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Dear Editor,
Please allow me space in your newspaper to express my deep concerns about the direction that my beloved country Namibia appears to be heading, based on the recent political events and emerging negative trends, as reported in various media in the country. As a person who closely follows happenings at home from abroad, it is deeply disconcerting that my country appears to be heading in a not so peaceful, harmonious and prosperous direction, unless, all of us, and I mean, all of us, the youth, the elderly, the academics, the intellectuals, the politicians, the journalists and civil society, urgently realise that if the country becomes politically unstable, violent and economically undeveloped, few of us, will escape the bad and negative consequences thereafter. We have many examples to learn from, both ancient and recent.
Without enumerating all the incidents, trends and events that have caused me deep concern, I will, however, cite one example to illustrate my point. I have observed that the One Namibia, One Nation vision is increasingly threatened by the apparent tribalism and trivialisation of Namibian politics and social discourse, in particular. Having read the personal observations of the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Nahas Angula, as published in the recent New Era, in which he wrote as private citizen, I must add, I have realised that we seem to be at a political cross-road, as a developing nation. Unless, our political leadership and some overzealous elements in the civil society and media, decide to sincerely and truly care for a peaceful future for all Namibians, my fear is that we are, indeed, heading in the wrong direction. One immediate example, I must refer to, is the death of the “very aggressive Swapo activist” at Omuthiya in the north of Namibia. There are still a lot of unasked questions around that incident. While many, if not everybody, have realised the tragedy of the incident, most of the comments and reactions to the incident, especially from those who are influential in society, are rather mind-boggling and very disappointing, to say the least. It is clear that there is a lot of blame and finger pointing around, as to who should be held responsible for the incident. However, what is worryingly absent are the unequivocal calls for an Independent Commission of Inquiry! Worse, not even from the human rights and media organisations. It looks as if the case is already closed and everybody knows exactly what happened and who did what, without critically investigating the whole context, within which the incident happened and why the deceased appeared so determined to cause chaos and harm, which reportedly forced the police to defend themselves, unfortunately resulting in a tragic death of a fellow Namibian. It is also obvious the man came with a knife, why?
I would thus like to move to the Nation that, we must start to take a more critical, objective and rational approach to the happenings in our country. One concrete step we can start with is to openly demand an Independent Commission of Inquiry into the
incident in the north of our country. My message and call is directed at the youth, the media, civil society, intellectuals and masses of our country, to amongst others, avoid being used by some power hungry individuals for their own personal agendas, because they will only end up destroying our future and that of the country.
Armas Abdul Malik
Shikongo, Malaysia. |
