Tactics from the last Era
By The Author [When My Mind is Liberated]
Learning is not only limited to friends and allies but also from the very enemy you get dirty and ugly with.
This has become more evident with the campaign strategies, and a lot more is happening during the 2020 regional and local authority elections currently underway.
Now I understand why politicians keep the citizens hungry, especially the most vulnerable majority so that they would do anything for a piece of bread. This is the same tactics the previous regime employed through their campaigns in 1989. At least back then they kept the entire Namibia in bondage.
The nearly redundant “new” dispensation of liberation movement-turned-ruling-party-turned-ruling-elite did learn this tactic from the previous regime.
With a more vibrant political environment in Namibia, the current regime has strategically relocated the “HaramBEE” resource and foodstuff in an effort to create a desired situation: “keep them hungry”. “Let them starve” and “make them desperate” only then will they stop to think with their minds but with stomach.
Each rumbling of the belly will be an indicator that the policies of Vision 2030 are “becoming” a reality; that the NDP 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 goals are fully rolled out and implemented across the country.
In recent years, national programmes have changed; e.g. there used to be a food-for-work project, then the food-bank, and now the most prominent one is food-for-vote. Feeding the “starved” during political erections has become the most effective way of securing votes.
Feeding them with food allocated to them during the last season, has become the “proof and conviction” needed to persuade the voters to make desired choices.
In order to make sure that the voters comply with the strategies, the ghost of the Apartheid Regime is continuously alluded to and used as the only backtrack for extended rule and power; a theme song to keep the voters chained to emotional instabilities and pain; a reminder of the kin that was lost and made to “disappear” during the armed struggle.
So I hear from the silent whispers…
It is apparent that the ruling party and the opposition parties shared campaign notes on how to importune voters during elections.
Hence, the ruling party is making sure that people are actually hungry and that it translates as a desire to continue with the legacy. “There shall be houses, security and comfort…” These words are still echoing in my exhausted mind and taking up space I could use to learn new survival tricks in this unacceptable reality.
People being smart and not wanting to be “left out” do exactly what their parents did during the transition to independence.
Queue up, collect the “HaramBEE” food and feed the families. Some others collect cloths “found” in lost containers to dress up decently and secure their voter’s cards.
Come Election Day, they will cast their votes and go home smiling; knowing, at the back of their heads, that they have made informed decisions – decisions informed by the tactics of the past era.
