EDITORIAL: We must diversify state funeral demographics

It is absolutely understandable that ordinary citizens would request an official, state or even hero’s funeral for luminaries among them. For far too long, these honours have predominantly been reserved for people with political backgrounds or impact. Those whose contribution to humanity is miles away from the sphere of politics have often been elbowed to the dustbin of obscurity.

Whether Tomas Iindji, in whose honour an official funeral was requested, deserved that level of send-off is immaterial to the current conversation. It’s not about individuals, but the principle itself of whether non-political actors can also be considered for state-sponsored burials and gun salutes.

The problem in our country is that politicians have built a firewall around certain state services, making themselves sole beneficiaries. Also, the silent condition that somehow the beneficiaries of especially official funerals must be a member of the ruling party is backwards and divisive.

As matters stand today, it is no longer automatic that those who fled into exile have automatically made a greater contribution than those who did not – or anyone born after independence.

Beyond wars, there are those who, in the post-independence dispensation, are heavily involved in situations that require courage, skill or tenacity. The credit belongs to the man in the arena - as Theodore Roosevelt said in his ‘Citizenship in a Republic’ speech, delivered in France in 1910. There are many Namibians today whose faces are marred by dust and sweat and blood from toiling in other spheres of life rather than wars.