Political Perspective

IN the 80th birthday message he dictated to me this week, Namibia’s longest-serving and famous political prisoner, Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, raises points that are very close to my own heart and which our people should listen to (if they want to hear)! I have always known Ya Toivo as a person who cuts the crap and gets down to basics, and this is refreshing given a society unfortunately inundated with dishonest, grasping, gossipy, hypocritical and/or cowardly politicians.

IN Namibia’s political history, there are two people, in my opinion, who speak and spoke their minds regardless of consequences: ya Toivo and the late Nathaniel Maxuilili. Like them or hate them, you got the straight talk from them.I’m not necessarily saying that both have always done and said the right things at the right time, especially the late Maxuilili, who was known to also blow his top in the most unseemly of situations.But there’s something about their in-your-face honesty that is always refreshing, even if you disagree with them.And both men paid the price for their beliefs: ya Toivo on Robben Island and Maxuilili who was under house arrest in Walvis Bay for many years.Ya Toivo’s message basically boiled down to discipline and hard work as the recipe for success to achieve economic independence.I would wholly agree.If others dispute it, then they need only look at the history of a man who spent nearly two decades in prison on Robben Island, unjustly incarcerated by the former apartheid regime, and who probably wouldn’t have been blamed if he’d come out of there as an embittered and aggrieved person who felt the world owed him recompense for his suffering.Not so.If anything, it strengthened his ethical resolve; his sense of self-discipline and hard work as liberating concepts in themselves.This is corroborated by his nephews who paid tribute to him by saying: “our uncle… was strict in enforcing discipline; hated lies, thieves and lazy people” and that he strove to “mould us into well-educated, cultured and respectful, exemplary citizens who can stand on their own”.That’s what I like to hear, and what few enough politicians and leaders of society exemplify for the people of this country.And this is perhaps good reason for the demise in which we find ourselves.And if I’m not misrepresenting him, I’d say that this is the message that lies behind Toivo’s words.As a person who suffered more than most for his principles in his fight against apartheid rule, he has never apportioned blame nor lost his integrity.We too need to look into our own hearts and minds for the answers as to why we cannot succeed as a nation and ensure that our youth aren’t provided with ready-made and convenient excuses that apartheid is to blame for our dilemmas as a nation today – when most of them have only ever known freedom! If anything, our past should provide us with the necessary impetus and challenge to make a success of the future; rather than bog us down in senseless retribution and resentments which impede our way forward.If we instil and inculcate in our youth (and indeed our adults) the beliefs which a ya Toivo stands for, we’d be a lot better off overall.Other politicians might even pay lip service to these ideals from time to time, but their actions belie their words, and they do not lead by example.Ya Toivo never allowed his near two decades of imprisonment to get him down, but instead used it to give himself the strength he needed for the future, and to maintain and reinforce a strong belief system that among others, has him working still at the age of 80, when others have long given up their lust for life.The Namibian nation could pay him no better tribute on this milestone event than to follow his example.Like them or hate them, you got the straight talk from them.I’m not necessarily saying that both have always done and said the right things at the right time, especially the late Maxuilili, who was known to also blow his top in the most unseemly of situations.But there’s something about their in-your-face honesty that is always refreshing, even if you disagree with them.And both men paid the price for their beliefs: ya Toivo on Robben Island and Maxuilili who was under house arrest in Walvis Bay for many years.Ya Toivo’s message basically boiled down to discipline and hard work as the recipe for success to achieve economic independence.I would wholly agree.If others dispute it, then they need only look at the history of a man who spent nearly two decades in prison on Robben Island, unjustly incarcerated by the former apartheid regime, and who probably wouldn’t have been blamed if he’d come out of there as an embittered and aggrieved person who felt the world owed him recompense for his suffering.Not so.If anything, it strengthened his ethical resolve; his sense of self-discipline and hard work as liberating concepts in themselves.This is corroborated by his nephews who paid tribute to him by saying: “our uncle… was strict in enforcing discipline; hated lies, thieves and lazy people” and that he strove to “mould us into well-educated, cultured and respectful, exemplary citizens who can stand on their own”.That’s what I like to hear, and what few enough politicians and leaders of society exemplify for the people of this country.And this is perhaps good reason for the demise in which we find ourselves.And if I’m not misrepresenting him, I’d say that this is the message that lies behind Toivo’s words.As a person who suffered more than most for his principles in his fight against apartheid rule, he has never apportioned blame nor lost his integrity.We too need to look into our own hearts and minds for the answers as to why we cannot succeed as a nation and ensure that our youth aren’t provided with ready-made and convenient excuses that apartheid is to blame for our dilemmas as a nation today – when most of them have only ever known freedom! If anything, our past should provide us with the necessary impetus and challenge to make a success of the future; rather than bog us down in senseless retribution and resentments which impede our way forward.If we instil and inculcate in our youth (and indeed our adults) the beliefs which a ya Toivo stands for, we’d be a lot better off overall.Other politicians might even pay lip service to these ideals from time to time, but their actions belie their words, and they do not lead by example.Ya Toivo never allowed his near two decades of imprisonment to get him down, but instead used it to give himself the strength he needed for the future, and to maintain and reinforce a strong belief system that among others, has him working still at the age of 80, when others have long given up their lust for life.The Namibian nation could pay him no better tribute on this milestone event than to follow his example.