Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
Recent pronouncements by His Excellency, Dr Hage Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia, which is essentially the wholesaling of Namibian resources to foreign Capitalists, is not only instructive and reawakening, but revolutionary revisionism of the highest order and retrogression if not betrayal of the Namibian revolution.
Because if Namibian independence and freedom, flag independence proper, must have been the first phase of the Namibian Revolution only by the understanding and interpretation of Yours Truly Ideologically, if not that of most of the wretched of the Namibian Revolution with nothing else to loose in the revolution but their Neocolonial capitalist shackles. This Second Phase being Economic Emancipation. Surely this emancipation is not and cannot be the kind recently depicted by His Excellency as per some of his soundbites from his interview with the Al Jazeera new network. Because such, without any iota of doubt, is simply the wholesaling of Namibian resources, in this case, oil, that Namibians are now being made to believe by His Excellency, that it is not theirs.
It is not as if truly and factually, Namibian resources, including the oil, said to have been discovered lately, is actually not Namibia’s. By what definition is and can Namibia’s resources not be hers unless they are surrendered to unscrupulous foreign Capitalists and thieves parading as investors by our leaders and would-be advisers to our political leaders.
Article 100 of the Namibian Constitution on the “Sovereign Ownership of Natural Resources”, states that “ Land, water and natural resources below and above the surface of the land and in the continental shelf and within the territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone of Namibia, shall belong to the State if they are not otherwise lawfully owned.” From this it is axiomatic and evident that indeed Namibia’s resources are hers. Article 100 of the Constitution is categorically clear that these resources are owned by the State. One needs to qualify this unambiguously, that these resources are owned by the State on behalf of the people, and not by the State on its own behalf and/or own self interest, nor can it on behalf of foreign, let alone indigenous aspiring capitalists.
Thus, where the State and/or Namibian people do not own such, “legally”, by the President’s own admission and apology for wholesaling national resources, it must be clear this is not because the country is not well endowed with such, but because these resources, like in the case of oil, admittedly as per the President, these have been alienated for plunder, exploitation and day light thievery and robbery by foreign exploiters, in the name of would be investment and development.
By the President’s recent pronouncements, the country and her people, the sovereign owners of the country’s resources, must be content with the bare residuals and leftover from the exploitation of their natural resources, not as a matter of incident, but as act of Neo-colonialism, and/or veiled political, economic, diplomatic military invasion by the investors, an act in which Namibian political leaders, no less the governing Swapo Party of Namibia, are without an excuse or apology, complicit in.
This act is not only an act of political misjudgment by the concerned and guilty Namibian leaders, but a wanton willful wholesale of the country’s natural resources for/and at an undefined pittance, if not for a commission to whoever such may accrue among the Namibian leaders which has become an undeniable act of rampant corruption and the siphoning off the country’s natural resources.
The pronouncements by the President, thus has revolutionary revisionism written all over them. Namibia, there’s no denying, is one of the most endowed countries on the African continent, among the top ten, in fact the third in this regard. But there’s has been little evidence how she and/or her people practically fundamentally materially benefits from such an endowment in natural resources.
It is becoming clear why this is the case, because going by the obtaining formula as in the presumed oil contract, the country and/or State has no stake in this ventures, but the country’s resources have been and are being wholesaled to foreign capital with zero benefit to the country. Only for the State to dangle a begging cap before the so- called developed nations the would-be investors hail from, having presided over their explotation of Namibia’s natural resources and their shipment to their foreign countries in raw form with no value added by Namibia. For Namibia to again import the finished products at back-breaking high prices. This, has been the relations between newly independent countries and their former colonial masters. A relation not born and nurtured in a true spirit of sovereignty and equality of nations, but a continuation and perpetuation of the former colonial relations of the exploitation by the former colonial master countries, of raw natural resources from the former colonies now presumed sovereigns but only sovereign in name but not in reality because for all intents and purposes former colonies remain beholden to their former colonial masters. Hence the presence in Namibia of foreign diplomatic missions, especially of former colonial masters which Namibia even had no previous connections colonially and otherwise.
The legalism or the contractual obligation that the President, and his trusted and loyal advisors are citing, cannot have been imposed or rammed down their throats, but entered into consciously. Neither can the President and company claim to have been duped into such a contract and being ignorant of its implications, which is extracting oil from the Namibian soil with benefits eventually accruing to foreign nations and their people while Namibians, the owners of the oil, must continue to wallop in poverty and hunger. The formula of exploitation, so-called investment, is the making of Namibia’s own leaders, ever beholden to Capitalism at the expense of the wellbeing and prosperity of their people.
One premium of independence and freedom, which the political leaders and apologists, backed by so-called economic advisers, who are nothing but professional careerists, unapologetic agents of of Neo-Colonialism and Capitalism. But can a country that continues to surrender its natural resources to Capitalism, as Namibia does, as proven by the oil discovery, and oil being only a recent revelation and the tip of the iceberg, really claim any sovereignty. Sovereign in what sense when she is beholden to Capitalism.Most revealing and reawakening, is the President’s ideological surrender, for a lack of a better term, if not backtracking, stating in no uncertain terms that in Namibia, for now, if ever, there’s no room for nationalisation and socialism. A carte blanche that the presumed investors, Capitalism’s frontrunners and real operators, must continue to plunder the country’s natural resources. Yes, there’s no way the President can be blamed for his evident blatant ideological hollowness and bankruptcy, because this is the epitome of him and his contemporaries. Who have shown themselves during the past 32 years of flag independence, that the ultimate revolution never crossed their minds other than for political convenience and ideological deceit.
But those who have jumped on his ideological bankruptcy bandwagon, his advisors and assistants, political and economic and otherwise cannot but have to sooner rather than later have to account to the Namibian masses. Account for their complicity in betraying the Namibian Revolution. For their ostensible loyalty and dedication without impunity in/and to an essentially and practically retrogressive Capitalist trajectory, on which they have been retrogressing the country.
Friday, April 19
