Political Perspective

IT APPEARS to be silly season on a few counts for former Swapo presidential candidate-hopeful and Minister of Higher Education, Nahas Angula, who seems to have abandoned good sense in some of the comments he’s made in Parliament lately.

After some of the ideas he came up with during his campaign, his latest offerings are a bit of a disappointment. THE man who has variously been described as a ‘clean, straight-talking, man of the people’ sometimes does go off the deep end.Education and enlightenment are important to him, by his own admission, and a bit of homework may temper his sometimes outrageous statements! In his unsuccessful bid for Swapo nomination for the presidency, Angula raised the valid issue of parastatals draining Government coffers and yet, in a reversal in Parliament this week, he exhorted the Minister of Information to allocate more money to the State-owned news agency, Nampa, despite is N$2-million shortfall in the last financial year! His arguments for the increase were at best, weak, and at worst, ludicrous.In a nutshell, Nampa should get more money simply because they ‘need to convey local stories from a Namibian perspective to the international world’ because Namibia is, in his view, ‘misunderstood’ and ‘misinterpreted’.I surmise he would now support a similar argument for financially padding other parastatals, such as Air Namibia, because they are, after all, our national carrier, and this has seemed in the past to be the guiding principle for throwing good money after bad into something which was badly managed.Ditto Nampa.And when the Minister alleges that Namibia is ‘bombarded with propaganda from around the world’ he should realise that the conduit for most of this is his precious Nampa itself, to which local media are virtually forced to subscribe.So perhaps the Minister would like to re-visit his views on the above subject.Then Angula ‘did his thing’ in Parliament, complaining, on deadline day for tax returns, that he’d never received his PAYE form.I would think that’s up to the employer (his Ministry in this case) to provide, and he heads the very same.Last year MPs complained they didn’t know how to fill out their tax returns, and Government promised them DIY workshops in this regard; and accounting officers in the various Ministries were similarly ‘taught’ how to comply with tax laws earlier this year, but ignorance appears to be bliss in this case.Most loyal, law-abiding citizens know that tax returns are obligatory each year, so why does the Minister only wake up in a panic on D-Day? It would have been more constructive if he’d pointed out in Parliament a while ago that PAYE forms hadn’t yet been received.He could have done a bit of homework before shouting the odds, and imagine the impact of this story when Nampa puts it out to the rest of the world to ‘improve our image’.People abroad who read it must surely think our MPs are foolish.Finally Angula aimed his sights at the Attorney General who made some good points on the paternity leave question in Parliament when she rebuked many fathers for not knowing, or neglecting their children.Angula challenged Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana to ‘give me one example of a father who doesn’t know his child’.I really hope she rises to this and gives him the evidence he plainly refuses to acknowledge.I must admit I find it disturbing that a man of Angula’s calibre does a volte face on the issue of parastatals; denies widespread male neglect of children they father; and exhibits such ignorance of the laws of the land by failing to wake up on the issue of his PAYE and tax return a bit earlier in the day.Especially in view of his implication that funnelling more money to an ailing parastatal is suddenly going to improve Namibia’s image abroad, as well as ensuring that less ‘propaganda’ comes into the country, his comments are unfounded and unhelpful, and, knowing that the Minister is a person who usually prides himself on being ‘educated’ and ‘enlightened’, he himself could have a positive impact on our international image if he but made sure of his facts.THE man who has variously been described as a ‘clean, straight-talking, man of the people’ sometimes does go off the deep end.Education and enlightenment are important to him, by his own admission, and a bit of homework may temper his sometimes outrageous statements! In his unsuccessful bid for Swapo nomination for the presidency, Angula raised the valid issue of parastatals draining Government coffers and yet, in a reversal in Parliament this week, he exhorted the Minister of Information to allocate more money to the State-owned news agency, Nampa, despite is N$2-million shortfall in the last financial year! His arguments for the increase were at best, weak, and at worst, ludicrous.In a nutshell, Nampa should get more money simply because they ‘need to convey local stories from a Namibian perspective to the international world’ because Namibia is, in his view, ‘misunderstood’ and ‘misinterpreted’.I surmise he would now support a similar argument for financially padding other parastatals, such as Air Namibia, because they are, after all, our national carrier, and this has seemed in the past to be the guiding principle for throwing good money after bad into something which was badly managed.Ditto Nampa.And when the Minister alleges that Namibia is ‘bombarded with propaganda from around the world’ he should realise that the conduit for most of this is his precious Nampa itself, to which local media are virtually forced to subscribe.So perhaps the Minister would like to re-visit his views on the above subject.Then Angula ‘did his thing’ in Parliament, complaining, on deadline day for tax returns, that he’d never received his PAYE form.I would think that’s up to the employer (his Ministry in this case) to provide, and he heads the very same.Last year MPs complained they didn’t know how to fill out their tax returns, and Government promised them DIY workshops in this regard; and accounting officers in the various Ministries were similarly ‘taught’ how to comply with tax laws earlier this year, but ignorance appears to be bliss in this case.Most loyal, law-abiding citizens know that tax returns are obligatory each year, so why does the Minister only wake up in a panic on D-Day? It would have been more constructive if he’d pointed out in Parliament a while ago that PAYE forms hadn’t yet been received.He could have done a bit of homework before shouting the odds, and imagine the impact of this story when Nampa puts it out to the rest of the world to ‘improve our image’.People abroad who read it must surely think our MPs are foolish.Finally Angula aimed his sights at the Attorney General who made some good points on the paternity leave question in Parliament when she rebuked many fathers for not knowing, or neglecting their children.Angula challenged Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana to ‘give me one example of a father who doesn’t know his child’.I really hope she rises to this and gives him the evidence he plainly refuses to acknowledge.I must admit I find it disturbing that a man of Angula’s calibre does a volte face on the issue of parastatals; denies widespread male neglect of children they father; and exhibits such ignorance of the laws of the land by failing to wake up on the issue of his PAYE and tax return a bit earlier in the day.Especially in view of his implication that funnelling more money to an ailing parastatal is suddenly going to improve Namibia’s image abroad, as well as ensuring that less ‘propaganda’ comes into the country, his comments are unfounded and unhelpful, and, knowing that the Minister is a person who usually prides himself on being ‘educated’ and ‘enlightened’, he himself could have a positive impact on our international image if he but made sure of his facts.