EDITORIAL: Deny it all you want
President Hage Geingob’s office will empty its ink tanks issuing denialist statements on who he supports or doesn’t support ahead of congress.
Naturally, we do not expect the presidency to put up its hand and admit it burned the midnight oil devising strategies in support of Candidate A or B. That would destroy the entire current public relations stunt that paints the president as a man with no horse in this race.
That Geingob won’t publicly endorse any candidate ahead of congress is probably true. And that’s squarely because that candidate is not Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, his one-time running mate. So, the safest policy is silence.
What cannot be true, though, is the pretence that he doesn’t prefer any of the candidates over others. Of course he does, but he will never admit to that fact publicly. And correctly so.
He must be seen to be neutral, which is unfair because he cannot be non-aligned. He is a human being like any other, with all his senses intact. It is those senses that would sway him into the corner of one candidate or the other.
But in the broader scheme of things, the Geingob pretence of neutrality is commendable. It’s for political convenience rather than conviction and principle, but he still deserves a pat on the back for holding back words he so badly wants to spit out about his preferred candidate.
Naturally, we do not expect the presidency to put up its hand and admit it burned the midnight oil devising strategies in support of Candidate A or B. That would destroy the entire current public relations stunt that paints the president as a man with no horse in this race.
That Geingob won’t publicly endorse any candidate ahead of congress is probably true. And that’s squarely because that candidate is not Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, his one-time running mate. So, the safest policy is silence.
What cannot be true, though, is the pretence that he doesn’t prefer any of the candidates over others. Of course he does, but he will never admit to that fact publicly. And correctly so.
He must be seen to be neutral, which is unfair because he cannot be non-aligned. He is a human being like any other, with all his senses intact. It is those senses that would sway him into the corner of one candidate or the other.
But in the broader scheme of things, the Geingob pretence of neutrality is commendable. It’s for political convenience rather than conviction and principle, but he still deserves a pat on the back for holding back words he so badly wants to spit out about his preferred candidate.
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