Political Perspective

SEEMS like infighting is the order of the day, as not only the ranks of the ruling party, Swapo, are at odds with one another, but also the opposition Congress of Democrats (CoD) and certain Damara clans fighting over ownership of the People’s (or Royal) House.

And while varying viewpoints are an acceptable daily phenomenon almost everywhere, deep divides and personal differences are not conducive towards taking a party, community, country or people forward, so it may be an opportune time for folks to start sorting out their affairs in the interests of their respective support groups, even the population as a whole. THERE may well be legitimate concerns and principled differences on both sides of the fence in the CoD group, but I’d bet my bottom dollar that much of the fight is fuelled by personality differences in the leadership ranks.If one looks at the current Swapo ‘split’ as well, it is difficult to discern where the matters of principle come into the divide, if at all.Again, it was precipitated initially by a case of one of the leaders, Hidipo Hamutenya, falling out of favour with Swapo President Sam Nujoma, after which things gathered momentum as people began to take sides, and before anyone knew it, a full-scale feud was on the go.And now, of course, it has become so much more difficult to mend, even though a committee was set up to re-forge unity in Swapo, this has come to nought.Ditto the CoD, where the main battle appears to be between still-incumbent leader Ben Ulenga, and Ignatius Shixwameni, with others in leadership ranks taking one side or the other.Yes, there may be reasons why Shixwameni and others are at odds with Ulenga, and there certainly appear to be valid concerns about the representation at the recent Keetmanshoop conference, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these were not preceded by antagonism and not the other way around.Whatever the case may be in both Swapo and CoD, because so many people have different takes on the rivalries, there seems to be little point in what both incumbent leaders have chosen to do, and that is to ignore the fact that there are problems at all.Ulenga, on the one hand, continues to maintain that there’s no disunity in the CoD; while on the other, the Swapo President also emphasises a ‘united’ Swapo despite all evidence to the contrary.No point in pretending problems don’t exist, because that’s a sure way not to solve these disputes, which in turn leads to discontent which can simmer for years on end, doing extensive damage to the image of the party or group in question in the process.I suppose if one dug down deep enough, one would find that personality differences are sometimes based on ideological issues, and that certain people perhaps don’t belong together in one group.Again it is problematic that actual policies seem to differ very little among even the ruling and opposition parties for that matter.So adherents aren’t necessarily part of a certain political party because they concur with their ideological framework, but instead because of personality cult.Some have ended up together more or less by accident, and I would place the CoD in this context, because it tends to be a rag-tag group of people together largely because they are disaffiliated or disaffected from Swapo with no common aims and objectives other than the main driving force of their antipathy to the ruling party.This in turn makes this group in particular, vulnerable to the vicissitudes of infighting because they share essentially no common goals.And difficult though it may be at times, particularly vis-à-vis Swapo and the almost omnipotent figure of its President, Sam Nujoma, we need to begin to separate the person from the party for the sake of stable continuity and endurance of that particular political grouping.Nujoma is synonymous with Swapo and vice versa, whether people like to hear this or not.And several Swapo leaders have taken issue with me about this viewpoint in the past.But the point really is, take Nujoma from the equation and what would we have left? A party that would in all likelihood be reduced to a shadow of its former self, rent apart by division and dissension.This is why someone like recently resigned MP Ben Amathila said Nujoma was needed to ‘fix’ Swapo.If and when it is time for Nujoma to move on (and many think the time has already passed) then this must happen and new leaders must come to the fore.But Swapo must continue nonetheless.The same is true of CoD.Although, like Nujoma, Ulenga is the founding President of that opposition group, there will be a time to move on.That may also be soon if not now, at least if key leaders in that Party have anything to say about it! It would be good though for various political parties to revisit their policies because that should be the basis on which they attract adherents, rather than for reasons of personality cult.This in turn may have the effect of ending much of the gratuitous dissension that has come about in the ranks.THERE may well be legitimate concerns and principled differences on both sides of the fence in the CoD group, but I’d bet my bottom dollar that much of the fight is fuelled by personality differences in the leadership ranks.If one looks at the current Swapo ‘split’ as well, it is difficult to discern where the matters of principle come into the divide, if at all.Again, it was precipitated initially by a case of one of the leaders, Hidipo Hamutenya, falling out of favour with Swapo President Sam Nujoma, after which things gathered momentum as people began to take sides, and before anyone knew it, a full-scale feud was on the go.And now, of course, it has become so much more difficult to mend, even though a committee was set up to re-forge unity in Swapo, this has come to nought.Ditto the CoD, where the main battle appears to be between still-incumbent leader Ben Ulenga, and Ignatius Shixwameni, with others in leadership ranks taking one side or the other.Yes, there may be reasons why Shixwameni and others are at odds with Ulenga, and there certainly appear to be valid concerns about the representation at the recent Keetmanshoop conference, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these were not preceded by antagonism and not the other way around.Whatever the case may be in both Swapo and CoD, because so many people have different takes on the rivalries, there seems to be little point in what both incumbent leaders have chosen to do, and that is to ignore the fact that there are problems at all.Ulenga, on the one hand, continues to maintain that there’s no disunity in the CoD; while on the other, the Swapo President also emphasises a ‘united’ Swapo despite all evidence to the contrary.No point in pretending problems don’t exist, because that’s a sure way not to solve these disputes, which in turn leads to discontent which can simmer for years on end, doing extensive damage to the image of the party or group in question in the process.I suppose if one dug down deep enough, one would find that personality differences are sometimes based on ideological issues, and that certain people perhaps don’t belong together in one group.Again it is problematic that actual policies seem to differ very little among even the ruling and opposition parties for that matter.So adherents aren’t necessarily part of a certain political party because they concur with their ideological framework, but instead because of personality cult.Some have ended up together more or less by accident, and I would place the CoD in this context, because it tends to be a rag-tag group of people together largely because they are disaffiliated or disaffected from Swapo with no common aims and objectives other than the main driving force of their antipathy to the ruling party.This in turn makes this group in particular, vulnerable to the vicissitudes of infighting because they share essentially no common goals.And difficult though it may be at times, particularly vis-à-vis Swapo and the almost omnipotent figure of its President, Sam Nujoma, we need to begin to separate the person from the party for the sake of stable continuity and endurance of that particular political grouping.Nujoma is synonymous with Swapo and vice versa, whether people like to hear this or not.And several Swapo leaders have taken issue with me about this viewpoint in the past.But the point really is, take Nujoma from the equation and what would we have left? A party that would in all likelihood be reduced to a shadow of its former self, rent apart by division and dissension.This is why someone like recently resigned MP Ben Amathila said Nujoma was needed to ‘fix’ Swapo.If and when it is time for Nujoma to move on (and many think the time has already passed) then this must happen and new leaders must come to the fore.But Swapo must continue nonetheless.The same is true of CoD.Although, like Nujoma, Ulenga is the founding President of that opposition group, there will be a time to move on.That may also be soon if not now, at least if key leaders in that Party have anything to say about it! It would be good though for various political parties to revisit their policies because that should be the basis on which they attract adherents, rather than for reasons of personality cult.This in turn may have the effect of ending much of the gratuitous dissension that has come about in the ranks.