One person-one vote, or what is generally referred to as free and fair elections, is not and cannot be the last word on democracy, just as free and fair elections is not the first expression of good governance in the history of human civilization. There was something before. Human beings had systems of governance, some bad others better, long before voting was introduced as a mechanism to determine succession in political leadership. Some of the people who ruled civilizations without being elected by voting were excellent leaders and creators of systems. Even today, there are systems that work for the benefit of the greatest number of people who are served by these systems without the vote. The kings and emperors in the modern world are and were accepted as legitimate by those ruled in such societies. It just so happens that in today’s world, after societies have changed significantly from what they used to be in the pre-modern days, voting or the moments of allowing all and each member of voting age in a democratic society to participate in determining who takes over leadership is the only game in town. But it is by no means the best!
The whole purpose of elections is to bestow legitimacy, authority and power upon a new leader or cohort of leaders in circumstances that are not traditional. In traditional societies, such as African rulerships, the king was born into the position by hereditary rights. In some societies the ruler ascended to the throne through the father and others through the mother’s lineage. In essence, this is how succession politics was managed and conflict mitigated. Leadership was determined by association, that is, members of the community knew that a child who was to be born to this man or this woman was universally accepted as the ruler. The rules of the game were so clear that when birth was announced, succession was sorted out. This is the case currently in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Norway, Swaziland and Lesotho, to mention but a few. It was common practice in Afrika that kings were known to be kings even before they were born. In the event that there were different contestants who qualified equally for the position, the matter of succession was determined at birth. The midwives who presided over the birth of prospective rulers would watch for signs at the birth of each baby and depending upon their observation, they would advise the royal family that a certain baby came out, for example with one eye open, or without a cry, or stayed in the mother’s womb a few months longer, or the cows came to sleep too close to the hut, or it never stopped to rain with thunder for days or some such rare occurrence, and that said that the baby was ready to lead his people. That occurrence removed any contestation amongst the siblings about leadership. This also prevented the potential successor from declining such a charge in the future, and the socialization of such child commenced at once to prepare him/her for rulership.
Our modern world has lost the relationship to this and these symbolisms, important though they were then, have lost their currency and would be totally out of context today. Our context shifted significantly with the colonial experience that threw Afrika’s own self-development out of shape and gave Afrika a new start altogether, namely the fact that our leadership is determined by the struggle for independence and freedom from colonialism. In other words, the leaders we have today would not have been leaders if it were not for colonialism because they are not there by birthright. They are not from royal families. This means that the situation in which we find ourselves is completely untraditional and is based upon a social contract – the constitution of the Republic of Namibia. Our leaders need no longer to draw from what would have been traditional, tribal or ethnic or linguistic constituencies. Namibia is their constituency. None of us would be where we are today had it not been for colonialism.
It must be pointed out that throughout its history, Afrikan societies were always traumatized at times of succession. In fact part of the difficulty that most Afrikan countries suffer from today in the sense that almost no election in Afrika goes without being contested, is the fact that Afrikans never managed succession well in history. When these associations referred to above did not produce a long-lasting result and there were contestants to the throne from the same family, one of them had to leave the territory and start a kingdom elsewhere or die. Cases in point are what we went through not too long ago with the Ovambanderu succession debacle that led to the suicide of King Kaharanjo, and the Goliath’s still continuing succession troubles in the south. There are cases like this on the Afrikan continent. The most illustrious of the Afrikan conundrum is the fact of the biggest Christian in Afrika, the Zionist Christian Church (ZCC) in Limpopo which was started by Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane. When Lekganyane died, the two aspirants were in such difficulty that there are today two ZCC churches, one with the symbol of the star, and the other the dove.
I give this background to make the point that Namibia’s democratic uniqueness in Afrika lies in the manner in which the Namibian leaders since independence managed the difficult politics of succession. The Namibian leaders who drafted and crafted our mighty constitution are not given sufficient credit for the groundbreaking history they bequeathed not only unto us and the future generations of Namibia, but the whole continent and the entire human family aspiring to create democratic edifices. Here credit must go to the founding President and the Swapo leadership that steered this historical period. Here is what this means. Most political theories would instruct us that when the most important liberation movement received only 57% of the vote in the first all-race elections in the history of the country, Swapo, with its history of and as a liberation movement that was recognized under international law as the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people, had the option of going back to war. Instead, Swapo accepted what other liberation movements in the world would have taken as a humiliation. Swapo chose to communicate a magnanimous message to Namibia and the world, namely, that winning bigger will come later, after it demonstrated to the people who the true leaders were. And big Swapo did win in all the subsequent elections – 72% in 1994; 76% in 1999, 76% in 2004, 74% in 2009 and most certainly no less than 75% this time around. There is nothing that tells the story better than a track record!
The hallmark of democratic elections is not in the winning. It is not in the losing. It is in the participation of citizens and the acceptance of the outcome as binding upon all. Namibia’s lesson to Afrika and the world is not in holding free and fair elections. Everybody can have that. The genius of our democratic system is that we all accept the result. This spirit of acceptance, once again, owes its genesis to Swapo. This is the second time around that Swapo produced candidacy first from within its ranks that fight it out and the one that emerges as the winner of that intra-party democratic process becomes the candidate for the nation.
There are two sides to our success story as a nation and under the leadership of Swapo, which in many eyes remains the movement of the liberation struggle. On the one hand, the peace and stability we have are the critical factors that cause the world to hoist us way above other nations in Afrika. For this accomplishment, we owe our leaders who emerged from the 1989 Constituent Assembly our debt of gratitude for laying the solid foundations for the blanket of security under which we, all of us, sleep every night knowing that we shall be fine the following day. On the other we have become too comfortable with the governing party and through no fault of Swapo, Namibia has become a One-Party State. In this scenario Swapo is becoming a victim of its own success. A one-party state, by their very nature is a breeding ground for the disappearance of anything democratic. In the first place, those who govern in such parties become too complacent and begin to imbibe their own public relations and dissembling propaganda. Second, as leadership passes hands from cohort to cohort and generation to generation, the likelihood that the original intent of the founding fathers and mothers in Swapo is forgotten and people, human as they are, become oblivious of the bigger picture and fall prey to greed and avarice. We are already seeing signs that as young people take over, the spirit of the liberation struggle which was about service and the common good of all Namibians, assumes a secondary position to personal power and glory at the expense of the nation. This is where most of Afrika’s fall is – greed, selfishness, self-centeredness and self-glorification, in short, megalomania, of leaders who take over after the generation that liberated the country. Third, Namibians are as human as others are and vulnerable to the words of Lord Acton who cautioned Bishop Mandel Creighton of the Anglican Church in 1887 that ‘power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. This is the danger. Anybody, any party that operates with unfettered power and with no checks and balances is likely to be corruptible.
This scenario would be fine if those in power were properly groomed to rule, as philosopher-kings ala the Greek philosopher Plato in his recommendation of good rulers. This is where the biggest challenge lies for Swapo generally and the President-Elect in particular. Ideally the electoral college ought to have produced a reservoir of quality and most credible leaders for the next National Assembly from whom the next President will pick his team for the next Executive branch of the State. The universal opinion on this, however, is that the President-Elect will be saddled with a potpourri of not-yet-ready leaders as cabinet. The respect that Namibia enjoys in Afrika and the world is due to the leaders who introduced this nation to and who represented us thus far in their interactions with the world. Most people now are cringing when they imagine who will be the team to serve in the cabinet under one of the most capable leaders Afrika has seen since Kwame Nkrumah.
President-Elect Hage Geingob has the historical exposure and readiness, the administrative and executive experience, the presence, the intellectual fortitude, the right international knowledge and the appropriate adeptness to appreciate and lift up Namibia’s national interests. What he needs and must get, however, is the right team that can live out and take forward his vision of the Bold Namibia in the New Afrikan Renaissance. Having cut his teeth in the public life as a teacher, the President-Elect knows how important it is to have qualified people to drive his vision – Namibians with the right academic aptitude who can argue and debate national matters in the only official language we have; intellectual sharpness to think laterally and reason abstractly; emotional intelligence to understand vision, mission, strategy and tact in the enterprise of political leadership at national and international levels; and a non-partisan maturity to steward available resources in accord with national interests.
For instance, he needs a cabinet that understands how far we have come and where we are going as a nation. We must be brutally honest with ourselves in our wish that in order to reach our noble goals and our Grand Vision 2030, the cabinet will comprise people with at least the following basics: Grade 12, proper English communication, maturity to see the bigger picture beyond party; confidence to at times go against the grain and stand for principle; be uncompromising in the pursuit of the nation’s interest and in the spirit of the liberation struggle that required sacrifice rather expediency. Other things can be learned while on the job. We need the right calibre of leaders in today’s world wherein Namibia has to operate. The point is that one cannot unleash a team of qualified dentists to tackle an eye disease. They may be good at treating dental ailments, but not eyes.
Namibians have demonstrated a competency to manage a difficult past and turn odds into peace and stability; they made the country a better place compared to where it was before 1990. Today’s world and its challenges instruct us that particular situations require particular sets of leadership skills and competencies. Once again, the success story of the Namibian nation is not in holding peaceful elections per se, but in managing elections before, during and after the actual voting takes place. Above all, the greatest success in the Namibian political leadership is the existence of leaders with a willingness to hand over power peacefully. Like the late Myles Munroe always taught, the most important moment in a successful relay race, the stuff that leadership is all about, is when the baton is passed on from one runner to another. Thanks go to the Founding President, and the outgoing President for running a tremendous race, and knowing when and how to pass on the baton to complete the race.
The best story of peaceful transfer of political power in Afrika is here in the Land of the Brave!
This track record, this narrative of building a nation wherein all have equal opportunity, where no one is left out, is what Namibia is contributing to the Afrikan family. With this feather in our collective cap as a nation, we are bound to leave a legacy that will live on for generations to come such that the little we can do wherever we are and with the little spheres of influence that we have, will not be in vain. For what it is worth, those in the opposition formations must know that even though they lost, the Namibian nation has won. Even those who did not cast their vote for one reason or another won! We hope and trust that there shall be no unnecessary challenges to these elections so that we can move on, for the sake of our people in their diversity in the Zebra Nation. We have peace, security, stability, unity, justice, freedom, harmony and liberty for all Namibians – thanks to our leaders. This is the spirit with which we put our hands together and congratulate the President-Elect on his richly deserved victory and to all the members of our National Assembly.
The Namibia Institute for Public Administration and Management (NIPAM) stands ready to offer training for the new leaders in the areas where they need new skills and new competencies, such as Different Leadership Models and Styles, Strategic Thinking and Planning, English Communication, Financial Management, Computer Skills, Public Speaking and Rhetoric, Corporate Governance and Ethics and Emotional Intelligence. NIPAM’s training is tailored to meet the needs associated with differing responsibilities in Government. This is achieved by offering NIPAM’s flagship programmes for transformation of Namibia’s Public Sector together with generic and developmental courses.
We have come a long way, and we have reason to be grateful, and must have the courage and humility at the same time to say so. We have what it takes to be and do better as a nation. Twenty-five years of solid peace, stability and development. Omake to our leaders! Congratulations on this New Beginning! The time for cynicism, blame game and name-calling and blame is over. The time to assist where we can, serve where we must and offer constructive criticism is upon us. Duty is ours in God’s Events, and there is fierce urgency in the word NOW!
By joseph diescho