EDITORIAL: A weak opposition
When things go wrong, Swapo and its government get the lion’s share of the blame. It comes with the territory, so it’s fairly understandable.
But the excessive focus on Swapo has often distracted the nation from the incompetence of the opposition, or even its own contribution to the suffering of the Namibian people.
For example, some of us have been loud and clear in our criticism against government’s shocking and morally inept decision to use the ‘Esau’ Fisheries Act of 2015 to administer the allocation of fishing quotas in recent times. But have we actually questioned the opposition’s role in this?
If Swapo is not ethically upright enough to discard the ill-enacted law because it benefits them and their spoon-fed children, has the opposition ever stood up in parliament or any other platform to oppose Swapo’s use of this law – usually to enrich its cadres?
Is there anything on record, including letters to the fisheries ministry, indicating they tried to stop this?
Opposition leaders in parliament such as Rally for Democracy and Progress’ Mike Kavekotora and many others are holders of fishing rights, and it very quickly becomes clear why they would want the status quo that benefitted them to remain unscathed.
Namibia’s problem of cronyism and corruption in general is a syndicate that cuts across the entire political spectrum, so we are not even surprised that the opposition has become complicit in the grand-scale thievery schemes.
But the excessive focus on Swapo has often distracted the nation from the incompetence of the opposition, or even its own contribution to the suffering of the Namibian people.
For example, some of us have been loud and clear in our criticism against government’s shocking and morally inept decision to use the ‘Esau’ Fisheries Act of 2015 to administer the allocation of fishing quotas in recent times. But have we actually questioned the opposition’s role in this?
If Swapo is not ethically upright enough to discard the ill-enacted law because it benefits them and their spoon-fed children, has the opposition ever stood up in parliament or any other platform to oppose Swapo’s use of this law – usually to enrich its cadres?
Is there anything on record, including letters to the fisheries ministry, indicating they tried to stop this?
Opposition leaders in parliament such as Rally for Democracy and Progress’ Mike Kavekotora and many others are holders of fishing rights, and it very quickly becomes clear why they would want the status quo that benefitted them to remain unscathed.
Namibia’s problem of cronyism and corruption in general is a syndicate that cuts across the entire political spectrum, so we are not even surprised that the opposition has become complicit in the grand-scale thievery schemes.
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