Kae MaÞunÿu-Tjiparuro
AS the year 2014 comes to a close thus heralding 2015, one cannot be sure what this year has been all about and if there is anything to be excited about except for one’s unfulfilled resolutions and dreams that eluded us.
As much there seems little about the year 2015 to look forward to except the habitual new year’s resolutions and dreams. This is not to say 2014 did not have epochs of its own kind. One of these being perhaps the marking of the end of a beginning of an end in terms of the Namibian political landscape.
As much as the President-Elect Dr Hage Geingob may be seen and regarded as one of the old guards, thus ensuring continuity and legacy during his tenure, the flipside of such continuity and legacy is that nonetheless he may be a different kettle of the old guard. If only for the fact that he sees and is seen in certain quarters as being more of an intellectual of a kind. This alone may bode relatively well and it may promise not business as usual if he is to continue to live up to this accolade of a quintessential intellectual.
Of course, he is a technocrat of some hue, that is undoubted. In this regard the semblance of continuity and legacy aside, technocracy as a measurable ingredient of his governance is guaranteed.
And as a corollary the bureaucratic trappings notwithstanding, his administration is expected and bound to achieve some measure of efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness. But such in hindsight with some measure of caution given the proverbial proof of the pudding being in the eating.
Nevertheless some expectations of some excitement may be in order in the five years that lie ahead in terms of the administration of Dr Geingob.
Similarly as much as the fresh and young blood seems to have been infused in the next parliament is circumspect, in view of experience. Still the masses they are meant to serve, may and could just as well rely on their zealousness and out-of-the-box and extraordinary ways of politicking, if not deviant mode of conducting parliamentary affairs albeit not to the extent of copycatting the theatricals that have been unfolding lately in the southern neighbour’s parliament. But again the proof of the pudding is in the eating, especially in view of the fact these young parliamentarians may be cautious not to rock the boat, and thereby bite the hand that feeds them, should ulterior drives and motivations other then the the noble calling of public serve be at play, like it has been the case during the greater if not most of the times of the previous parliaments with the exception of few sessions, and a few honourables.
The Nationally Assembly elections end November have equally not produced anything awe-inspiring in terms of the honourables on the other side of the house except for some recycling and reshufflings. Some of the members on the other side of the house returning, needless to say, need to up their game from the word go if they in any way are to make up for the quantity and quality that seem to have been greatly wanting in major measures.
But the litmus test whether the trustees of the peoples’ mandate can live by the mandate of making a difference in the lives of many wretched of the Namibian society, thereby making Namibian democracy a materially fulfilling one, cannot be left to such trustees solely but civil society must all the way be the vigilantes to ensure such a mandate is carried through in the letter and spirit of the votes that have been cast. But all in all, perhaps one can have at last have a brief respite this presumably new political season albeit cautiously so in that the only permanent thing is change itself. But let 2015 be the beginning of an end and the beginning of a new beginning!