We voted, now democracy begins
By Victor Angula /
Namibians went to the polls yesterday to elect their new leaders at the regional councils and the local councils.
Those who went out to vote, they did a good thing. They did a good thing for themselves and for their country.
A country must have leaders. Regions and towns must have leaders. The primary task of political leaders is to run the public affairs of the country, region or town – and bring about development.
In this case we went to vote for our regional leaders and town leaders. This very act of voting for our leaders is the beginning of democracy.
It doesn’t matter who has won. Anyone who is elected by majority vote is a leader for all.
Now that the leaders are elected, democracy must start. Democracy is when those in government positions do what we tell them to do because it’s helping us improve our lives or make us live better lives.
Democracy is participation in government activities. Everything done by these leaders must be in the best interest of the people, the people who voted.
If things are not going well with our lives, we must go to our leaders. The purpose of voting for them is so that they can work for us. It doesn’t matter what problem we may be facing or what situation we may be in, we have our leaders.
The purpose of leaders is to lead, to lead people out of unfavourable situations. They must use public funds to lead us out of poverty if necessary.
We take our economic hardships to our leaders. We take our social problems to our leaders.
Of course every one of us has a responsibility to take care of themselves; but where we are unable or are failing, we have our leaders.
Nobody ever again should go and hang himself. Nobody should die from depression. Nobody should suffer from unemployment. We have our leaders, and they will serve us for the next five years.
– Victor Angula is the editor of Omutumwa News Online. He can be reached at victorangula@yahoo.com
