What The Nation Needs

SOME of Swapo’s top leaders do not offer the idea of humility and profound determination to conduct themselves with courage and integrity in the public office as we pursue the struggle of economic emancipation. We have watched our country being ‘misruled’ over the past years .

SOME of Swapo’s top leaders do not offer the idea of humility and profound determination to conduct themselves with courage and integrity in the public office as we pursue the struggle of economic emancipation. We have watched our country being ‘misruled’ over the past years .We have observed the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor, poverty in the midst of plenty, entrenchment of corruption, abuse of power and state property by the current leadership, recycling of political leaders with corrupt records, deterioration of standards and quality of public social services, alienation of youth and women, marginalisation of minority ethnic groups, an increase in crime etcin past elections, the Swapo government has made promise with no commitment to fulfilling them.The list of broken promises is endless. Most of their elementary pledges for the 2004 election manifesto have not been met .What happened to the following pledges?They promised jobs for Namibians; democracy and good governance; building a socially just society; building a vibrant economy; provision of water and electricity; expansion of the mining sector and agriculture; equipping schools in the country;a nd laws to deal effectively with violent crime against children and women.Instead of implementing these pledges over the past four years, Swapo presides over growing unemployment, deterioration of services, incipient corruption, human insecurity and undermining of non- Swapo members.The continued deteriorating living conditions of the masses of our people because of the long chain broken promises is a direct result of pursuit of a neo -liberal economic paradigm -which contrasts sharply with social-oriented economic paradigms articulated in vision 2030 .The dishonesty of the current regime over the past decades has alienated our people from politics.There must surely be a better way to run a country than taking the nation for granted. Inevitably, in this year’s elections Swapo is going to promise Namibian more of the same without commitment!Those who make promises must be held accountable.My pledge as a RDP member is simple: That Namibia can and must be a better country for all the citizens and we must demonstrate that ours is a party that is people centered. The success of any country depends on good policies, commitment and love for people. Political independence must be accompanied by economic emancipation – these are the ingredients of independence – modernising democracy and institutions of good governance, transforming the economy to agriculture and food security, delivering better health services, empowering the disempowered, equality of ethnic groups, eradication of poverty trap, an education system that produces skilled individuals who are able to develop and harness new technologies for the country. The list goes on and on…Nicanor NdjozeWindhoekNote: This letter has been shortened – Ed