EDITORIAL: Reconciliation, what reconciliation?

Nearly 34 years after our independence, Namibia’s policy of national reconciliation remains a subject of emotive debate.

The policy, which was Sam Nujoma’s word of mouth that was never jotted down on paper, has been parroted around as a guide to non-violent, mutually acceptable coexistence between our country’s erstwhile political enemies.

And because the so-called policy does not exist in black and white, it has been opportunistically used to sway things in favour of whoever is the beholder in any situation.

For example, former Koevoet and SWATF members selfishly define reconciliation to mean they too are entitled to monies government dishes out to Swapo war veterans annually as a ‘token’ for their liberation heroics.

Swapo disagrees that reconciliation meant sharing in the windfalls of veterans’ packages. To the ruling party, it simply meant silencing the guns and not shouting profanities at your neighbour across the boundary fence.

So blurry is this policy that the non-parties to past carnage are barely in the equation when the discourse of reconciliation rages.

Unlike our neighbours South Africa, Namibia chose not to embark on the paths of truth and reconciliation commissions and official apologies to achieve her reconciliation targets – perhaps because both parties had skeletons in their closets.

But this has left ambiguities as to what exactly people are reconciling for and the intended consequences of this policy, other than not butchering each other on the streets in vengeance.