Namibian people should never forget 21 March 1990. It was on that day, after over a hundred years ago, that Namibia at last raised its flag, inaugurated its first President and sworn in many of us as ministers of an independent sovereign Namibia.
This year, 2020, we celebrate 30 years of independence as a free and sovereign nation. With this in mind, I think we should sit back and seriously think about how we are going to develop our country and make Namibia a country where we all will live in peace and prosperity. These positive changes can be achieved through revolutionary actions based on special mental qualities possessed by those who have foresighted progressive ideas. The process of change does not just spring up on its own, but it comes gradually when people have adjusted to it over a period of time. Change demands special qualities by those whom it will affect.
The reality is that at times people grow accustomed to situations under which they live. What was once an abnormal situation then becomes normal to them and they are no longer terrified and go on living as though their situation has always been normal. For example, young black people who live in sub-standard black locations were not worried and went on living in what they perceived to be normal since they grew accustomed to those conditions.
Therefore, the change should not only be perceived but it must be experienced for people to become aware and be able to mark the change as good or bad when they look back at where they came from. It is therefore necessary for political revolution to bring about positive socio-economic change where people will live a better life. That is the change of mind which a socio-economic revolution must bring and that is the Namibia we have to dream about.
The positive changes and the liberation of our people from poverty is still to come. And surely, it will come. Such change has to come through determined actions based on policies by our government. It is up to us to turn Namibia into a country where all people enjoy a prosperous, successful, rich and peaceful life. In this sense, the future of this country is in our hands and we all must be committed to bringing about fundamental revolutionary change which will enable us to have in place political and socio-economic formations which are intended to benefit the post-colonial society in a revolutionary independent Namibia. Such real and progressive transformation of the country is not easily achieved but the success can only be realized through united and committed revolutionary actions.
As a freedom fighter of my country, I personally visualise a country where our people will never again be trapped in horrendous suffering as was imposed on them by the colonial regimes. Our protracted struggle had reached the point of no return to crisis in which our people were forced to live, by people who left their countries to come and occupy our land.
We should all strive to have not only a reduction or ameliorating of the effects of colonialism but totally destroy the horror these colonial regime subjected us to. Our actions do not only entail the keeping of political power, but seriously shaping and developing the economy to progressively improve our living conditions and collectively to determine the way a society we desire to be. The reform of what colonial forces left behind will be meaningless without progressive processes of bringing about fundamental changes and development which is essential to our country and its people.
The change and development is far better than just working only on reforms which are based on what was left behind by colonialists and which were designed to maintaining and keeping colonialism. Sometimes, such behaviour might just be like accepting colonial legacy, albeit in a different guise and it will not bring about revolutionary transformation.
When many of our people are inspired by what we want to achieve, then surely a revolutionary change will be inevitable. Those who do not want us to succeed will therefore drive themselves into a corner of failure. The revolutionary minded people are those who know that the change which does not destroy the evils of the past is meaningless and illusionary. Therefore our aim should always be to not only ameliorate or reduce the suffering and bad conditions of life to which our people were subjected but to totally and entirely destroy such conditions. Such a change should be thorough and revolutionary.
We should always remember that exploitation and tyranny of colonialism forced us to take up arms and fight, but now we have another war against poverty and misery of our people. This war does not need arms but can be carried out with the joint efforts of our people. We have to intensify this struggle side by side with masses of our people through determined peaceful labour.
Our fight against poverty and under development of the country with shying away from political disunity will end up in the socio-economic development of our country.
Let me conclude by saying that all of us must unite and engage ourselves in the struggle to defeat the last and stubborn enemy, which is poverty of our people. Unity will bring socio-economic revolutionary transformation of the society and will liberate our people from misery of under development and poverty. Let us not forget that our struggle for independence was long and bitter and all of us living in unity and harmony will enable us to achieve sustainable progressive development for the benefit of all Namibian citizens.
It is a fact that our government has always been serious about this but all of us as citizens of this country which was under colonial rule for over a hundred years must unite in order to achieve this revolutionary transformation.