THE bashing and ridiculing of Dr Hage Geingob seems to have become a fashionable media trend of late, well-timed, just three months before the presidential and parliamentary elections comparable in magnitude and scope only to the 1990 independence elections, with some opposition parties jumping on the bandwagon, making strange bedfellows with neo-liberal overlords of selective morality, chaos-order doctrinists, and their as usual ignoramus local minions, who lap up any dish served to them without logical reasoning or questioning.
There is a saying that fair play or honour, even in politics requires that we should rather play the ball and not the player. Once you play the player, the referee can either give you a yellow or red card depending on the severity of the foul or the frequency thereof.
Similarly, in politics playing the player rather than the ball may produce all sorts of yellow and red cards, except that unlikely in soccer the ones in politics may produce real life-threatening sanctions and consequences.
Countries have gone up in flames in the past and are also burning now just because of the politics of misguidedness.
We are aware that the natural law requires that for every reaction there should be a counter reaction: conventional wisdom puts it even better, stating that he who lives by the sword shall be devoured by the sword, or the one who plays with a fireball will be consumed by the fire.
The utility of the fireball allegory, would neatly dovetail with the order out of chaos strategists who posit that the best way to reform a country as per one’s design is to create chaos and mayhem and afterwards step in to recreate the country after one’s own “god-like image and design,” something which is impossible in normal circumstances such as under the current post-independence SWAPO government.
If one reads all sorts of various SMS’s conveniently packaged under a Hage Geingob caption, caricature cartoons and editorials week after week, covering the longest running story of last month the “infamous” Soccer Cup Finals attendance in Brazil, and now the alleged power grabbing through “rushed” constitutional amendments, one may wonder with amazement and shock how Dr Geingob of yesterday, well-known for his no-nonsense stern discipline, straightforwardness, administrative dexterousness, commitment to Christian values, and a democratic all inclusive society, had all of a sudden metamorphosed into a bogey man of all sorts, a potential dictator and wasteful stereotype leader of the old school magnitude and infamy of the sixties, seventies and eighties in Africa!
In fact, one of the media editorials of last Friday claims that the Prime Minister (Geingob) has indeed changed, “he is no longer the same man.”
Whoa! Someone has clearly borrowed a leaf from the American CIA classical textbook of propaganda and character assassination.
If this is not the same balderdash propaganda dished out a few years back when we were told that America was going into Iraq to remove permanently the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and or just a year back when we were told that America was going into Libya to free the Libyans from slaughter by the “crazy” Muammar Gadhafi, l will be shocked.
Well, did any of us see the WMD, or has the world become a better place after the Gadhafi cold-blooded murder in the name of international humanism, for the children, women, teenagers, and the elderly been slaughtered daily in Libya or Iraq?
As we speak, are these countries not burning in war, being redesigned at the costs of the citizens, who can’t hardly understand why they have to suffer so much?
This should be a good lesson for us as Namibians, to be careful in lending our ears to all sorts of stories and reviling in our condemnation of the person and character of Geingob, just because someone started feeding us some exotic sounding fables in some newspapers or social media and created an entire hype, a smokescreen, resembling a veneer of truth around it. Please remember, it is not all truth which presents itself as such which is indeed truth. After all, does the Bible not caution Christians, of whom we have 95 percent in Namibia to be careful as even the devil does present himself as the angel of light?
Dr Hage Geingob is a leader with an impeccable revolutionary track record.
A tried and tested Cadre of the SWAPO Party, a man who under the equally able leadership of Dr Sam Nujoma, the founding President, and President Hifikepunye Pohamba authored the concept of National Reconciliation, the Anti-Corruption Commission and so many other institutions under whose shadows we are currently basking.
The very tenets of democracy that we are today boasting about, the very institutions managing our State indeed are direct inventions of Dr Geingob and the SWAPO collective leadership.
In addition to be a transparent multiculturalist, generous to the core, he is a modern heavyweight reformist leader so much ahead of his time: a visionary progressive developmentalist, whose value-addition capital to Namibia without doubt should enable the country to reach the dizzying skies of progress, unheralded in its post-independence history.
Not to speak of his massive contributions to the liberation struggle, or as the 1st Prime Minister, his recent feats only within three years at the Ministry of Trade and Industry are indeed phenomenal e.g. Establishment of the SME Bank, distribution of equipment to thousands of needy hard-working Namibian SMEs, standing up against the big European Union and winning the Economic Partnership Battle, hands down. So just when did he metamorphose into flamboyancy, irresponsibility, and a potential backward dictator bogey man?
Does anyone still remember when some, with due respect “revered and spotlessly clean” leaders and even misguided sections of the media, whose courage were fast crumbling under the demands and demonstrations of a minority “so-called children of the liberation struggle” (there is only one Namibian youth, and they are all offspring of the liberation struggle) were strongly advocating for these “Youth of the liberation struggle” to be designated as a “special class” to receive “special, differential, nice” treatment while the majority of youths in Namibia would continue under the “not special” category and receive not even the crumbs after the special class is done? Which leader bravely stood up against the storm, and unequivocally said NO THAT WOULD BE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE REST OF OUR NAMIBIAN YOUTH, and therefore all as NAMIBIAN YOUTHS should have equal access to jobs and opportunities in Namibia?
Well in case you forgot it was Geingob and his lone voice supported by President Hifikepunye Pohamba, and Founding Father, Dr Sam Nujoma, became the mainstream.
We can continue ad infinitum, but for now it suffices that all sober minded and right thinking Namibians out there should know Geingob is the man of destiny for Namibia.
Currently no one is better equipped as he to take over the Office of the President and move us out of the doldrums of mediocrity which has become the norm, tribal narrow-mindedness, corruption, and all isms of backwardness which are wrecking the nation building project.
Let his call that “No Namibian should be or feel left out” from opportunities become the rallying cry with which we should all support him against the current unfounded yet well-orchestrated propaganda onslaught against the best hope he epitomizes to all Namibians big and small to have their rightful place under the sun with dignity. He is the best embodiment of the Namibian hope and dream for the current and future generations, or can you think or see any other, more upright, courageous and intellectually attuned potential presidential material? Of course, yes he is not infallible, no man is, not even the Pope can be equated to God. He is of flesh and blood, with feelings, likes and dislikes, friends and family, and just like you and me he is sometimes prone to make mistakes, but nevertheless indisputably the best political leader of the times.
Let it never be a lone battle for him against those who want the country to carry on in careerist tribalistic rhetoric and actions, corruption, poor State service delivery, violence against women and children, and minority economic hegemony, excluding the majority of honest hard working Namibians. Therefore, we call on you, the rank and file supporters and also fellow leaders, not only within SWAPO but from the entire society and country, since his constituency is the entire Namibians, white or black, Zambezian, Damara, Herero, Kavango, Oshiwambo, Tswana, blind, deaf, cripple or albino, to rise and stand with Dr. H.G.
Let your voice be heard, your support be tangible, until the battle for the inclusivity of all Namibians is won conclusively: this is the legacy that Dr.H.G will bequeath to Namibia, but it is under threat and we should rise to defend it before the opportunistic and nihilistic tribal Hitlerites, the superiority drunk profiteering neo-liberals and failed armchair neo-socialists can combine their strengths and capture the soul of the State through vilification and deceptive propaganda, just as they did in Libya, Iraq and many other countries, only to leave the masses with coarse sand instead of honey in their mouths.
Let us go to the polls and vote in our millions for Dr Hage Geingob and the SWAPO Party, a tested, proven and reliable man of the people, for Change, Development, and Prosperity for all Namibians.
Citizen for Progress