With the Presidential and National Assembly elections set to be held within the next two weeks and with political campaigns in full swing, New Era senior journalist, Albertina Nakale had an interview with the Congress of Democrats (CoD) president, Ben Ulenga who shared his views on some of the burning issues such as land, social injustice and the inequitable distribution of wealth.
NE: In your election manifesto you said you want values that will replace current trends of self-interests, self-enrichment and elitism. How are you going to eradicate the said self-enrichment and elitism?
BU: The self-enrichment and elitism is obvious. I am from the struggle era. When we fought for liberation and freedom of this country, there was no educated or un-educated. I was on Robbin Island, the man that I slept next to had hardly gone to school. He was my comrade and we had the same meeting. These people are now forgotten and a few, perhaps small little groups of people have come together and have formed elite groups and they circulate tenders among themselves. The vast majority including the working people, who also directly participated and can proudly say they brought about the liberation struggle are poor, as poor can be. That kind of situation can be addressed by government playing a more transparent role because those enriching themselves are well-known and not hidden. Right now government can say we have a open and transparent policy, but the fact of the matter, we don’t know what is in the bank accounts of Mr So and So who is in government, or a son, a mother, a daughter, cousins, relatives of those in power.”
NE: And does CoD have capacity and political will to change the perceived self-enrichment and elitism?
BU: “We have the political will and capacity is also built. Like in Oshiwambo they say, “Ohaakala noluhozi lumwe”(loosely translated, everything starts small) so the CoD is definitely prepared. For example I have political will when I walked away from Swapo because it is corrupt and I will always have it and nobody can take it away from me. The more we show that we are prepared to go an extra mile, the more people who are ready to serve this country will work with us to take Namibia forward.”
NE: How differently to Swapo are you going to pursue land and agrarian reform to ensure optimal utilisation of agricultural land for the benefit of all Namibians?
BU: Swapo Party history over the 24 years has been very disappointing. You know from the early days of the struggle, when we said we want to liberate the country and the land, we meant to say the land must be taken away from those who have it and be re-distributed, full stop and that is how it should happen. We must not do it secretively, otherwise we are stabbing those who do not have it in the back. We must do it openly and in good faith. We must tell everyone in the country because it is not fair. Historic injustices have been carried out in the past and people have been killed in war and murdered through genocides, those historic injustices must be corrected. I will preach from the mountain top. I said it once and I will say it again so everyone can hear that those who acquired land through unjust means must know I have nothing against anybody. I love everyone equally and we just want to apply equity, social justice and correct historical wrongs and injustices. This government has power but no political will to carry out what they preach. We preached from the mountain top when we were in Swapo that the land must be returned to the landless and people will trained how to farm. And now look what is happening, people even have to struggle to get a piece of land to build a shack on and when they do it on their own, their shacks are destroyed. Can you imagine? What a shame!”
NE: Have you formulated a model for such change?
BU: “The political model is there. What we are saying is that what is happening now is wrong. Of course the CoD has a model. We hope Namibians will trust the CoD, and once we come to power, you shall see wonders.”
NE: From your point of view what are some of the shortcomings or deficiencies in the current land resettlement exercise?
BU: The government talks about willing buyer-willing seller. That means they are leaving the land resettlement and reform to the market force system. It should not be left to market forces because if you want to get land through the market process, you will not be able to afford it. We need to expropriate land like the Constitution allows it. If it says for the common good, expropriation will be permissible, what more is common good than the exercise to try to get land to more Namibians than is the situation right now? So that is what must happen, what is wrong now is the willing-seller, willing-buyer system. Not only is the queue too long, there are people who have put their names down since 1993 and this is 2014 down the line and most of them are now in their graves already without getting any land. Land has ended up in the hands of those already who have land – the elites. What kind of system is that where a single person has three different pieces of land while there are thousands of others who cannot acquire even a single piece of land?”
NE: You also said you will advocate for the equitable distribution of resources to all the regions? How are you going to do that differently from what the Swapo government is going about bringing equitable change?
BU: “The Swapo government is not re-distributing resources. There is no equitable change, people have become poorer. It is only those who have become the elite. You can see a small group of adults and their children who have received tenders driving Land Rovers and all those big American and Japanese vehicles. Many schools in furthest areas do not have resources, not even electricity, but in schools in the centres like Swakopmund and Windhoek, they are well equipped and that is an example how resources are not equally distributed. ”
NE: You have been calling for a paper trail to be incorporated into EVMs but it is not obvious this recommendation will not be accommodated are you content with this arrangement of not having paper trails incorporated into EVMs?
BU: “Of course I am not content with this arrangement. I am not the only one who has been calling for a paper trail, even those in government. Even in India through courts there have been a call for a paper trail for EMV’s to be sufficient. I am not a prophet of doom, but I really pray to God that no (political) disaster happens. Because If we hear that one machine disappears or is stolen, then you will see what’s going on. We do not want to keep on going back to court with cases arising from elections, we want to have a free, transparent and fair elections. But how can you have it if you don’t have paper trails?”
NE: There have been a number of challenges in the current education system, can you point out these shortcomings?
BU: The shortcomings are everywhere, from left, right and centre. I went to school in this country. The first day in my secondary school, I was hardly seated for 20 minutes, but when I looked on my table, all the textbooks that I needed for that year were in front of me. The teacher who spoke to us was hard at work teaching us. But now every young person I am talking to in Namibia say when they start school for the first three weeks they are just running around. So in the first place there is just no political will.
There is less teaching and the textbooks are just not there. I have learned in my young days that no person of average intelligent can fail grade 12, there is no way you can tell me the children fail because they are stupid or less intelligent. The people failing the children is the system, parents, but most of all the government by not providing enough. Everywhere you look is just problems; the money, equipment, libraries and laboratories are not enough and children are failing grade 10.”
NE: You have not been very visible on the campaign trail, what are the challenges that you have faced?
BU: We have been visible enough given the (financial) resources we have. Remember this year alone, the CoD received N$400 000 from the state to run the party, not the elections and Swapo got N$22 million if not more from the state, I am not talking about the money from other party supporters or those who want to buy favours with government. Now really, in the mind of anybody and those who are supposed to be candidates, do you really think we are playing equal cards here? How can you ask people to take part in the same system and you give some N$22 million while others did not even get a single million, do you think it’s fair? I would say we tried our best. Let the election come and Namibians will vote as they wish.”
NE: What do you think will be your chances in this election do you expect to get more seats, what is you prediction?
BU: “Namibians will decide on that one, I don’t have to make any prediction.”