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By Asser Ntinda

The count-down has started. Opposition parties, or what SWAPO Party Secretary for Information and Mobilization, Cde Jerry Ekandjo, does not want to call political parties but “associations of frustrated and disgruntled people,” have started putting together their Parliamentary list of 72. It is a tall order. For, many of these political parties will not be there after the November Presidential and National Assembly elections. Their efforts are futile and will not bear any fruits whatsoever. Of all the opposition parties, the most hopeful one is the Rally for Democracy and Progress, RDP.

Where such high hopes stem from defies logic and understanding. None, the English say, are as blind as those that will not see. RDP unveiled its list of the people it “chooses” to send to the National Assembly list last weekend. It is a loaded one that saw new faces shooting up right at the top while old ones have been pushed down the bottom of the list, raising suspicions and questions about the credibility of what really transpired at the RDP’s Electoral College last weekend.

Announcing the list to the media, RDP President, Hidipo Hamutenya, said: “We seek to shame those who have tried to characterize the RDP as a Kwanyama party…” And sure enough, topping the list of those who were “elected,” was Anton von Wietersheim, who got “215 votes!” Shapwa Kaukungwa, Festus Naholo, Fillemon Kanime, Canner Kalimba and Nghiningiluandubo Kashume, who did all the donkey work to midwife RDP, have been pushed out to make way for the Von Wietersheims of this world. Many of them have already started murmuring and muttering that “things did not go the way they should go.” There are possibilities of defections, too, soon.

Whether the list was doctored and altered to produce Von Wietersheim as number one “to shame those who have tried to characterize the RDP as a Kwanyama party,” is one thing, but selling it using that Kwanyama label is another. Its implications are many and far-reaching. Whether Hamutenya will be able to manage the fallout remains to be seen. In fact, it was Hamutenya himself and his buddies who have tried to justify RDP as a “necessity” because “Kwanyamas were being victimized” in SWAPO. (Von Wietersheim was fired in the early 1990s as Minister of Minister of Agriculture by then President Sam Nujoma, after he had walked out of Cabinet while Dr. Nujoma was chairing.)

At the beginning, Hamutenya really thought that his “Kwanyama story” was selling well and attracting many people, especially in Ohangwena Region. He thus negotiated out former SWAPO Party Councilor for Eenhana Constituency, Carlos Shinohamba, under the pretext that he would be going to “school” in Canada. Shinohamba has long been linked to RDP as one of the hibernators. The real reason, however, was a long-term political calculation – once Shinohamba resigned, there would be a by-election, thus presenting such a rare opportunity for RDP to test itself in the heart of the Oukwanyama Community, and launch its “long-march” to State House from there. RDP had told people that it would “take” Eenhana Constituency away from SWAPO Party.

Sources said that Hamutenya had even a lengthy speech which he was poised to read at a “victory parade” when the results were out. That opportunity never came his way. The outcome of the Eenhana by-election was very devastating. RDP managed only to get 289, while SWAPO Party got 4193 votes. There were just over 8000 registered voters in Eenhana, but only 4507 voted. Omuthiya was even worse.

But despite all those humiliating electoral defeats, Hamutenya still hopes his RDP will form the next government! Of course there are several political parties that will take part in the elections, some new, some old. But the biggest concentration so far has just been between SWAPO Party and RDP, leaving other parties without much of the coverage. The media, especially the Eurocentric media, has been giving Hamutenya’s RDP sunshine coverage, prompting some political observers to think and predict that RDP would make “inroads” in SWAPO Party traditional strongholds, a reference mainly to the northern regions, and reduce SWAPO Party’s two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.

Small wonder that last weekend’s RDP Electoral College was given such positive coverage, especially by The Namibian, which published the whole list of RDP candidates on the list, while it did not do the same with SWAPO Party Electoral College. In fact, SWAPO Party Electoral College was tainted with so much negativity that it looked as if there were going to be fights and quarrels. When nothing like that ever happened, the story died quietly. Of course, it is the right of The Namibian to choose and publish the stories of its choice. And we respect that. Equally, Gwen Lister, Editor of The Namibian, should also respect the rights of others to make similar choices.

Therefore, her objection to business persons in Oshikango making a donation to SWAPO Party was misplaced and it speaks volumes about her professed respect for democracy and human rights. Who does she think she is to tell those business persons how to spend their money whereas she does not allow others to tell her what stories to run and which ones to leave out? In the greater scheme of national interest, the choice of her stories is sometimes inciting, to say the least. But she publishes them in the name of press freedom.

In all these incidences, Gwen’s main objective has been to reduce or cause to reduce SWAPO Party’s two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. That is why she has followed up any little spark that points to a possible division in SWAPO Party with monotonous regularity. When Sackaria Nghiwete, alias Ndjoba, formed SWAPO for Justice in May 1995, it was Lister’s paper that jumped on that nonsensical story, claiming that “disillusioned SWAPO members form new party.” She claimed that it marked “a formal split” in SWAPO since independence.

SWAPO for Justice’s Constitution was scribbled on blank papers with a pencil, yet Gwen took Ndjoba seriously, calling him a “hero” who could publicly “take up issues” with SWAPO Party leadership. When Ben Ulenga defected from SWAPO in 1998, Gwen notched up his step as “victory for democracy,” claiming that it was “long overdue.” Despite the massive publicity The Namibian had provided for these parties, however, they dismally failed.

Now she is trying Hamutenya’s RDP, giving him all the sunshine reporting and frog-marching him to State House. Gwen only needs to look at RDP’s past performance and realize that Hamutenya is now a terrified trapeze artist caught between the shadow of his shuttered dreams and a future that is not so pleasing to look forward to. Hamutenya now sits on a high wire, turning stonewalling and expediency into the stuff of a command performance. In politics, this nonsense is called a dance of attrition. And Hamutenya should know better. No serious person enjoys Hamutenya’s dance on the high wire anymore – except, of course, Gwen Lister. After all, she has enjoyed all the political carcasses Namibia has produced since independence. Hamutenya will simply join that list.

And after several months saying that he was not a hibernator, Mike Kavekotora is number 16 on RDP’s list! Just look at who was pushing for him at TransNamib and the story completes itself. But the big question is: How come that all these hibernators ended up in key positions at various State-Owned Enterprises? Was it really by accident or were these programmed plots designed to implement Nyamu’s notes, as we have seen at TransNamib with that costly strike? Namibians, wake up and see.