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The pursuit of inner-party democracy in Swapo

2017-09-08  Staff Report 2

The pursuit of inner-party democracy in Swapo
Recent events regarding the road to the Swapo congress, social media attacks on one another, conferences engulfed by physical altercations and many other activities that render our party instruments (constitution, rules and procedure etc.) redundant, have caught my attention. Long term sustainable success is usually achieved when the foundations (anchors) of the institution or organisations is protected. I was under the impression that in a democratic political party the various positions like president, vice-president, secretary-general etc. are filled by elections process. The candidates who are willing to occupy the chair should contest elections and the winner occupies the position. It is true that if the high command favours a candidate, the members opt for him and he gets elected (not selected) to occupy the position. Once, he occupies the position, irrespective of voting, all the members should support the elected candidate. That is democracy. It appears that there is a new song sang in town, a song that has no title just a chorus ‘endorse and endorsement’. The song has no lyrics but a chorus ‘endorse and endorsement’. Nobody seems to know by whom or what the song was sang, however there are a number of wings flying this chorus called endorse and endorsement. My first thought is, if endorsement is not a song but just a chorus with no song, then let’s apply the political philosophy only to realise that it’s unheard of in democratic set up such as this of ours. Reluctantly, I perused some of our instruments available to me – the constitution, political program, manifesto, directives etc. I could not find anything. I was left to wonder that perhaps it is a contemporary democratic innovation. I asked myself why our stalwarts are not providing guidance or leadership on this democratic violation. When you consider the sheer volume of material and activities around this hype regarding President Hage Geingob one would realise that we, the younger generation, are guilty of endorsing this cordial hypocrisy out of fear or loyalty. The question is how sustainable is this strategy? How ethical is it to turn a blind eye to a fundamental process that is the core of our modern era political philosophy. I don’t know if that really reflects our state of affairs, however what is not questionable is that automatic endorsement contradicts the values of our inner party democracy. I would like to think that there are more alternative options available, such as a debate about succession planning. In my opinion, the country needs two centres of power. I believe that the president of Swapo should not be the president of the country. The foundation is within our instruments, all we need is create a platform for us to talk about it intellectually. I am calling for this because I don’t belong to this or that faction. I speak my mind and I am only in bed with the party constitution. Hence I protest the chorus of automatic endorsement without fear. Looking at our sister party, the ANC, maybe we need to have that as a basis to debate around two centres of power. I frankly don’t think that we should bequeath the next generation with precedents of endorsements that we have not researched or debated about democratically. Where and how do we go about growing in our party without being associated with cliques and factions? I sincerely am thirsty for a better value system within our party. As a delegate to congress I think I am not alone to request that the campaign should be declared open so that we all can participate knowing exactly what we are dealing with. Our ethics should be to uphold the values of sustainable development foundations of democracy - free and fair election. Authentic leadership should be about authentic values and I hold up my hand to confirm that I too have room for improvement, however let’s consider the values of trust when we are suggesting that the top four positions of our party must be subjected to selection and not election. I cry my beloved party for the pursuit of inner party democracy. Congress is one activity in many activities of our party and if we could only apply the same zeal during the congress off season we would have been far ahead of our challenges. I believe there is hope for us to still restore the value system as well as the ethics that are on a downward spiral. Again I call for the likes of Comrades Jerry Ekandjo, Helmuth Angula, Nahas Angula, Theo Ben Gurirab, Ben Amadhila, Netumbo Ndaitwa, Rosalia Ngidinua, Eunice Ipinge, Sara K Amadhila and many more other comrades, including Yours Truly, to make themselves available for the top four position in the party and help safeguard our democratic values. Also, we must not forget the strategic succession planning that must be bolstered by understudies to ensure sustainable maintenance of our party. Though the campaign has not been declare open yet, I must state here that I am available for any of the positions that comrades feel that I can entrusted with. This call is democratic, ethical and, most importantly, it adheres to the call of succession planning. Let us pursue inner party democracy and vote for all the positions in our party.
2017-09-08  Staff Report 2

Tags: Khomas
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