Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
Are human rights and economic rights, the latter entailing socio-economic justice, mutually inclusive and/or exclusive?
Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but pose this pertinent question in view of the fact that the two are usually treated and projected as not interlinked, interdependent and intertwined.
Just as much as economic emancipation is and has been treated as more a byproduct of civil and political rights instead of being a focus of agitation and/or advocacy in itself. Going back to the days of national resistance and subsequently the liberation struggle. When emphasis was on freedom and independence, while the return of the land (not for its own sake but as an economic base) has only been a subtext.
To this day, since independence in the case of Namibia, emphasis seems to be and has seemed to be on liberation and freedom.
Notwithstanding that the quest for liberation, freedom and independence was inspired, driven and motivated foremost by the economic discrimination by imperialism, colonialism and indeed capitalism against the indigenous populations.
Thus, in the final analysis, the quest for political and/or civil liberties cannot be said to have been intrinsic in and of itself and be delinked and/or considered to be different from economic rights. Which are the most fundamental, foundational and basic rights among all rights, including the political, civil and others?
Especially now that it has been established and manifested that years of political independence and sovereignty have not borne economic rights. The political kingdom that Africa, and indeed Namibia, sought and fought for to gain freedom and sovereignty ala the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, has automatically and as a matter of consequence and/or natural progression and culmination, not wrought about “all other things” he may have foreseen if only imagined.
“There is no doubt at all that there is an urgent need for another revolution. There is an urgent need for a national democratic revolution. There is, that is to say, an urgent need for the second phase of the African Revolution,” the late Botswana ideologue and socialist, Dr Goabamang Kenneth Shololo Koma, wrote in his ideological treatise, The Second Phase of the African Revolution Has Now Begun.
Yours Truly Ideologically, having observed Namibia’s 35 years of political freedom and independence, I cannot agree more. Because all that these 36 years of political independence, that such has been no more than their hollowness. Especially in the sense of socio-economic justice that has eluded most of the Namibian masses, if not the majority. Which they are still craving for. With little foundation seeming to have been laid and being laid, let alone ever being laid in this regard, unless there’s a complete ideological paradigm shift.
What is the pointer of and to the Namibian charge sheet in this regard? It is undeniable that the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, that is between the so-called rich and so-called poor, has since independence in 1990 been widening with little, if not zero, prospect of it being bridged.
The various bids at bridging it, such as Vision 2030 and, lately, the sixth National Development Plan (NDP6), notwithstanding. With only five years left to the realisation of the ideals, targets and goals – you name them – of Vision 2030. With Vision 2030 now commingled with NDP6. As if to hide its unattainability. While the results of the previous NDPs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are and have been dubious. With no seeming natural progression from one plan to the other.
Not to mention the fact most have remained unfinished if their targets have not been carried over from one NDP to the other. With cumulative consequence on any subsequent NDP. Thus leading to an overload of any period’s NDP.
Given this state of affairs, it is apparent that the Namibian democratic revolution has yet to find its natural consummation and destiny to provide the necessary foundation for the second phase of the Namibian revolution. As has been shown for and during the past 36 years of political freedom, the democratic revolution, thanks to the political independence that has been achieved already and which must be jealously guarded, cannot any longer be entrusted to the current corps of self-serving politicians.
Needless to say, an imperative that it is for the second phase of the Namibian revolution. Civil society, which definitely includes and must embrace and encapsulate the masses, not to mention the workers, must gear itself up in all earnest and purposefully for the establishment of the Democratic Revolution as an imperative for the way forward onwards.
It cannot and should not, and civil society cannot take what lies ahead for granted. Because it cannot be picnic-like if the ideals of the democratic revolution are to be realised.
Undeniably we have a democracy in Namibia. But only a nascent one that must be driven towards the democratic revolution. Different from the current nascent democracy. Both in form and ideology. To pave the way for the onset of the Second Phase of the Namibian revolution. In which human rights and civil liberties are not an end in themselves but a means towards the end, this end being the Second Phase of the Namibian revolution and its requisite ingredients. Foremost is the unshackling of the chains of the masses, especially the workers, from the bondage of capitalism.
Hence the critical engagement of the civil society. With regard to which one cannot but recognise its relentless efforts, especially through the ecumenical networks in the country. Needless to say, it needs consolidation and the support of the broader civil society, including the media. Because the way ahead is by any means and imagination not an easy one but formidable, though not intractable.
It is gratifying to learn that at a workshop by the churches involving civil society last Thursday in Windhoek on the state of human rights in Namibia, the issue of human rights against economic rights was featured and its imperatives highlighted. Especially the imperative of elevating the essence of socio-economic justice as a right in itself. Beyond the current given when socio-economic justice seems to be taken for granted. Never dissected and put on the public agenda. Usually confined to mention other than vociferously dissecting it, making it a right parallel to other rights like human rights and civil liberties.
