but …
Add to this the Mao/Deng cultural and industrial revolutions in the 70s that made China a superstar, the 1956 Khrushchev inspired change away from ‘the Cult of the Individual’ that ultimately led to the rise of economic Russia and the freedom of Namibia and South Africa from the anti-apartheid resistance from the same era. All massive cultural, economic and political changes planted many years before fruit was born. All by leaders who did not duck reality and had skills and personal power to plot the way forward within complexity.
Africa has not grasped this reality but the components exist for massive progress. In the big picture our leaders must look forward for the next 50 years. Present visions are fragmented and incoherent. But presently our focus seems to remain on deals, not real change. The ‘born frees’ are coming. We need an economic army, not guns to ultimately oppress their own.
Hence my disappointment in the State of the Nation Speech. No vision; no real concepts or actions for real growth. Sad especially when our ruling party has so many options if brave. Throw out the baggage!
csmith@mweb.com.na