Zoom In

By Asser Ntinda

“The hate speech has to stop,” so writes Gwen Lister, Editor of The Namibian, on Friday, 2, 2009. “And SWAPO in particular really needs to take a stand and instil a sense of discipline in key areas of the party or be responsible for the consequences that could take Namibia from being a relatively peaceful democracy down the road to ruin.”

In life, hypocrites are always the ones who speak loudest all the time. At times they easily forget their horrible double standards and selective moralities, which, in most cases, reek of sheer arrogance informed by superiority complexes.

In Namibia, it is not rare to find an assortment of uppity whites behaving like school principals, telling government leaders in general and SWAPO Party leaders in particular, that “do this and don`t do that” as if they were unruly school boys and girls who should be whipped into line and have “discipline instilled” in them. These are the Gwen Listers, the Henning Melbers, the Andre du Pisanis – the list is long – of this world. In the above example, Gwen has problems with many blogs and messages that appear on SWAPO Party website, and secondly, with Namibia Today, which she refers to as SWAPO’s official mouth pieces “which constantly engage in libellous personal attacks and damaging diatribes about those they perceive as their political opponents.”

People driven by exaggerated egos and self-righteousness have short memories, it seems. For several months now, members of SWAPO Party in particular and of the public in general – concerned about the fragile peace that we have – have urged Gwen to have a second look at those sms messages which appear in her paper from Monday to Friday.

Most of those sms messages are so insulting and defamatory that they could hardy be published. In those sms messages, both President Hifikepunye Pohamba and Founding President Sam Nujoma have not been spared. Both have to live with constantly being called “this puppet” and “that dictator” respectively.

Gwen has persistently refused to have a look at those sms messages, insisting instead that the right of the people to “express themselves” should not be “curtailed.” SWAPO Party kept quiet. So, too, did the concerned members of the public, who assumed that may be some sense of responsibility would creep into Gwen’s head and do something about those sms messages. Nothing ever happened.

SWAPO Party, never the one to sit by idle and watch as its priceless history and its liberation icons are being destroyed – thought about other alternatives and, rightly so, came up with the idea of having its own website. The result has been overwhelming. Gwen can’t take it any more. With the launch of the SWAPO Party website, her monopoly over such messages is gone. Forever.

Gwen should be reminded that it was her negative stance against the Third Term for Cde Nujoma and her newspaper’s constant negative reports on the war in the DRC which, to a large extent, prompted SWAPO Party to revive Namibia Today. Equally, it was her refusal to do something about those insulting sms messages which, to a large extent also, prompted SWAPO Party to launch its website.

Now it hurts. It did not, then, when she has monopoly over those messages. Now she insists that “discipline must be instilled in key areas of the party.” But it was “discipline” then to insult Comrades Pohamba and Nujoma in the name of “freedom of expression.” But when SWAPO Party takes measures to defend itself, such measures are described as “intolerant and undemocratic” that could take “Namibia from being a relatively peaceful democracy down the road to ruin.”

It must be pointed out that Gwen has no monopoly over arrogance. It is time someone stood up to her. And this nonsense of she alone is right and everybody else is wrong must stop.

Talking about Namibia Today’s “lies and distortions!” She tells us to compare the coverage of both (SWAPO and RDP) electoral colleges” where we would find that the “SWAPO event in fact had broader coverage than that of RDP.” Yes, but look at the negativity that ran through SWAPO Party’s coverage and the positivity that littered the RDP coverage. That is what people resent. If that is what she calls “fair coverage,” I beg to differ. And look at this: “The publication (Namibia Today) in question,” she wrote last Friday, “is dangerous, anti-everything but SWAPO rhetoric......” Gwen is not the first person to describe Namibia Today with such adjectives. It does not surprise us either. The former apartheid regime of South Africa described Namibia Today and The Combatant with such adjectives and banned the publications in Namibia during the liberation struggle.

Gwen also talks about “distortions”! She only needs to be reminded and look at how her newspaper covered Founding President Nujoma’s “hate speech” in Oshana Region. Some people have angrily reacted to what Cde Nujoma said in Oshana, not because what he was quoted to have said was actually what he said. Few, if any, among those who have angrily reacted were there. Many among those who were there were shocked to the bone about what they read in The Namibian and the angry reactions that ensued.

The speech was distorted and taken out of context, deliberately it seems. First Cde Nujoma never said “take hammers and beat up all English people.” His reference to Zimbabwe was also awkwardly built into the story to instil fears in, and drive away, the white community from SWAPO Party, which RDP is now busy canvassing for its support. It was therefore no coincidence that a white man tops the RDP list of “elected candidates,” while Cde Nujoma was being quoted as urging Namibians to “take hammers and beat up all the English people.”

Cde Nujoma never said those things. He said that Britain wanted to colonize Zimbabwe again. That was why it had imposed sanctions on that country for it to give up its land reform programme. Zimbabwe would never be a colony again. If the Britons try to re-colonize Zimbabwe, we would take hammers and beat them up, as we did during the liberation struggle. That was the context in which it was said. And surely, they would be fought back if they try to re-colonize Zimbabwe. In his heart of hearts, Oswald Shivute, who wrote the story, knows the truth. If what we read was what he had written, then it is all the more despicable. If that was the end product of rigorous editing, it was an unforgivable act of betrayal of sacred journalistic ethics, which Gwen claims to uphold. Suffice to say that those who have angrily reacted to what Cde Nujoma was reported to have said were reacting to a distorted version of what he had actually said.

Lest we forget, Shivute worked for the Ovambo Bantu Administration for many years, which SWAPO Party fought against and destroyed. Not that Shivute should be constantly reminded about that, but he should also not arrogate to himself the moral high ground when he has got skeletons in his closet. If hatred informs his stories, it can be traced in that historical corner, which is not so pleasing to look at.

It is not unusual for The Namibian to concoct and drum up negative stories in the run up to an election Namibia has conducted. The current onslaught against SWAPO Party should be seen in that context. The doctored sms messages, fabricated in the darkrooms of the said newspaper, would not dent SWAPO Party’s national appeal. Lest we forget, too, The Namibian’s overriding objective is and has always been to reduce SWAPO Party’s two-thirds majority. We can only ignore this stark reality at our own peril. In the 1999 elections, she used CoD’s Ben Ulenga to achieve that objective. In the 2004 elections, she used alleged “divisions” within SWAPO Party, centred around Cde Nujoma’s “refusal” to “step down” as President of SWAPO Party. This time, she is using RDP’s Hidipo Hamutenya, whose defection from SWAPO Party in 2007 was described as a “political earthquake” by Du Pisani.

As Ndilimani Cultural Troupe would sing: “Oshiwana Penduka, wu lengaa lengee... (Namibian nation! Wake up and check on all sides....) In a democratic set up like ours, SWAPO Party has no qualms with anybody. We can coexist as individuals and as political formations. But SWAPO Party will vigorously fight against those who seek to bring about its destruction. Those who want that fight to the end, SWAPO Party will give it to them. When all is said and done, the last man will switch off the lights.

Namibia Today has catalogued many lies and distortions Gwen’s paper has churned out over the years, like the one about Cde Nujoma having “tried” to have Hamutenya “expelled” from SWAPO Party but was “blocked” by his “colleagues” a day before the 2004 extra-ordinary congress. Chronicling such lies now again would not change her mind. Let her wallow in the morass of almost self-righteous negativism, which seems to be her only joy in life. We should not deprive her of her rights, however silly and weird such rights may be.

She alone has made that choice. She alone, too, must live with its consequences. For, the fruits of helpless negative bleating and constant misrepresentation are not so tasty. Just as the media have the right to free speech, so too does the public have the right to free choice, anchored on a considered understanding that emphasis on the negative is not the most effective way to educate and inspire the nation to great heights. We must be honest to celebrate what is positive about and among us. We must acknowledge our achievements. And they are many. We must equally admit our shortcomings, as we have done so on many occasions, in the difficult challenge of nation-building. Therein lies the celebration of our humanity.