Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
The government, to be specific, the Upstream Petroleum Unit in the Office of the President, has been having roadshows countrywide and regionally, if not in selected areas and regions, to apparently explain the National Upstream Petroleum Local Content Policy.
Upon picking this up through the media, the first question that occurred to mind is who have been invited to these roadshows, who have been attending and, with due respect and circumspection, if those invited and who have been attending these roadshows do and could realistically be expected to indeed comprehend what this subject matter entails to provide constructive, if altogether insightful, input to rebalance the said policy in the best interest of the actual owners of the natural resources of the country other than the usual suspects? Being those politically connected and the hawkish usual crowd of kleptocracy?
Not only this, but what has been the interface all along in the journey leading to the formulation of the policy? Because Yours Truly Ideologically’s disposition is that from its conceptualisation and through its formulation, it must not, could not and should not have been a matter for the government’s policymakers only. Who cannot and should not and can never ever, by their nature and ideological disposition, be trusted in bringing about the desired economic transformation in the best interest of the masses. Being as they have shown themselves to be agents of the status quo capitalist economic dispensation.
Thus it may not be farfetched to believe that from the word go the communities, particularly, and/or publics/masses intended to be the beneficiaries, through their chosen representatives with the best possible know-how of how their communities could best benefit, have always been part of the process. Being roped in only as has been the case with the roadshows towards what seems the tail end of the process. When the policy has literally been done and dusted in the name of would-be investors and thus capitalism.
Not only, but the most critical question is whether beneficiation is, must be and should be the foundational premise and principle. As it seems true to the nature of its crafters as agents of capitalism.
As indeed for some, ideologically, beneficiation may not and should not be the starting point, especially for the would-be beneficiaries. As opposed to, for the beginning, defining and refining the structure of the process of exploitation, avoiding early on and in the beginning the pitfalls associated with the capitalist paradigm of exploitation, coined as ‘investments’.
Which has created the current situation where even the country’s executive political leaders, even within the ruling Swapo Party of Namibia, have been at variance with themselves and openly contradictory of one another as to whom the country’s natural resources belong to.
If indeed they belong to the country with the government of the day, certainly together with Parliament, the custodians thereof. And at what juncture do they cease, if ever, to belong to them, and at what cost?
This is something the roadshow’s masterminds and initiators have been attempting valiantly and eagerly to address. To what degree they have been able to otherwise convince the people remains to be seen. But this is not a matter and should not have been a matter for the bureaucrats and policymakers but an ideological conviction and thus an ideological imperative. Thus, however much damage control a technocratic protégé would wish to do on behalf of their ideologically moribund political principals and capitalist operators, controllers and gatekeepers, it would need a clear ideological recalibration by the political fiefdom, with the requisite pressure by the masses, to give a clear sense of understanding. A clear ideology on which to anchor the said National Petroleum Content Policy. Until this happens these roadshows remain nothing but the government’s illusion playing to the docile and benign public galleries. To appease it, henceforth it is no longer business as usual. While Namibia, heaven knows until when, shall practically remain a capitalist dispensation. In which the economy is determined by the capitalist mode of production. Whereby all its policies, including the National Petroleum Content Policy, are and have been based on nothing else but foreign investors’ interests and their local comprador class, if ever it exists. Beholden to the capitalist system they very much cherish and keep intact by the local political elite in the name of democracy.
It is never a matter of where any government function/operation is located and/or situated and from where such is being operationalised, but the ideology of the operations of the entire government. Because no area of service delivery is of less and/or inferior importance and significance. That is why there’s a Cabinet with its chief captain, the President, and all her captains, the ministers, have the opportunity to review and evaluate the performance and delivery of each and every ministerial and what-have-you unit, collectively so, and help steer in the desired ideological direction, ideologically and operationally.
The problematic bottom line is whether the government, starting with the Chief Captain, has the requisite ideology which all of her captains share and embrace. Let it be made clear here that “business unusual” does not represent any ideology at all but just a mantra. Which, for that matter, any of the captains can operationalise according to their own whims.
Ideas, vigour and energy levels and even moods. But not necessarily according to the ideological sense of direction that the country must take. Based very much on her chosen ideological paradigm shift. As Kwame Nkrumah would say about colonialism as the last stage of imperialism, Yours Truly Ideologically, the same would add capitalism as well. Meaning the ultimate quest cannot be the end of colonialism and imperialism only but equally that of capitalism as well. It remains to be seen which oil-producing countries Namibia shall be benchmarking. Ideologically, the obvious ones should be Venezuela and Libya. But given the ideological disinclination of Swapo and most, if not all, of Namibia’s politicians, it remains to be seen what route she shall take given her inclination towards kleptocracy.
