EDITORIAL: Courts should stay out of politics
Views expressed by Namibian scholar Dr Ndjodi Ndeunyema on the suspicious incarceration of opposition activist Michael Amushelelo are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise muddied persecution.
The arrest of Amushelelo – and even keeping him in police custody prior to bail application processes – are not the most worrying factor. True, it must concern all of us when our police are being used as pawns for partisan political battles, but when this stretches to our judiciary, every citizen of sound mind must be perturbed.
In his brilliantly-articulated opinion piece published in Namibian Sun this week, Ndeunyema accentuated the role of courts in a constitutional democracy, where fundamental rights are jealously guarded in law.
Amushelelo is paying the price for his often ill-tamed tongue, but courts have no business poking their noses in his political fights. The High Court in particular has a legal and moral obligation to safeguard citizens against persecution by those with power and control of state security apparatuses.
Amushelelo is no saint. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But there is little weight to what happened on 21 March to warrant his protracted and costly incarceration.
The fact that he was arrested at a march where young people sought to highlight their joblessness on the most important day on our national calendar is symbolically and sentimentally an indictment on the government of the day.
The arrest of Amushelelo – and even keeping him in police custody prior to bail application processes – are not the most worrying factor. True, it must concern all of us when our police are being used as pawns for partisan political battles, but when this stretches to our judiciary, every citizen of sound mind must be perturbed.
In his brilliantly-articulated opinion piece published in Namibian Sun this week, Ndeunyema accentuated the role of courts in a constitutional democracy, where fundamental rights are jealously guarded in law.
Amushelelo is paying the price for his often ill-tamed tongue, but courts have no business poking their noses in his political fights. The High Court in particular has a legal and moral obligation to safeguard citizens against persecution by those with power and control of state security apparatuses.
Amushelelo is no saint. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But there is little weight to what happened on 21 March to warrant his protracted and costly incarceration.
The fact that he was arrested at a march where young people sought to highlight their joblessness on the most important day on our national calendar is symbolically and sentimentally an indictment on the government of the day.
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Namibian Sun
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