Something in me informs me that somehow the face leading the NSHR would have been more believable had it been that of a woman. Not just a woman, but a mother.
The reason I am saying this is the male ego factor.
When one looks at the most vulnerable sections of a society at war, it is always comprised of women, especially pregnant and lactating women, children, disabled persons and the elderly.
The conflict carriers are in most cases healthy, strong self-centred men with personal hidden agendas that threaten to undermine the interests and future of the collective.
I met a man who defined conflict as the distance between expectation and reality. Conflict will always be part of human existence because we were not created to be homogenous thinkers, but rather independent thinkers who challenge each other on concepts, theories, ideologies and philosophies even in the most basic human setting – the domestic household!
Those who get involved in peace-keeping operations globally and mediation in the corporate world will tell you the seriousness of what is called conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution is almost singularly a profession on its own due to the rate and intensity of conflict between peoples. As a result we then have people whom we call conflict carriers.
It is sad to see an organisation that is supposed to advance the rights of people through pursuing peace and harmony being responsible for fuelling conflict instead. No matter how sincere Phil ya Nangoloh can claim to be, he will have to accept the fact of being sincerely wrong in what he has done towards the Founding Father of the Nation and the nation itself.
The man and his organisation have actually betrayed Namibia by wanting to demonize it through targeting a revolutionary icon with the stature of Tate President Nujoma.
Agent Provocateur
The question that one can ask is whether such action comes from someone who is an agent provocateur. Agent provocateurs are usually employed by military, police or civilian intelligence to gauge responses to an idea, to expose what they might call agitators or to gauge the level of popular support for an organisation or individual.
Should this be the case, I believe whoever wanted to test the people’s respect, admiration and support for former President Nujoma got an unequivocal answer.
The answer has been so clear that even a law firm offered its services where they are not necessary as the entire submission to the ICC has been rubbished before it was made.
We are all children of one or other revolution and in this case it has been a political, social and economic revolution. This has taught us to be wary, careful and vigilant in our attitude towards the future of our lives at a personal and collective level.
It does not matter how antagonistic propaganda machinery can be against a popular mass-based political party which was a vanguard revolutionary organisation, as people will continue to support and respect it and its leaders.
Every revolution and all anthropological change will have casualties. It is no use personalizing the issues and trying to use platforms meant to serve the collective for personal agendas and vendettas.
SWAPO was not the one and only vanguard revolutionary organisation that was internationally recognized and respected at bilateral and multilateral fora, but it remains a trailblazer in advancing democracy through the two houses of parliament as per the constitution whose drafting and enacting it spearheaded.
This then allows SWAPO to be able to inform the nation of Namibia and the world that from revolutionary organisation to popular mass-based political party, the organisation now leads the democratic revolution in Namibia.
No matter what the prophets of doom, including Ya Nangoloh can say, this nation has been blessed with sober-minded, solid and committed proponents of peace who approached freedom very maturely. It is for that reason that we sleep well at night and eat well during the day.
Namibia is a land of abundance, of peace and what Namibia needs now is individuals who are forward thinking in their innovative ideas to develop the country and catapult her into her destiny. Namibia does not need to be hamstrung by a bunch of losers who remain frozen in time.
At the end of the day, who gives any youngster in Africa the right to take a finger and poke it into the eye of a parent? Is it democracy? I hope not because if that is democracy then I think that there has to be a better model somewhere that we need to discover.
I mean really man, the caution of the elders in this nation has been that we should show respect and I believe that is what it should be. Have we become too clever for our own elders and role models that we now want to despise them for things of the past?
I honestly believe that we should rather encourage the psyche of the Namibian nation to be dimensionalist where a dimensionalist is someone who is able to plan way ahead into the future before time catches up with those plans.
The nation needs wisdom, knowledge and understanding which are three biblical principals that can build, establish and prosper a nation. We do not need rabble rousers and provocateurs.
Some have even called for the Founding Father to answer for himself. How do you expect an elder statesman to answer a child throwing his toys out of the cot?
The ex-President has done well not to respond to a matter below his stature.
I do not believe that we should allow external hidden agendas of people to lure us into a trap where we become the tools and instruments and the hands of faceless people to undermine the stature and dignity of respected, popular African leaders under the guise of democracy.
Furthermore, to have the audacity and temerity to accuse revolutionaries who succeeded in bringing freedom to the nation of being double agents for internationally notorious civilian intelligence organizations is very mischievous and reckless.
One thing that we must remember on the continent is that our political sovereignty, our geographical borders and freedom will increasingly become threatened by the world’s new ‘Scramble for Africa’, the economic scramble.
The world wants, lusts for and needs our natural resources on both sea and land. The world will then employ whatever it has to, to lay hold of what is in our oceans and under our part of the earth.
Oh yes, the world will even destabilize our country or any other African country for that matter because of cobalt, gold, uranium, oil, diamonds and the like.
Now when one or a group of us allow ourselves to be used by such people, we then become the enemies of our own children’s future because we were short-sighted enough to swallow cheap propaganda that despises our leaders and governments.
SWAPO Friend
Not everyone who was a SWAPO ‘friend’ is necessarily a SWAPO government’s friend today. As men, as sane adults, I am sure that we have all been at a place where we were guilty of violating the rights of another human.
Phil, what about the Koevoet Caspirs that tied children in the north of Namibia to the front of the vehicle and drove through thorn bushes?
Man, what about those who jailed us and tortured us until we could not sit, stand or lie down without screaming from pain.
The thing that is frustrating many SWAPO antagonists and detractors is that SWAPO is refusing to dance to their tune.
There are some individuals and groups in our country and abroad who would like the SWAPO-led government to implement laws and policies that will advance their own selfish pursuance of material wealth at the expense of ordinary Namibians who voted SWAPO into power.
Whether people want to accept it or not, you cannot despise or ignore SWAPO as a popular mass-based political party.
Incidentally this will be the case for many years to come because even if you argue that SWAPO was unable to win a conventional war against the racist South African regime that illegally occupied Namibia, the fact of the matter is that SWAPO’s capacity and capability in guerrilla and urban warfare was advancing at a rapid pace that had UN Resolution 435 not been implemented when it was, the war sound of gunfire, bombs and missiles would have been the order of the day even in the capital Windhoek.
SWAPO’s political will and diplomatic savvy at a multilateral level prevented something you do not wish to imagine for this nation.
So let us not despise and underestimate the contribution and might of the ruling party in Namibia. I think some of us need to be careful whom we lend our ears to while sipping drinks with them.
Our continued desire in Namibia is to afford the men and women who are now our political and social elders the respect that they deserve and together with them to pursue Namibia’s economic interests both at home and abroad.
Satan
As a Christian I have come to learn that the devil who is known as Satan keeps people in the past because he himself has no future. This nation has a vision – Vision 2030 – it has a mission – poverty alleviation, eradication of ignorance and disease.
The country has a plan and purpose. The aim of Satan and his agents is to try to exhaust the visionaries with non-issues in order to prevent us from fulfilling the vision. Phil, how about you and your friends going to help with the building of the railway line which this very man whom you want to belittle and whom you despise started?
It is called infrastructure development and the enhancement of communication for the right of the people to travel and move goods.
I would love to go with you so that we can talk while truly advancing the rights of Namibia’s humans by doing something practical, measurable and tangible.
How about that, my brother?
How about us continuing to love, admire and respect our elders while we work and advance their dreams and vision for us?
How about you and I building a school, an orphanage or a clinic with donor money given to propagate undermining agendas whose purpose it is to destabilize our democracy?
How about that Phil my brother? How about that?
Unless that is also a human rights violation?
Yes I am being sarcastic because that is all that makes sense when responding to the stupidity of faceless people who put other people up to such mischief.
My trust is in Jehovah, God, Elohim and no more in people and man-made organisations because the latter will disappoint me.
However, that does not mean that I do not know where I am coming from and neither does that make me ignore the good institutions that serve the nation through the leadership of the SWAPO party and the popular, democratic SWAPO-led government.
Namibia might not have been able to maximize its potential in many spheres, but the country has been and continues to be safe in the hands of persons like President Pohamba, Prime Minister Nahas Angula, the Speaker of the National Assembly and others leading this nation.
Phil, just be brave enough to apologize and let us together build this nation.
Apologizing to elders is a very African thing to do. I mean you did put your foot in it and it is only you who can take yourself out of it.
Oh, by the way, it would help some of us ordinary little people if you could publish a profile of your organization or give us your website so that we can study what it is that is supposed to make you tick!
God bless Namibia and the leaders of our SWAPO-led government!
Marson W. Sharpley
Khomasdal