Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
Wake Up My Beloved Namibia, I am consciously, conscientiously and in a moment of sobering realisation and reawakening purposefully titling this week’s instalment, paraphrasing South African novel by Alan Paton, Cry My Beloved Country.
Careful in not inducing and lulling fellow Namibians into self pity, and thus helplessness and despair in the face of the mammoth task of reawakening and recharging their ideological consciousness in terms of the struggle of the workers. And consientisation against the self destructive and suicidal development trajectory not to succumb to Alan Paton’s fate of helplessness ala Cry My Beloved Country.
There can be no denial today that the country has been, over the last few years of freedom and independence, been on downward spiraling trajectory of development manifested in socio-economic denigration and retrogression. Thus extoling fellow citizens to awaken to the reality that the country has indeed lost the developmental compass ideologically must be the battle and rallying cry.
Pointing fingers at this juncture with the country bleeding is not helpful. Rather than engaging in a critical self introspection, especially ideologically. Because even the most loyal Namibian patriot can no longer be fooled to believe that Namibia is on, and has lately been on a visionary and progressive development trajectory of constructive and meaningful development, as opposed to the façade of development marked by the continued siphoning of the country’s natural resources by the compradorial alliances of Capitalism and Neo-Colonialism.
With the country in a vicious tight grip, which day by day she seems impossible to extricate herself from, arrest and reverse it, only an ideological reawakening can save her, Despite the fact that these days true and dedicated and committed ideologues are few and in between. Especially among the founding mothers and fathers few of whom are alive these days.
More than anything else the 32 years that Namibia has been free and independent this year, has proven that the country has in reality just been romantically free and independent but not materially. As thousands of fellow Namibians continue to be subjected to an existence of paupers, inherited from Colonialism and Capitalism, in what otherwise should be and must have been averagely an affluent and prosperous country given all her natural endowments. Testimony to this harsh reality is the latest United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Human Development Report, pointing out that Namibia remains one of the most unequal society in the world.
Except for the brief romanticisation of, and with freedom and independence, and with democracy, peace, stability, and development over the years, the reality for most wretched of the Namibian earth, has been hard living, exploitation, squalor and poverty.
To many, if not most in Namibia, the romantics of freedom and independence, remains in the face of the harsh reality of hard living, but mere fairytales. Politicians automatically needs and must carry the blame for many of the unrealised dreams of freedom and independence. But the masses themselves are much to be blamed. If not for their innocent belief and trust in politicians, yesteryears liberation advocates, agent provacateurs and fighters. That they shall one day deliver them from the yoke of Apartheid and Colonialism. Yes the masses have been delivered from Apartheid Colonialism but not from Capitalism and its necessary evils, the exploitation of the workers. With the natural outcome the decadence of the few on the one hand, and poverty, squalor and social miseries among the majority, on the other.
In today’s Namibia, few politicians or civil servants for that matter, because of ideological bankruptcy, can lay claim to a political or public service moral high ground, and dedicated service to the people. As most are attracted to public office not for commitment to public good but for self aggrandizement.
Namibia does not today find herself in a negative, if not altogether crippling economic situation necessarily because of adverse global economic times, but simply because those at the helm, politicians and civil servants alike, without impunity, have been stripping her economically naked. Because they lack the requisite ideological disposition to put the country on a healthy development trajectory. The government, year to year, has been running the country aground with Parliament itself at best no more than a décor of governance. A typical example of the governance project gone wrong is Air Namibia, now under liquidation. After years of millions and millions of Namibian Dollars down bottomless pit. Not so much for public good, but because somehow, somewhere, someone must has been getting a cut. Air Naimibia is one example but by no means an exception to the rule with most financially unsustainable projects having been approved just because some bigwigs have got a stake in them. This has been the order of thi
ngs and post-independent Namibia’s new normal. Bleeding the country to its knees. And to say that the country is today on her knees because of blatant and rampant bleeding of the country’s resources by unscrupulous politicians is an understatement. Amidst outright denial by officialdom that there’s no mismanagement, misappropriation, let alone corruption in the country. Yet the country, like Air Namibia, is close to liquidation herself just a matter of time.
