Editorial: When silence is not golden
The inconspicuous dealings of government, even in major issues such as the landmark green hydrogen project with a foreign entity, verge on executive authority abuse.
The draft agreement between the Namibian government and the German corporation Hyphen appears to contain some extremely unsettling aspects, Job Amupanda pointed out once more - as is his habit.
We have evolved into a country that, in order to survive, relies more on leaks than on open, public debate of problems, adherence to constitutional values and compliance with established rules of conduct by elected officials.
Even the Swapo Party Youth League, which is supposed to serve as the conveyor belt for the Swapo Party ideology, policies and programmes, has been kept in the dark about the Hyphen agreement. Not that they should have any preferences over the general populace.
Just this week in parliament, Nudo’s Josef Kauandenge asked who gave President Hage Geingob the mandate to donate a piece of land at the port of Walvis Bay to Botswana to construct a dry port facility.
These are not trivial concerns. This is not fodder for beer hall banter, as it may seem to some.
Who are our leaders accountable to and from where do they draw their mandate? Even in a representative democracy, there’s no carte blanche freedom for our leaders to act willy-nilly on national affairs - without a care in the world.
The draft agreement between the Namibian government and the German corporation Hyphen appears to contain some extremely unsettling aspects, Job Amupanda pointed out once more - as is his habit.
We have evolved into a country that, in order to survive, relies more on leaks than on open, public debate of problems, adherence to constitutional values and compliance with established rules of conduct by elected officials.
Even the Swapo Party Youth League, which is supposed to serve as the conveyor belt for the Swapo Party ideology, policies and programmes, has been kept in the dark about the Hyphen agreement. Not that they should have any preferences over the general populace.
Just this week in parliament, Nudo’s Josef Kauandenge asked who gave President Hage Geingob the mandate to donate a piece of land at the port of Walvis Bay to Botswana to construct a dry port facility.
These are not trivial concerns. This is not fodder for beer hall banter, as it may seem to some.
Who are our leaders accountable to and from where do they draw their mandate? Even in a representative democracy, there’s no carte blanche freedom for our leaders to act willy-nilly on national affairs - without a care in the world.
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