30.04.10
The Real Reason For Militarisation
THE editor, Gwen Lister, in her weekly column ‘Political Perspective’ (April 23 2010) expressed her concern about the militarisation of our society. We fully concur with her position and would like to further the discussion of this crucial issue.
It is true that Namibia is at peace with its neighbours, but in our view this increased military budget is really aimed at ‘internal enemies’. It is about time for Namibians to wake up to what is really going on around them.
The Finance Minister seemed clearly unable to motivate this increasing militarisation or perhaps that was deliberate to hide the true intentions. However, when she spoke about ‘our enemies,’ we should understand that she really meant those who are not Swapo and those who are not part of the elite.
In the short term, the Namibian military is being prepared for a Zimbabwe-type situation in this country. Given Swapo’s long history of political intolerance, if the political opposition (RDP?) were to defeat the ruling party in the next general elections, it is highly likely that the Namibian military would launch a campaign of intimidation at grassroots level and keep Swapo in power.
This might sound farfetched at this time but are we prepared to take the risk? We should stop fooling ourselves with the myth of Namibian exceptionalism. It happened in Zimbabwe and it could definitively happen here. In the long term, the Namibian military would be a tool to suppress an uprising by the working class. With the austerity measures implemented by the Swapo government, the only route open to the elite is the repression of the people.
This is the real explanation for the ever-increasing budgets of both the military and the police. The Swapo government’s structural adjustment policies mean high unemployment, high water and electricity prices, wage and salary freezes, downscaling of education and health, low salaries for teachers, nurses and other public sector workers, etc. This translates into a constant decline in living standards for the majority of the people.
Sooner or later, the people would no longer be fooled by populist nationalism and will rise up. That is why the ruling class needs a strong state – a big army and police – to prepare themselves for the eventual uprisings. In the case of Namibia, there is a significant intersection of tribe and social class, i.e. a convergence exists between Oshiwambo-speakers and the ruling class.
In this sense, we wish to say to that insightful intellectual, Alexactus Kaure, that the Marxist analysis remains relevant in Namibia. In fact, the re-militarisation of Namibia is an example of the ‘Africanisation’ of politics here, although we disagree that this is only confined to this continent. The brave resistance of the red-shirts in Thailand against the military regime there is a case in point. It is also true that the logic of tribalism only leads to increasing social fragmentation and disunity, but ultimately it is all about economic power and greed.
This is why the right-wing of Swapo is the most dangerous political force in this country because that tendency uses tribalism as a smokescreen to get to the economic resources. And it is usually middle class leaders that promote tribalism for their selfish interests.
The elite are only focused on looting the country. Tribalism is just the surface reality. We agree with the interesting Alfredo Hengari that Nahas Angula is a politician with depth amongst many shallows, but Angula’s tragedy is that Swapo is in office but not in power. That is why the office of the prime minister and parliament in general are ineffective in terms of the important issues of the country.
The limitations of this government are a reflection of the huge economic compromises that Swapo made at the negotiations for political independence. The petty-bourgeois nationalism only brought us a hollow political independence and no economic emancipation. In fact, the colonial regime used to have social-democratic policies, but the Swapo government secretly agreed to austerity measures which result in permanent and ever-worsening pauperisation of the people. The populist nationalism of Swapo is just the empty rhetoric of a greedy elite.
This is why the militarisation of Namibia will continue. The peoples of Thailand, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia are fighting back, why can’t we? We should start an anti-militarisation campaign now. T. Itembu and K. Basson Katutura
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Namibia is being militarised 
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Originally Posted by tjommie 
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