The Need To Confront Our Realities

An open letter to my fellow Namibians, especially to the President and elected members of Parliament.

OUR much-talked about 4th Presidential and Parliamentary Elections are now behind us and sadly the disputed results (due to ECN’s inability to live up to the trust bestowed upon them for this very important national responsibility) once again highlights how much fragile our democracy, the peace and tranquillity still is.After 20 years of independence and self-determination, it is a national shame and an embarrassment that as a nation we are still not sending out a convincing message about our ability to hold free and fair elections in the land of the brave. This is obvious from the fact that our ability to serve as custodians of our own hard-earned fragile democracy is always questioned during and after elections. It is thus time that President Pohamba should rethink the composition of the ECN and restore more credibility in this body as it is of such extreme national importance that mistakes cannot and should no longer be allowed to happen – period! How is it possible that ECN can highlight the tender ballot and the two days voting system as the biggest contributors of problems during the 2004 elections and government/ECN repeat both again in 2009?Nevertheless the election is now behind us and in less than three months we will be entering our 21st year of self-determination as a free and independent nation irrespective of the outcome of the dispute which opposition parties have taken to the courts. It is thus time for us to start reflecting on the past in order to start carving a better future for all Namibians. Because a huge task is vested in our new members of parliament and in our President to ensure that the fruits of independence do filter through to all Namibians irrespective of colour, sex and ethic origins. One such responsibility is to ensure that development and empowerment are seen to be taking place in all our 13 regions in the next five years. While we do subscribe to the principle of One Namibia One Nation, the fact of a multi-ethnic Namibian society is an unquestionable reality and what we therefore should be seeking is not a denial of this reality, but a multi-national affirmation of this fact. Our true strength as a nation is not only vested in all our people, but all our past and future successes have and will always be as result of our people. In this regard in my opinion President Pohamba still has to deliver on the promise that not a single Namibian will be left behind.Let us therefore start assisting our President and members of parliament not only to deliver on all the outstanding promises, but also to start carving an ideal future for Namibia.Some of us have voted for the status quo to remain whilst others have voted for a change. A change not only in the faces of the people but also in the way that our new members of parliament will respond to important national issues such as crime, better education for our children, improved health facilities, poverty alleviations and many others.From the lessons of the past, we cannot afford to leave all the above burning issues to our elected leaders alone or enter into the new future of our country without confronting Namibian realities and taking stock of our past successes as well as failures during the last 20 years. All Namibians have the responsibility to break the culture of fear or silence and to act as catalyst for change. Our President and the 72 parliamentarians in waiting all now have to seriously reflect on the huge responsibilities which lie ahead, not only for the next five years, but towards laying the foundation for all our national development plans, including Vision 2030.When it comes to our successes, Mother nature has not only blessed us with a country with remarkable beauty, such as spectacular scenery, an incredible selection of wildlife, the magnificent Atlantic Ocean on the west coast and an excellent selection of mineral resources and enormous space for all our people. As a country we can also proudly claim to be the paradise of uniqueness and beauty on the African Continent. As Namibians, unlike most African Countries, we have also continued to maintain and upgrade most of our infrastructure during the past 20 years, especially our roads. But unfortunately we also failed some of the critical ones especially our hospitals, schools, government office buildings and our aging rail infrastructure which sadly will cause more deaths amongst our people unless government wakes up to reality. As a result the perception exists that we are quick to build new infrastructure, at times even white elephants, but the same enthusiasm is lacking in maintaining some of the existing ones.Namibia can and should therefore do much better in these areas during the next five years!It is also important to recognise and acknowledge the unselfish contributions made by all our heroes and heroines (past and present) towards our society. Our prosperity, peace and tranquility did not come on a silver platter but was brought about by sacrifice of many of our people so that Namibia could be forever free and independent. When independence was finally obtained, under the able and competent leadership of the first 72 men and women who wrote our constitution in record time, all Namibians despite a brutal colonial rule that lasted for more than a 100 years, decided to declare the past to be the past on the March 21 1990. On this day all Namibians except the few whites who opted to leave at independence, decided to forge ahead in uniting themselves and the country we all love in order to effectively build a better society for all our people where the rule of law is upheld and maintained. It is also our hope that this great country of ours will continue to serve as a beacon of hope, not only for the young generations, but also for many other African countries and the world at large.However it is a fact that despite the above mentioned successes we did not always take full advantage of the natural strength of our country as well as the many opportunities which were created by our independence. Namibia is still faced with many challenges which President Pohamba and his new team must and should tackle immediately as the true fruits of our independence will only be realised once we as a nation has deliver on the following burning issues:It is absolutely unacceptable that our country which is one of the smallest (population-wise) and richest in terms of natural resources, complemented by the highest tax regime in our region, should today still have more than 400 000 people starving while millions are either wasted and or stolen under government noses by some corrupt individuals who are not worthy of serving in positions of trust. The fact that very little, if any, success was recorded in the past in terms of bringing these culprits to book also sends the message that the people involved are untouchable.It important for our country to be seen forging aggressively ahead on the road to economic independence whilst maintaining zero tolerance towards any corrupt practice during the next five years irrespective of the amount and the people involved. The key here is the introduction of a Namibian culture which holds people in positions of trust accountable.Likewise crime, especially that which targets the vulnerable, must be seen as not only enjoying the highest attention, but it should also be spearheaded by President Pohamba and or his new cabinet.I believe that as a nation with the dedicated focus of the President and senior members of cabinet we can succeed to eradicate this evil from our society.Another issue that should enjoy the President’s personal attention, especially if we are serious with our national development plans, is the introduction of a tolerant culture for a diversity of opinions. As a nation we cannot afford to have a President Bush mentality of ‘if you are not with us, you are against us’ in the land we all love.This brings me to the importance for our President to introduce new blood into his cabinet. One of the presidential election promises was that Namibia is a country where opportunities for the younger generation, especially the so called born free Namibians, exist. However during the past 20 years we have continued to witness only the opposite. Especially in government structures where people have been rotated in various positions over and over again. These people have now not only run out of any new ideas, but it is also very obvious that they are exhausted. Thus if the same tradition has to continue for the next 5-10 years, some of the talented men and women who could have made a difference including the born frees, will die or leave the country without getting an opportunity to serve the land of the brave. Surely this is not the way that a country with many opportunities for its people should be run?President Pohamba will have to make the hard choice between surrounding himself with people from the old dispensation in order to maintain the status quo vs surrounding himself with Namibian men and women with proven track records willing and able to lead our country to greater prosperity …and it should be known that there are many such people in the land of the brave.Another motivation for the introduction of new blood is the fact that there is an urgent need for us as a nation to start recognising all our people as the single biggest asset that constitutes our true strength as a nation. Genuine wealth creation cannot succeed if all our people are not afforded a genuine sense of belonging as we have witnessed from various letters in the printed media lately. We have had 20 years to deal with the injustices of the past, now we are entering the remaining 20 years before 2030 and we cannot afford to repeat a single mistake of the past!Just like our first 72 heroes and heroines decided to declare the past to be past when they were writing our constitution, a constitution which have been hailed by nations as one of the world’s best, it is now time for us as a nation, to also declare the same. We must now start acting as the masters of our own destiny by taking responsibility for our own actions and holding people accountable. We cannot forever hide behind the unfortunate colonial past. We need to realise that an athlete chasing another athlete who has already completed 50% of the race, can only catch up with the frontrunner by running twice the speed of the one in front. Thus whilst other nations may have taken more than 20 years to deal with their colonial past, unfortunately we don’t have the same time as we are competing with nations who have been on the track for years ahead of us! Thus we can simply not afford to blame any of our previous colonisers for any of our failures or misdirected priorities in the future!Prosperous 2010 to all Namibians and long live the Republic of Namibia!Brian BlackWindhoek