Kae Matundu
YOURS Truly Ideologically has lately been glancing through the election manifestos of some of the political parties and formations taking part in next month’s Presidential and National Assembly elections, thereby staking with them the claim to be the next government after the elections depending on their performance at the polls.
The changes they are promising to bring about are equally premised on one cardinal aspect, which may be motivating them to stake their claims to power.
The Swapo Party of Namibia, the ruling party for the past 34 years since Namibia’s independence, has been accused of perceived inability and dismal failure.
With the common themes being health, education, housing, land, economic development, agriculture, tourism, rural development, and good governance (tackling corruption if not reversing and/or totally eradicating it). Don’t overlook poverty and the uneven allocation of national resources.
Needless to say, these are all pertinent and relevant socio-economic issues one can dare to ignore, especially in this cutthroat competitive period of electioneering where nothing is left to chance—even untruths, half-truths, mis-truths, and utter fabrications of realities and stark failures. We cannot blame the ruling party, Swapo, for any of these issues. Would the other political parties be willing to accept this?
However, it must be acknowledged that the Swapo Party of Namibia’s performance, even if limited to initiating measures to stop the ongoing social decay, can only be characterised as minimal, if not nonexistent.
That is, if Swapo altogether has not forgotten the reasons for the Namibian revolution. It goes without saying that the initiators of the Namibian revolution are far from having initiated it. Because what the people of Namibia have been deceitfully given by the Western Contact Group, of course with the connivance of Namibia’s would-be liberation movements, is flag independence.
Indeed, flag independence has been the only accomplishment Namibia has made over the past 34 years. Namibia, in terms of good governance, still has an awful lot of ground to cover. In addition, a new generation of citizens who are democratically inclined and socialized, rather than the pretenders imposed upon them at independence, is the only way to achieve this.
Although most leading and model democracies in the world may receive such accolades. These accolades have been earned through years of enduring various political and economic eras before they could truly establish themselves as such. One does not wake up today and become a true democrat tomorrow.
This comes with time through what may be described as political socialisation. Political socialisation is not achieved through cured and senseless propaganda and/or coercion with a half-baked and poorly executed civic education programme.
An illusion Namibia seems to harbour and chronically suffer from. But must be inculcated over years, if not decades, through sublime programmes penetrating the hearts, souls and psychics of the citizenry.
But most crucially, as the capitalist economist would make you believe, all things must be equal. If stable material conditions within the country do not support and underpin civic education programmes, they will not yield the desired results. Currently, the socio-economic conditions in Namibia have never been conducive to effective and efficient civic education campaigns.
Yours Truly Ideologically, thus, I cannot see how political father and mother X-masses, with their full bags of goodies for the electorate, shall ever one day take out these goodies. Except that voters shall never ever get to see the actual content of these goodies in the election manifestos. For not as long as they exist or in the lifetime of any one of the current leaders.
Thus, it is any wonder how any of these political party manifestos shall ever see fruition. Can the citizenry start lining up one after the other after the elections, each for her/his plot, ala the “one man, one plot,” promise? Would any of the incoming government after the elections put up a one-stop shopping facility where voters, equipped only with their shopping lists and menus from the manifestos of the winning political party, shall pick start picking and choosing, be it their favourite school, medical scheme, or what-have-you? The manifestos appear to promise such things. Oblivious to the most critical part of any manifesto, promise. All things equal, such promises must be underpinned by not only a belief but a conviction and commitment to a central base. It is this central base or foundation that is and has been lacking. According to Karl Marx, the economic base or mode of production determines political, legal, religious and cultural institutions.
Many of the manifestos simply are lacking in this regard, raising doubt about how, cometh the hour, their masterminds and/or designers, if at best masters in voters’ deceit supreme, would be able to deliver on their mixed and overflowing bag of goodies. What are their central premises and departures regarding the pertaining socio-economic ills? Albeit some factor of the prevailing capitalist mode of production in the country. Inherited from colonial capitalism. However, people seem to take it for granted as the foundation for rebuilding Namibia. It has already been established that this approach has been detrimental to the interests of the majority of Namibians, particularly the indigenous population.
