Succession In The Opposition: Time For Some To Make Way

IN less than four years Namibians will head back to the polling stations to elect a new president.

But too much time is spent on the Swapo succession race when there are other parties which need to get their houses in order.
The Rally for Democracy and Progress, DTA of Namibia, United Democratic Front of Namibia and the National Unity Democratic Organisation all need new leaders if they are to be agents of change in the coming elections.
Together with Swapo, the political parties need not only to look for a younger president but also involve youth in the country’s mainstream politics.
Currently Namibians are preoccupied with everyday worries from the scores of people flocking the rubbish dumpsites to make ends meet with what other people see as health-hazardous garbage, hundreds of thousands who don’t have jobs, or enough to eat, or clean water, or a roof over their heads, or access to quality education and safe neighbourhoods and access to healthcare.
So a debate about a presidential candidate, especially in the opposition political parties, will probably be eclipsed by concerns about these tough economic times and how people struggle just to hold on to what they have.
But politics is also a bread and butter issue.
Whoever takes office as a leader of the country, in most cases, decides the path the rest of the country takes in future.
Thus, even if, judging by the current political environment, it might not look like the opposition will take over State House in three years’ time, there is nevertheless a need for introspection for those parties.
Before I look at what’s available and throw in some younger names as possible options, I need to point out that opposition parties need to move away from ‘opposition politics’ which is built on statements and rallies focussed mainly on criticising Swapo rather than rallying the masses to provide change from grassroots.
That is also one of the main reasons why many parties are dying a slow and painful death. Most will look like the real ‘new kid on the block’ for a year, or at most three, but quickly start to fade away, giving voters very little, if any, optimism.
Thus, unless opposition parties get beyond the attitude of criticism to build an alternative that will resonate with the majority, Swapo might well rule until “Jesus comes back”, as one of the party leaders recently said.
At Independence the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance was Namibia’s main opposition with 21 seats in the National Assembly. Today they have only two.
The party went on a serious backwards slide.
Current leader Katuutire Kaura (70) took over in 1999 after Mishake Muyongo went into exile following the Caprivi secession.
Under Kaura the support base did not only gradually thin out but the National Unity Democratic Organisation and Republican Party left the DTA.
Kaura is a well-oiled speaker and someone with good ideas, but his time at the party’s helm is up.
In 2005 the young McHenry Venaani prematurely challenged him but Kaura managed to see him off in style.
In fact, Venaani’s challenge also cost him the party’s secretary general position and ultimately a seat in the National Assembly where he had made mature input during debates.
With the experience he picked up, Venaani could be a good candidate who will not only draw votes from his tribal background, but also from people, young and old, who want intelligent debate and action.
Another leader whose time is long up is Justus //Garoeb (69 year in December) who heads UDF since 1989.
//Garoeb is a respected politician by both friend and foe in the National Assembly but he is hardly there!
Also, under him the UDF has lost appeal – losing members of the alliance as well as a number of seats in Parliament.
UDF has a couple of leaders they can rely. Among them is Sebastian !Gobs (43) – the regional councillor for Khorixas and someone who has shown vigour.
Another candidate would be the Kamanjab constituency councillor Dudu Murorua (who will be 53 in a few days). The former governor of Kunene has shown the leadership required to rejuvenate the party. He is far from the truck driver and farm foreman that he was at some point during his youth.
I also believe that the next ballot papers should not carry the image of Kuaima Riruako (76).
Not only is he the oldest Member of Parliament, but there is a need for the Nudo leader to follow his age-mate President Hifikepunye Pohamba when he retires.
Even though Arnold Tjihuiko (61) is not so young anymore, he has been very vocal in the National Assembly and could push on for a few more years.
I am sure that, just as Nudo surprised us with Tjihuiko appearing second on their list in 2004, they have other candidates in the offing.
If Hidipo Hamutenya (72) harboured aspirations of forming an own party or leading an opposition party, the Rally for Democracy and Progress came a bit late for him.
The former Minister, with many years of experience in international diplomacy, was followed out of the party by a host of his supporters. Even before he left, Jesaya Nyamu (three years Hamutenya’s junior) became the first senior Swapo figure to be expelled since 1990.
Nyamu took the beatings for his former high school mate Hamutenya but the former Minister of Trade and also Mines, who defended Epupa and Ramatex vigorously, is not exactly young enough to take over the leadership.
Again, RDP also have scores of more youthful leaders waiting in the wings.
But the youngbloods can only emerge once others have made room.
It makes sense, and it is the right time, for the above leaders to make way.

Pohamba’s Dilemma:Whether To Support Angula Or Geingob

OK, I’ve been paying a disproportionate amount of attention to Swapo and its internal politicking, but it’s not my fault.

Most of the debate within the opposition parties is incredibly boring.
In fact, in some, like the United Democratic Front or the National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo), you do not even hear about a debate for succession.
A child born in 1990 has known only one leader of the UDF and can be pardoned for thinking that the party is the property of Justus //Garoëb. And the same goes for Nudo where we have not seen a contest for the presidency for some time now.
At the DTA, Katuutire Kaura has had challengers but they struggle to come up with a better candidate to take over from him.
So succession and opposition are two symmetrically opposed ideas.
With Swapo, there continues to be a lively debate, not only among members but even outsiders, about positions within the party.
This is because many see the party – at least for now – as a vehicle for the political hopes of many as well as a key player in the delivery of services.
There is no way you can talk about bread-and-butter issues without mentioning Swapo at the moment.
That is also why Swapo should stop telling others to mind about their own affairs.
And the latest affairs in Swapo deal with the succession debate.
While President Hifikepunye Pohamba is guaranteed to serve as the party’s and country’s leader for the next four years, the party approved rules and procedures in 2009 already for the election of its office-bearers, clearly outlining the line of succession.
The procedures state that the presidential candidate will come from the top four party leaders in order of seniority. Another line in the document states that if the incumbent President cannot be re-elected because of the two-term constraint, the ruling party’s vice president will be the automatic choice as presidential candidate.
Such rules and procedures were introduced to avoid a repetition of the 2004 Swapo extraordinary congress.
During that congress Pohamba came up against Hidipo Hamutenya (who has since left the party and formed the Rally for Democracy and Progress) and Prime Minister Nahas Angula in a three-cornered contest.
So the key to ascendancy to the party presidency is to become the vice president of Swapo at next year’s congress and that is why some in the Swapo Party Youth League and other levels have started campaigning for debate.
In fact, they have not only started campaigning for debate but moves such as the calls to disband the youth wing’s national executive committee are directly linked to getting people who will support a certain candidate.
Soon similar calls for changes will emerge from within the Swapo Party Women’s League.
For now, Hage Geingob faces Prime Minister Nahas Angula and the party’s secretary general, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana.
Both Geingob and Angula will have served the country for two terms as Prime Minister and both believe that the next step is to lead the country.
No one will admit it yet, but Angula’s machinery is well oiled with current and former Cabinet members as people who do the donkey-work (campaigning) and some of them have openly revealed that it is time for a Ndonga to take over.
Similarly, Geingob also has his backing with people such as Kazenambo Kazenambo who believes that Swapo is ready for a non-Oshiwambo-speaking leader. Geingob is a member of the minority Damara tribe.
With Angula having thrown his weight behind Pohamba after the fallout from the 2004 Swapo candidacy race, it will now be interesting to see who Pohamba will back next year.
Will he opt for Geingob, who is also favoured by former President Sam Nujoma, or will he throw his weight behind the man he handpicked as Prime Minister?
Should Pohamba’s decision be guided by favours from the 2004 congress or by who will best serve the nation as a leader and keep the ruling party intact?
That surely will create a mesmerising debate as discussions around the presidential race continue.

Let the ‘Battle of Okahandja’ start

Let the ‘Battle of Okahandja’ start

By: CHRISTOF MALETSKY

TOMORROW the traditional hope of the oppressed, Swapo, will come up against a coalition of the wounded as Okahandja residents decide on a new regional councillor for the ‘garden town’.

It will be an historic election in many respects.
Although coalition politics has become an almost inevitable practice in many parliamentary democracies in the world, Namibian politicians have evaded it for some time now. This was mainly because of historical reasons as some parties certainly had a hand in the oppression of the people before Independence.
Tomorrow an alliance of diametrically opposed parties will square up against Swapo to try and wrestle the constituency away from the ruling party and send a message out that they are ready to mount a serious challenge come the November regional elections.
It seems that the opposition in the coalition have found a hero and saviour in Rally for Democracy and Progress leader, Hidipo Hamutenya. In fact, Congress of Democrats’ MP Elma Dienda called him their messiah at the weekend’s rally.
Hamutenya himself made no secret of the fact that the main goal was to capture power throughout Namibia and shape the direction the country will take over the coming years.
Although the RDP, at formation, had proclaimed that they (as a party) would defeat Swapo and run the country, anyone but a blind man could have seen the writing on the wall about them taking a u-turn and approaching others to form a coalition.
For now, only a coalition can put up a meaningful challenge to Swapo.
From attending their last rally, I have noticed that the language and tactics of the alliance partners have already become virtually indistinguishable - CoD leaders called their counterparts in RDP and UDF ‘comrades’.
A vibrant multi-party opposition is crucial for Namibia’s democracy but I wonder how long it will take before cracks appear over the selection of candidates, the level of the playing field (platform), various political tactics and approaches to issues.
For instance, although the coalition agreed on putting up the RDP person as their candidate, the posters branded around down were more RDP than anything else. There was no way a Republican Party member could identify with the candidate by looking at the poster.
In addition, the way in which the candidate was decided on - apparently her name was announced while some other parties were still busy with internal consultations - could also be a stumbling block in the future.
RDP must take care not to be seen to be pushing their agenda or being bullish in their approach on this one.
The coalition needs to identify the best candidate in a constituency based on merit and not on the basis of the party such a person belongs to, or the financial muscle of the political party in question. In the process they could also even involve ‘apoliticals’ who have proven to be good administrators and, in the process, avoid independents splitting their vote as will happen tomorrow.
Soon the new National Assembly will (hopefully) be sworn in and as new brooms clean the best, we expect heated debates!
It will be interesting to see how the opposition will handle some debates because, while they may have united in their campaign to dethrone Swapo during the November elections, they could also differ on some fundamental issues during such debates. And they’ll be watched with an eagle’s eye in this regard!
While the coalition still needs to iron out finer details about their approach to the November election, there was hardly any time for elaborate preparations for tomorrow’s battle in Okahandja.
With four candidates in the line-up for tomorrow and the opposition still split (Swanu have their own candidate also), I expect Swapo to stroll the last 30 metres of the 100 metre sprint to the finish line.

* This article first appeared in The Namibian

The Not-So-Democratic Opposition Parties

The Not-So-Democratic Opposition Parties

By: CHRISTOF MALETSKY

YOU can say whatever you want about Swapo but give them thumbs up for having internal elections when it comes to choosing candidates, even though the process may be manipulated at times.

I can’t say the same about some of the so-called democratic opposition parties in Namibia.
Take, for example, last year’s national and presidential elections and how some of them denied their members the right to elect leaders of their choice.
Small groups of leaders in the DTA, the Congress of Democrats and the United Democratic Front to an extent came together to draw up a list of their candidates – presumably to represent the people.
They placed the candidates – meaning that if I was in favour with some of the top leaders, I could end up in the top echelons of the pack (although, of course, not above them).
How members of those parties could act so undemocratically is a mystery to me.
Their voices, through the party ballot, were silent yet they shouted “viva” when their leaders stood in front of them and accused others of being undemocratic.
Why was there no outrage while your voices were being pummelled from all sides? How do you know that the same people will practice democracy if they take over Government and have to lead a whole nation?
I am raising the issue now because elections are over and hopefully people will reflect on it without emotions boiling over to the extent that we will resort to name-calling or slander.
Every voter or member of a political party has the right to decide who must represent them. You can’t leave that to small oligarchies with ‘big men’ mentalities who only think about their big bellies, flashy lifestyles, underhand deals and their kin.
Many of the opposition parties have young, vibrant people who have been silenced through the undemocratic manipulation by people who have been around for ages yet have not produced the goods when it comes to the people they claim to represent.
Some of the opposition parties lack a culture of open and sensible debate where candidates are given a chance to sell themselves or share their ideas on how to lead the people in their constituencies.
In fact, those who speak out or share different sentiments to certain leaders are often sidelined to the extent that they do not feel welcome. Ultimately they abandon their aspirations.
One of the excuses why some of the opposition political parties did not hold proper congresses to elect their candidates was that they do not want to go the Congress of Democrats’ route.
They claim that the CoD ended up in disarray because they held a congress. What a load of rubbish coming from people who claim to be democratic!
The CoD’s problems had nothing to do with having elections but all about the processes followed during the infamous and controversial Keetmanshoop congress which ultimately ended in court.
But the deafening silence from members of parties who stifled their voices concerns me.
I am almost certain that their silence has set a precedent, which will be difficult to correct because they ‘legalised’ it the first time around.
Above all, can those candidates continue to claim that they represent the masses in their party?
There is a saying: “if you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones”.
How freely will such opposition parties be able to hurl criticism about lack of democracy at Swapo or any other party for that matter?
It is sad and tragic because no one other than the members of the parties can speak out for themselves. Their silence is equal to condoning undemocratic principles.
The actions by those opposition parties, or their leaders, have clearly weakened their case on democracy.
* This article first appeared in The Namibian