Thoughts to conclude
By: Romanus Mungamba
What is growing evidently in our present society daily, is the uncanny Namibian habit by those in power and the lack of resilience that they showcase to cede power or engage the youth in state strategic sector's endowment. This is purely because they've become accustomed to the civil positions they occupy, like a permanent hinge. This behaviour is true especially for those that did not reach their positions on a merit basis, but rather on comrade basis, thus they fear their corruption supply chain will be greatly hindered and they would eat twice as much no more, but most importantly they fear for the worse which rightfully so, is that should they lose their jobs, it will be for good. This is because most of them will never find such an accommodating job anymore else, hence leaving the current exposure we have become used to, of which state officials are turning the government coffins into a milking cow. While this works all the time for them and for what it's worth, had it not been for the media all these scandals would've otherwise gone unnoticed or unopposed as it is in other patriarchal states that are led by dictators. My argument might be inevitable to callings of me being a hypocrite, but if I may, allow me to quote what the then president-elect of the United States stated that “Africa needs to be re-colonised again”. As much as I hate the sentiment the statement represents, I cannot help but be intrigued by the essence of the content carries. I personally do not believe Africa must be re-colonised but hold on to your thoughts and allow me a platform to unravel my thoughts.
With all due respect, most of us that have an interest and/or have been taught politics, we have surely come across the concepts 'regime transition' and 'democracy trajectory' as conditions that were proposed by the United Nations to almost every newly and/or independent country. They were ideologies that gained prominence especially after the Cold War between the USA and USSR that led to neglecting of satellite states that consisted mostly of developing countries, which led to what is known as the 'African Lost Decade' period. During this period economic and political conditions were in dire straits. Money from the West wasn't flowing in anymore and dictators couldn't afford to hold on to power through the patron-client system anymore, as the trickle-down paradigm of resources became very scarce. These conditions saw international financial institutions gain eminence such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who through their conditional loaning schemes proposed Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPS), provided to the willing developing countries in Africa and this was perceived by many as the neo-colonialism era. The aim however, was to help revive and develop our stagnant economies and it is within this context I would like to interpret President Trump's statement, taking into account that every policy has its negatives. In this perspective its exploitation of Africa's natural resources through their conglomerate among others, but at least the conditional loans came with what we currently continue to enjoy for the vast parts of the continent which is democracy and liberty. Now take some time off and reminisce back and forth to the past and current situation, whereas even in the presence of democracy and liberty all fronts of corruption still exists, the question is how awfully bad would our people, continent and country have been? The SAPS oversaw in most part of the continent's dictatorships transit to democracy regimes and this in my view changed our historically long inhabitant's values and culture but as far as human rights are concerned, they brought about some human dignity in the essence of freedom of speech and expression to human kind. The same can be deputised in the Namibian case, because even after 27 years of independence and youth outcry for our voices to be heard and our basic demands met, but truth be told all we have is freedom of expression and speech that falls on deaf ears, because leaders are reluctant to neutralise empowerment to all and of course in my view, this is for the reasons stated earlier.
Truth be told we owe our democracy and liberty acceleration to some extent, to those conditional mechanisms. Nevertheless a time will come or should I reiterate our time will come and just like the way they enrich themselves and cronies through the affirmative action policy, on the minority whites, we too yes the “black Africans” shall repossess those state properties and assets from them and/or their relatives thereafter, because the current leaders and cronies think they have the right to break and override the basic rights of others - but just like you were once a youth, you too will eventually leave your positions in your retirement tenures and we shall take charge then. This might just transpire to be a generational fight, but we too will repossess them (their assets) as we sought to justify our youth's miserable days, my hope is that they too show the same level of patience and commitment while they grieve and patiently wait for their turn. Unless justice and accountability for and to all is upheld, this obstacle will never cede and the Namibian leadership since independence is the one to hold accountable.
*Romanus Mungamba is a final-year student in Public Management at the University of Namibia
What is growing evidently in our present society daily, is the uncanny Namibian habit by those in power and the lack of resilience that they showcase to cede power or engage the youth in state strategic sector's endowment. This is purely because they've become accustomed to the civil positions they occupy, like a permanent hinge. This behaviour is true especially for those that did not reach their positions on a merit basis, but rather on comrade basis, thus they fear their corruption supply chain will be greatly hindered and they would eat twice as much no more, but most importantly they fear for the worse which rightfully so, is that should they lose their jobs, it will be for good. This is because most of them will never find such an accommodating job anymore else, hence leaving the current exposure we have become used to, of which state officials are turning the government coffins into a milking cow. While this works all the time for them and for what it's worth, had it not been for the media all these scandals would've otherwise gone unnoticed or unopposed as it is in other patriarchal states that are led by dictators. My argument might be inevitable to callings of me being a hypocrite, but if I may, allow me to quote what the then president-elect of the United States stated that “Africa needs to be re-colonised again”. As much as I hate the sentiment the statement represents, I cannot help but be intrigued by the essence of the content carries. I personally do not believe Africa must be re-colonised but hold on to your thoughts and allow me a platform to unravel my thoughts.
With all due respect, most of us that have an interest and/or have been taught politics, we have surely come across the concepts 'regime transition' and 'democracy trajectory' as conditions that were proposed by the United Nations to almost every newly and/or independent country. They were ideologies that gained prominence especially after the Cold War between the USA and USSR that led to neglecting of satellite states that consisted mostly of developing countries, which led to what is known as the 'African Lost Decade' period. During this period economic and political conditions were in dire straits. Money from the West wasn't flowing in anymore and dictators couldn't afford to hold on to power through the patron-client system anymore, as the trickle-down paradigm of resources became very scarce. These conditions saw international financial institutions gain eminence such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who through their conditional loaning schemes proposed Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPS), provided to the willing developing countries in Africa and this was perceived by many as the neo-colonialism era. The aim however, was to help revive and develop our stagnant economies and it is within this context I would like to interpret President Trump's statement, taking into account that every policy has its negatives. In this perspective its exploitation of Africa's natural resources through their conglomerate among others, but at least the conditional loans came with what we currently continue to enjoy for the vast parts of the continent which is democracy and liberty. Now take some time off and reminisce back and forth to the past and current situation, whereas even in the presence of democracy and liberty all fronts of corruption still exists, the question is how awfully bad would our people, continent and country have been? The SAPS oversaw in most part of the continent's dictatorships transit to democracy regimes and this in my view changed our historically long inhabitant's values and culture but as far as human rights are concerned, they brought about some human dignity in the essence of freedom of speech and expression to human kind. The same can be deputised in the Namibian case, because even after 27 years of independence and youth outcry for our voices to be heard and our basic demands met, but truth be told all we have is freedom of expression and speech that falls on deaf ears, because leaders are reluctant to neutralise empowerment to all and of course in my view, this is for the reasons stated earlier.
Truth be told we owe our democracy and liberty acceleration to some extent, to those conditional mechanisms. Nevertheless a time will come or should I reiterate our time will come and just like the way they enrich themselves and cronies through the affirmative action policy, on the minority whites, we too yes the “black Africans” shall repossess those state properties and assets from them and/or their relatives thereafter, because the current leaders and cronies think they have the right to break and override the basic rights of others - but just like you were once a youth, you too will eventually leave your positions in your retirement tenures and we shall take charge then. This might just transpire to be a generational fight, but we too will repossess them (their assets) as we sought to justify our youth's miserable days, my hope is that they too show the same level of patience and commitment while they grieve and patiently wait for their turn. Unless justice and accountability for and to all is upheld, this obstacle will never cede and the Namibian leadership since independence is the one to hold accountable.
*Romanus Mungamba is a final-year student in Public Management at the University of Namibia
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