Alexactus T Kaure
Two weeks ago, The Namibian published a very moving article on the Russian war on Ukraine titled: ‘Namibians, Where is Your Outrage? Where is Your Support?’ The
author said: “The invasion has had huge consequences for the global economy, and also for us here in Namibia because it has had an impact on energy and food prices. Yet, no one in Namibia – least of all the government – protests at the invasion.
Instead, sympathy seems to be more with the Russians.” My piece today is a personal answer/response to that article. I must say, and proudly so, that I am one of the few,
if there are others, who never waiver on political principles. Well before Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I posed the question: “Is Vladimir Putin a Tribalist?” (The Namibian, 2014). That was the time that Putin’s Russia went on to annex Crimea on the pretext that the majority there were Russian-speaking.
Thus, the “crisis” that has been going on in Ukraine for more than a year now must be understood within a tribal context, which has been fuelled and sponsored by Putin by playing the Russian tribal card. He has easily annexed Crimea by sponsoring a referendum, which everybody knew the Russian-speaking majority was going to win.
The author of that article should not expect any
support from either the Namibian
government nor from the South African government. ‘Leave Nam out of Ukraine-Russia war, Geingob tells Europe’ was one newspaper headline. President Hage Geingob has sternly told European Union (EU) commissioners that they cannot force Namibia to take sides. Namibia's position on the war remains neutral, he told the EU commissioners when they met at State House some few weeks ago.
Our leaders are totally compromised politically and morally-speaking. They are now the new puppets.
That is the language they used to use against others during the struggle years. They are puppets of both China and Russia. Both Namibia and South Africa were among other 24 African countries that did not condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As an aside, it
is the same Geingob’s government which voted against, what they termed, a Western-led Uyghur motion.
Namibia also abstained from voting on the adoption of the United Nations’ resolution 'The responsibility to protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes,
ethnic cleansing and crimes against
humanity'. It was one of the countries which abstained, while 115 voted in favour. And former Windhoek mayor and a decolonial scholar and activist,
Job Amupanda, criticised Namibia for not
voting for adopting the resolution, seeing
that Namibia suffered one of the worst
genocides in history. The resolution states that prevention remains crucial, and
atrocity prevention should be integrated into all relevant fields of the work of the UN history. He said abstaining is tantamount to voting against such a resolution.
Our comrades seem to have very short memories, or they are just playing it dumb. They have easily forgotten that the WCG, composed of the then five Western member countries of the Security Council, devised the plan for a transition to independence embodied in Resolution 435.
Back to Ukraine. We are told that Russia offered Namibia fuel, and also said it would supply ‘poor’ African countries with 500 000 tonnes of grain and wheat free of charge. And that was good enough reason for Namibia
to abstain on a vote calling for Putin to withdraw from Ukraine.
Put this in our own context, if you will. There is this African Union ‘Agenda of Silencing
the Guns in Africa’, and here you have 24 African countries which did not condemn Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and they also abstained on a resolution that should have gone a long way towards silencing the guns in Ukraine.
Is this double standard
or pure stupidity?
As we are writing now, China, Russia and South Africa were involved in naval drills and combat exercise at Mosi II, which coincided with the first anniversary of Russia’s aggressive and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The South African government calls this “skills transfer”. I am saying you are celebrating the weapons of mass destruction that are destroying Ukraine. Technology is never transferred. It is stolen; ask the Chinese on this.
Just like the Namibian government, the South African government is also said to be ‘neutral’ on the Russia-Ukraine war. That is why the hawkish Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited South Africa on invitation. Lavrov met his South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor – minister of international relations and cooperation – where both reiterated their call for reform in the world order. Now here comes one of the most disingenuous speeches one can make. While in South Africa, Lavrov told the media that: “Our countries strongly advocate for a more fair, inclusive, democratic and polycentric architecture of the world order, based on the respect for the sovereign equality of all states.” That is a statement coming from the mouth of a man whose own country is busy destroying another sovereign nation - that is Ukraine - whose borders have been recognised by the United Nations. Back to
the question: Namibians, where is your outrage? Where is your support? I am
afraid this is not forthcoming. Our President is playing the role of a referee in a soccer match – but even a referee can give a red card.
So, it is hard to get this government off the fence. It is sitting there on the fence like a bird singing the song of neutrality – “we are Namibians, we are neutral, and we do not care about the people of Ukraine or the Uyghur people.” And so is the same with the South African government, which some few years ago could not give the Dalai Lama a visa to visit South Africa because of pressure from the Chinese government. Our leaders are politically captured by Russia and China.