Political Perspective

THERE’S always something rather sad about people who cannot let go of the past. Former President Sam Nujoma is an example in point when he continues to rant and rave about the ‘colonialists’ and ‘imperialists’ rather than focus on present-day problems and realities in our country which aren’t necessarily to do with either of the above. In his public speeches, he also continually emphasises old allegiances rather than putting these into context along with the new.

AND it isn’t as if the founding father doesn’t have some rather questionable friends himself who hail from what he would term the ‘imperialist’ world, and juxtaposed against his threats to ‘put bullets through the heads’ of those foreigners who harbour ill-intentions towards Namibia, his critics could be forgiven for accusing him of hypocrisy.Perhaps we should once and for all state quite clearly that there is nothing that said ‘imperialists’ could do to harm us unless we allow it. For example, everyone knows the race is on for our uranium resources, and everyone is aware that among others, the French, Chinese, Iranians and Russians are interested. The decision as to who we partner with clearly resorts with the Government of the day and we would like to think that they do their homework before making decisions on the abovementioned and that said decisions are based on what’s in the best interests of Namibia, and not which countries assisted or aligned with Swapo in the liberation years, or those who didn’t for that matter. So the issue of ‘foreigners’ and who we consort with does not rest with the people of Namibia themselves who are constantly bombarded with his anti-foreign sentiments and exhortations!I am sure Namibians don’t have a problem with the former President and who is international friends are. Whether he goes on a hunting safari with the conservative former French President Valerie Giscard d’Estaing, as he did recently; and/or that he wines and dines the controversial US-based diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman, when he comes to town, is surely his own business. But when Nujoma actively promotes anti-foreign and even xenophobic sentiments, then he has to be shown up for his double standards.This sort of ‘war-talk’ went down better when Namibia was fighting for its independence, and it helped to rally Namibians against the apartheid regime. Certainly Nujoma himself made more sense then than he does now because the country is at peace, even though he personally has a hard time accepting this fact.And when our Government is as dependent as it is on foreign donor funding and the goodwill of several foreign countries, then surely this simply adds insult to injury. It also makes our founding father a laughing stock when he makes the statements he does.Not only this week when he made the latest threats at a rally in northern Namibia, but also at his 80th birthday celebration when he told impressionable young children that they must be ready to take up guns against the imperialists. This is simply not on. He is giving Namibia a bad name and in southern Africa, he is second only to his close ally, Zimbabwean head of state Robert Mugabe, when it comes to dishing out insults.I also believe Namibia must be cautious as to our alignments with questionable individuals from wherever they hail. And decisions as to who we deal with must be based on solid good sense.But whatever the sentiments of former President Nujoma (and hopefully these are not mirrored in the ruling party as a whole) we are bound to accept that we are dependent on aid from a number of countries whom he would ordinarily label ‘imperialist’. And I’ve said it before, and will say it again, if we do not want that kind of foreign assistance, then we should be honest and say so. I am certain that many of those countries would find people who are both more needy, and more hospitable, than Namibia appears to be. In short, we have no moral high ground in this regard.And our ‘enemies’ are mostly at home. They include the scourge of corruption, against which fight Nujoma has aligned himself although ‘other business’ prevented him from marching this week to protest the evil. So his target should be the thieves in our own midst, and those fellow crooks they work with from the international arena, and who are simply intent on greedy self-enrichment at the expense of the poor of Namibia.And as he likes hunting, he should do so right here, and my suggestion is that Nujoma should rather set his sights on the criminals at home rather than get people worked up about ‘foreigners’, many of whom have brought tremendous good to our shores.