Africa-Press – Namibia. Analysts are cautioning against hunting down Swapo ‘traitors’, after president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s comments at the party’s anniversary last weekend have driven members to point fingers at each other.
Landless People’s Movement parliamentarian Utaara Mootu was elected as deputy chairperson of the Standing Committee on International Relations, Defence and Security during a National Assembly session last week. The election results suggest that a Swapo member broke party lines to vote for her, a move the president slammed during her speech.
“As your leader I must tell you that, for me, as I stand now, members of that committee are all suspect of having sold out the party,” Nandi-Ndaitwah stated.
Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah has suggested that taking further actions against possible dissenters could lead the party down a dangerous path.
Kamwanyah explained that while it is natural for parties to desire allegiance, sometimes people vote based on their own conscience rather than party loyalty.
“What would be wrong is for the party to try to hunt down that person because that person voted otherwise. I think that will be a very bad approach, very intimidating to the parties that are standing up because of their own conscience. And I don’t think they should go that way, because it will haunt them in the future,” Kamwanyah argued.
“Yes, maybe they must educate their members to show that loyalty and all those kinds of things. But you are not going to have 100% loyalty because people differ, people have different perspectives and they respect their choices. So, don’t force them to vote the way you want. Then that will become a dictatorship, not a democracy.”
Political scientist Rui Tyitende described Nandi-Ndaitwah’s comments as “very unfortunate”, highlighting the importance of freedom to express opinions outside of party lines in a democratic nation.
“People are allowed to have a mind of their own, they are allowed to engage in critical thinking, they are allowed to express views that they deem to be pivotal to our national discourse in our country’s development. So, from time to time, they might divert from the official party line or party stance and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that,” he said.
Tyitende added that instances such as this one consolidate democracy, showing that people are engaging with issues critically rather than resorting to groupthink.
He also emphasised the need to strike a balance between the needs of the party and the needs of the country, saying that the latter should always be prioritised.
“Yes, she perhaps has a point that for the sake of party unity, at times you need to speak with one voice. But before being party members, these people are also individuals… in the sense that they have their own minds, they are able to think about certain things and we do not live in a dictatorship or in North Korea where the dictate of the president is law,” Tyitende said.
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