Leadership requires top level maturity to ensure that those entrusted with power wield it for the greater good.
The bellicose jingoism by many members of parliament (MPs) over same-sex marriage is behaviour that one expects from a mob and thugs, not from ‘honourables’.
For the record, there have been a few voices of reason: Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) MPs Inna Hengari and Maximalliant Katjimune, as well as Swapo veteran Calle Schlettwein, have sounded caution that the crusade is not in the spirit of the Namibian Constitution.
Mob rule has decreed unanimity.
Expletives and attacks on judges by parliamentary mob leader Jerry Ekandjo are well documented. Gosh, president Hage Geingob must be embarrassed every time his appointee to the National Assembly stands up to speak on any point.
It is when younger leaders join the morality police band wagon that we should all worry about the future of Namibia.
PDM’s Vipua Muharukua is a lawyer of the Namibian courts. He should appreciate the importance of the constitutional provisions on the separation of powers between the executive, judiciary and the legislature.
Alas, Muharukua sounds like someone overdosed on the drugs of power: “The bills have passed unanimously. The president will have to sign the bills once we have passed them in the National Council.”
What about article 64 of the Constitution? “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the president shall be entitled to withhold his or her assent to a bill approved by the National Assembly if, in the president’s opinion, such bill would upon adoption conflict with the provisions of this Constitution.”
Still Muharukua erupts further into agressive jingoism: “If they go to court, we’ll change the Constitution with 95% of the vote, and also look at how the judges are appointed to produce such absurd, unpatriotic results.”
No wonder the expression “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”.
The Namibian Constitution is not a piece of paper to chop and change at will when the prevailing majority don’t like its provisions, especially on basic human rights.
Lest we forget, the Namibian Constitution is an expression of values born out of a painful colonial and apartheid past.
Muharukua and the current homophobic majority might want to remind themselves by looking at the Immorality Act as an abuse of power by people who believed they could set societal standards about who should love who, and have sex with whom.
Black and white people were not allowed to have love relationships. Sex work was outlawed by the same hypocritical men who would benefit from underground prostitution.
Unsurprisingly, homosexuality and harmless consensual sex committed in the comfort of privacy was prohibited on the pretext of religious and societal standards.
Yet here we are – using the same tactics as racists, colonists and the apartheid regime. This time our lawmakers are abusing power against fellow citizens in a democratic, independent Namibia.
Most worrying perhaps, coming from a lawyer, who should know better is a lack of appreciation for the importance of the separation of powers between lawmakers and the judiciary by seeing it as a weakness rather than a strength.
Muharukua, beware the double-edged sword of changing the Constitution to appoint judges to your liking. Such moves will have a chilling effect that will destroy the foundations of democracy, which is about accepting that even the minority have rights.
Trying to bully judges because they took a decision MPs don’t like is a sure route to destroying the rule of law and instilling the rule of man. Principles and progressive values should always take precedence over prejudice.
Namibia was established through a negotiated settlement rooted in respect for universal rights as core values underlying our democracy.
Let’s not allow great values to go to the dogs.
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