The no-campaign campaign

KOSIE Pretorius and his Monitor Action Group (MAG) have maintained pole position as the eccentrics of Namibian political parties.

Although the elections are less than a month away, the party and its leader, who is also in the race for Namibia’s State President, are not campaigning, have no manifesto, will have no public meetings and do not go out and recruit members. For MAG going on the campaign trail means driving to the post office with a bakkie full of pamphlets, the only tangible campaign material the party is using.They deliver what is widely regarded as knock-and-drop mail to every mailbox, and Jacobus Willem Francois Pretorius believes that by the time elections take place his political grouping would have reached 100 000 post office boxes.The assumption is that he gets more mileage than the sum total of all the other political parties’ public rallies, and at the cheapest rate.”With that [mailing], our message reaches more people than even Swapo can get in total at all their gatherings,” says Pretorius.Shortly after making that remark yesterday morning, Pretorius received an envelope couriered from Luederitz.In it was one of his pamphlets, with a note telling him to never again to send his propaganda to the sender’s mailbox, or else he would be sued.But the struggle continues.MAG is the smallest political party in parliament, and receives N$250 000 in State funding, compared to Swapo’s N$12 million this year.Thus the lack of money is a major reason for the party’s lack of visible campaigning.But the MAG philosophy is that they are not an ordinary political party.Pretorius is a former leader of the apartheid National Party, and he is aware that his chances of ever getting back in power are non-existent.So, he has decided to stick to “persuasive politics”, trying to talk his opponents into understanding his point of view instead of rallying the masses to vote for him.The closest MAG gets to a manifesto or election programme is their motto of being anchored in a “triune God”, and pushing for Christianity to be recognised as part of the principles of the Namibian State.MAG campaigns for “unity in diversity” and the right to “self-determination and power sharing”.That is as far as their election campaign goes, in addition to taking advantage of time allocated to parties on national radio to broadcast their message.When not mass-mailing, MAG sends its material throughout the year to about 1 700 post boxes, “but members paying fees will not be more than 300, really active, living members”.If past election results are anything to go by, Pretorius is unlikely to make it back to the National Assembly, not to mention State House.Pretorius is under no illusion:”I will still be president-in-waiting long after the [November] elections.”But he will continue his campaign trail – a la post office.For MAG going on the campaign trail means driving to the post office with a bakkie full of pamphlets, the only tangible campaign material the party is using.They deliver what is widely regarded as knock-and-drop mail to every mailbox, and Jacobus Willem Francois Pretorius believes that by the time elections take place his political grouping would have reached 100 000 post office boxes.The assumption is that he gets more mileage than the sum total of all the other political parties’ public rallies, and at the cheapest rate.”With that [mailing], our message reaches more people than even Swapo can get in total at all their gatherings,” says Pretorius.Shortly after making that remark yesterday morning, Pretorius received an envelope couriered from Luederitz.In it was one of his pamphlets, with a note telling him to never again to send his propaganda to the sender’s mailbox, or else he would be sued.But the struggle continues.MAG is the smallest political party in parliament, and receives N$250 000 in State funding, compared to Swapo’s N$12 million this year.Thus the lack of money is a major reason for the party’s lack of visible campaigning.But the MAG philosophy is that they are not an ordinary political party.Pretorius is a former leader of the apartheid National Party, and he is aware that his chances of ever getting back in power are non-existent.So, he has decided to stick to “persuasive politics”, trying to talk his opponents into understanding his point of view instead of rallying the masses to vote for him.The closest MAG gets to a manifesto or election programme is their motto of being anchored in a “triune God”, and pushing for Christianity to be recognised as part of the principles of the Namibian State.MAG campaigns for “unity in diversity” and the right to “self-determination and power sharing”.That is as far as their election campaign goes, in addition to taking advantage of time allocated to parties on national radio to broadcast their message.When not mass-mailing, MAG sends its material throughout the year to about 1 700 post boxes, “but members paying fees will not be more than 300, really active, living members”.If past election results are anything to go by, Pretorius is unlikely to make it back to the National Assembly, not to mention State House.Pretorius is under no illusion:”I will still be president-in-waiting long after the [November] elections.”But he will continue his campaign trail – a la post office.