When politics leads to Twar

 

I’m sure most of you are familiar with monsieur’s Alfredo Hengari and Citizen Nahas Angula. Just in case you’re aren’t let me refresh your memory, the former was a PhD fellow in France, he writes a column in the Namibian newspaper with such an elevated level of English that you need a dictionary to read it at times.

The latter is the honourable Prime minister of Namibia. These two gentlemen are not seeing eye to eye right now, it reminds of another school yard fight Alfredo Hengari had at the beginning of last year with Jocken Becker, that started when Jocken told Alfredo to write in simple English (He added a few other comments but we don’t have time to ask who threw sand in whose eyes first). The political warfare that followed was cataclysmic. Mr Hengari was at it again in July 2011 when he wrote a piece about our capital Windhoek, that ruffled Robin Tyson’s well groomed feathers (No pun intended). As you can see Alfredo hengari is a young man who is not new to controversy.

This latest debacle is centred on a piece that he wrote when he criticized Citizen Angula for suddenly expressing his interest in being the next president of Namibia. To cut a short story even shorter, Mr Hengari expressed his dissatisfaction with Citizen Angula’s candidature for the country’s top post; this triggered an angry response from Citizen Angula who called Hengari an Imperialist tool and a lifelong PhD fellow (that one was uncalled for). It’s typical of Leaders in Africa to brand their critics as imperialist tools simply because the truth hurts and in this case although I hate to say it Mr Hengari is right. If Citizen Angula wants the job he must just step up and table his credentials (Show us what he has done for the country and what plans has he actually put in action and not the proposals still sitting in his office) instead of hiding behind the old saying “If my comrades assign me the responsibility then who am I to refuse”.

It’s no secret that SWAPO will win the next elections, they have power in numbers. But what is not clear is who will emerge as the successful candidate to challenge and most probably win the race to be the next president. Hengari is right in my mind to criticize because Citizen Angula is already part of a leadership that is struggling to tackle important issues, how is he going to change the status quo as president if he could not change it as prime minister and minister of Education before that? How long are we going to keep recycling the same leaders and hoping for the best? It’s going turn out the same every time. All we are going to end up with is National development plans and Vision 2030’s that will never be realised.

I’ve come to the realisation that we all made a big mistake in the last two elections, we were sentimental, and we put faith in the freedom fighters that bought liberation. Which was a good idea at the time, but it turns out freedom fighters are not as well equipped to fight a war that involves no guns. They have found the going tough in the war for economic liberation, were intellect is needed, innovation and a little bit of selflessness. As much as we owe a debt of gratitude to those who participated in the Liberation of the country, 22 years is a long time to still be singing liberation songs and giving jobs to comrades. The cancer like spread of corruption and nepotism, social and tribal divisions and the normal kids vs struggle kids issue has not helped. I remember conversation with elders in 2004 who ridiculed me and said Hidipo Hamutenya was going to sell the country to the Americans had he won the leadership of SWAPO.

It seemed like a valid point. Fast forward 7 years later and the man who beat him leads a government that accepts Chinese loans to build roads, the loan comes with a clause that a Chinese company must get the tender, the Chinese company rolls in to town bringing their own labour and paying peanuts to the locals and then bolts of to china before the building starts to collapse. So exactly how is selling us to the Chinese any better than what Hidipo would have hypothetically done? If this was a porn video then China would be the big muscular guy with a schlong longer than a donkeys and Namibia would be the blonde with a big ass and flotation devices for breasts with her legs spread in the air while the big guys smashes her into the bed. The Chinese benefit from interest on the loan repayments and we are left with so many white elephants in our capital city that we can start a Zoo, anyone remember heroes acre, state house, that stupid national museum that looks like a tooth..etc., the list is long.

It seems to me that for so long we have put our faith in the leaders that bought freedom that we forgot to think about the future. We forgot to look ahead; we are stuck with a structure full of fossils vying for tops job and more waiting in the wings but no genuine thinkers, no innovators, no individuals with the nation’s interests at heart. Elijah Ngurare, Bernadus Swartbooi and Abraham Iiyambo are names that spring to mind when we talk of thinkers but they are stationed at the bottom of the food chain by the time the other fossils have taken their turns, they will also be fossils.

In choosing our next set of leaders we must decide either to go with sentimentality or to use our brains, we need younger, smarter leaders. It would not hurt if the current leadership played their role and already started grooming many in the youth league who have extra brain cells to rub together. The top three candidates are known, although none of them tickles my fancy because all they talk about are hibernators, no one talks about how they will create employment, the inequality in wealth distribution, how they will fix our education problems or how the heck we going to control the Chinese. I am inclined to agree with Christof Maletsky who says that all the candidates have plans for how they will win the race, but none have a concrete plan on how they are going to run the country properly (Shake my head). I would love to See Hage Geingob vs Pendukeni iithana and Jerry Ekandjo in a presidential debate like they do it in the states; I would pay money to see that.

In the end it boils down to a transition in leadership that is urgently needed or we just sit aside and watch as the corrupt elite plunder while, the poor suffer and our best talents immigrate to Australia, the choice is ours. We can escape with following party protocols for the next ten years but after that I fear that everything will go to shit.