Political Perspective

WHILE there was a school of thought way back that regular elections posed the main requirement for a country to be termed democratic, it has become clear over time that this alone does not suffice.

In addition to the right to vote, there are a host of other measurables necessary to ensure that the political system is as participatory as possible.

Namibia is largely compliant with some of these, including an environment mostly conducive to a free press and freedom of speech. We do, however, lack in other areas. Lack of access to information remains one of them, because the government is closed and unresponsive and the ruling party remains inherently dictatorial in nature.

A democratic culture has been slow in forming. We are a country (and there are several others like us, which emerged from autocratic regimes) that tasted freedom before we could practice responsibility. And so the euphoria of independence disguised a lack of preparation for democratic governance and the drive to make it work in real terms.

Even our people, over-eager for the ‘fruits’ of independence, failed to capitalise on new-found freedoms and realise that commitment and hard work would be needed to make ours a success story. The government was derelict in ensuring that the effective machinery necessary to oil the wheels of our democracy was in good order and in capable hands. For the liberation movement, learning self-reliance after decades of dependency on others, has not been the easiest task.

In a nutshell, we won our freedom but then didn’t know what to do with it. We remain nervous of democracy and resistant to multi-partyism and so our expressed dedication to it is half-hearted at best.

And while a lot of work remains to be done to ensure that our democracy strengthens over time and is indelibly ‘written in hearts and minds’, this year we again focus our attentions on elections, hoping that the process will be smoother and less flawed than it has been in the past.

The Electoral Commission of Namibia, ‘under new management’, promised it would put to good use the years since the last poll to fix problem areas, and it remains to be seen whether they have done so.

The incessant court interdicts by opposition parties to nullify results in the past, although denied, have not been without merit in that many of the flaws in the process were due to disorganisation, incompetency and bad management. Hopefully these have now been dealt with and, at the very least, the elections this year will be well-administered and inherently free and fair. I express this sentiment, I must admit, with no small measure of trepidation, but I trust that I will be wrong this time.

There are winners and losers in any election, and for the latter, there will always be disappointment. But a successful process should not be measured by the size of the win, but rather by the levels of participation of the electorate who have the access to information necessary for them to make their informed decisions.

Unfortunately the system of proportional representation – which served us well in the beginning – does not promote democratic good governance and accountability because a large portion of our predicament is caused by putting the wrong people in power, again and again. It is in this aspect that voters lack choice as the parties determine who their representatives should be. And the turnouts in past years indicate that positivity on the part of many people is fast-diminishing, resulting in lower percentage poll turnouts and a feeling that votes don’t matter.

A constituency system would ensure that at least individuals of good calibre have a chance to stand to try and win over sections of the electorate based on their own competencies and skills and the work they put in. Under proportional representation, there is no pressure on political party candidates to deliver, which is why governance at all levels is as dismal as it is. More than ever now, we need accountability as things begin to unravel, but that is not going to happen in terms of change to the present dispensation right now.

Despite this shortcoming, we should try and make the most of these elections. Inasmuch as it is possible for people to keep them to account, we should be asking the right questions of political parties, urging debate on policies and plans and dismissing the rhetoric of entitlement in order to more clearly identify those who may have some of the answers to our problems.

Like a group of young people did this week, raising their voices against the planned new N$700-million parliament as a skewed priority, people have to be involved in their democracy to urge the government into responsiveness.

The hope right now lies in a vocal and engaged electorate, which rouses itself from apathy to claim its share of responsibility for the state of our democracy and contribute to its chances of future success.

Follow me on Twitter @GwenLister1

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