EDITORIAL: Where are the manifestos?
The elections are barely four months away and no political party has yet come out with a clear plan or policy pronouncement on pressing issues facing the country. Instead, we have been fed blasphemous rhetoric about who will go to heaven or hell, depending on their decision in the ballot box.
One of the basic questions that many have conveniently ducked is regarding the issue of homosexuality. Very few parties – Swapo included – have made their stance known. We may pretend that issues such as same-sex marriage are not priorities, but they keep lurking around us.
Even on the economic front, there are no clear policy pronouncements regarding how these parties will handle oil discoveries, amid murmurs of discontent over perceived ‘token’ equity stakes in these discoveries.
And, with mixed faith in green hydrogen, will all parties carry on with this project for which the Namibian government – irrespective of who is leading it – must pay N$16 billion? Or should investors fear that another political party, other than Swapo under whose government the current activities are being carried out, would pull the plug if elected into power? Investors have a right to know.
How would our mining sector work under an LPM government? Would a PDM government maintain the current 3% stake in the Rössing Uranium mine, increase it or divest altogether?
Voters need answers, yet not a single manifesto has been released. They’re all seemingly too scared to go first. If simple things like this scare politicians, what about leading a nation of three million people, each with their diverse individual and community interests?
One of the basic questions that many have conveniently ducked is regarding the issue of homosexuality. Very few parties – Swapo included – have made their stance known. We may pretend that issues such as same-sex marriage are not priorities, but they keep lurking around us.
Even on the economic front, there are no clear policy pronouncements regarding how these parties will handle oil discoveries, amid murmurs of discontent over perceived ‘token’ equity stakes in these discoveries.
And, with mixed faith in green hydrogen, will all parties carry on with this project for which the Namibian government – irrespective of who is leading it – must pay N$16 billion? Or should investors fear that another political party, other than Swapo under whose government the current activities are being carried out, would pull the plug if elected into power? Investors have a right to know.
How would our mining sector work under an LPM government? Would a PDM government maintain the current 3% stake in the Rössing Uranium mine, increase it or divest altogether?
Voters need answers, yet not a single manifesto has been released. They’re all seemingly too scared to go first. If simple things like this scare politicians, what about leading a nation of three million people, each with their diverse individual and community interests?
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Namibian Sun
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