Truth, That Elusive Butterfly

ELECTORAL conduct is a good barometer of political maturity; put simply the balance between true debate of issues and intimidatory action and the manner in which the election processes are managed will speak for themselves.

The election choice is equally a matter of truthful evaluation of what is on offer. As only one party has been in power since Independence, that choice become more difficult as the ruling party has a track record and opposition parties have no ‘on the ground’ experience. The choices are a leap of faith! The policies and actions of one are in the public arena, the opposition can only offer promised hope.But what is truth? Being pedantic there is, in absolute terms, no such thing as truth except at a particular instant of time after which the multiple variables change it. Equally truth is based upon data and interpretation by each individual who sees their reality from a different perspective; each therefore sees a different version of the truth. Seemingly a chaotic and unsolvable problem.However mankind is driven by the reality that decision making is about making judgements and adapting to changing circumstances. What was true 20 years ago is not so now; policies and resultant actions have to be dynamic and based upon those new truths. The dynamics of societies change with the demographics of each society. While the old may cling to the past, the young have new ambitions. The age old ‘Clash of the Generations’ which in a world of rapid and better communication becomes amplified. This also perverts truth as governments, multi-nationals, international organisations and megalomaniac multi-billionaires control information flow to an increasing extent through the asymmetric presentation of information, to suit their own purposes. The increasing influence of ‘evidence-based’ argument where institutional rules and laws demand ‘reasonable doubt’ facts to be presented to counter criticism when those under the spotlight refuse to release such information, together with ‘Corporate Gagging’ of potential sources, is reducing democratic debate to a legalistic and sterile process.Sophistry, the use of deductive and analytical powers, as a form of debate is rapidly fading into a distant memory. The more subjective right side of the brain is in ascendancy to the detriment of the logical and more objective left side of the brain. This can be seen in the tendency towards materialism, self interest and litigious focus and away from the more esoteric qualities of intellectual honesty, self-sacrifice scholarship. It is always interesting to remember that in early democracies decision makers were expected to lead lives of simplicity and humbleness to show their incorruptibility! How things change.Then the elusive truth was guided by members of society with proven track records, community acceptance and broad experience; they had respect even if, often, they were not liked! This is what elections are about. The choice of those who have such qualities, who we trust to wisely guide our Nation for the next five years.The evidence we have available is asymmetric but shows that power and money is corrupting our existing rulers, that the truth presented is often selective and that Namibia is becoming a dual level society, especially in the administration of justice; but then the opposition can only offer words. The choice is simple.Do we trust our democratic process to change the current rulers increasingly bad habits or do we gamble on the unknown. Of course the representative outcome will show which way the long term wind is blowing.Our vote is our secret – I think! Maybe the truth will set us free? Let us vote peacefully please. csmith@mweb.com.na