From colonialism to freedom and democracy: Role of an effective public service in the political transition—the Namibian experience
| Published date | 01 November 2006 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230150306 |
| Author | Hage G. Geingob |
| Date | 01 November 2006 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT,
VOL.
15, 211-215 (1995)
From colonialism to freedom and democracy:
role of an effective public service in the political
transition-the Namibian experience
HAGE G. GEINGOB
Republic
of
Namibia
Namibia became independent at the beginning of a decade in which democratic
values have been gaining ground globally. In the Southern African region, this
change started in Namibia. Now that political liberalization is taking root in many
other countries, Namibia’s experience in sustaining progress in political transition
becomes relevant even though events leading to political transformation in the
various countries have been quite diverse. This is partly because of its success and
partly because of its timeliness. For instance, Namibia’s transformation was from
colonialism to freedom and democracy, but in many other countries recent
transformation has been from one party state to multi-party state or from
command economies to market economies with accompanying political changes.
All these changes have one thing in common-transition to political and economic
democracy.
In Namibia, transition to independence was made possible through long years of
struggle that, in their wake, left considerable negative feelings between different
racial and ethnic communities. Prior to independence, the policy of apartheid, based
on racism, was promoted to protect the interests of the privileged minority. Political
and civil service structures
in
the country were intertwined, both dedicated to
promoting this policy.
Our first task therefore was to create an environment that would be conducive to
the new political order. This task involved changing the political structures to reflect
the new reality, making a conscious effort to minimize hatred and mistrust built up
over a century
of
colonialism and restructuring the public service to remove the
inequities of the past and to make it an instrument
of
change.
Changing the political structures was greatly helped by the fact that on
independence, the departure of South Africans provided the new government with
a clean slate. The new political structures were therefore partly in place at the outset.
On the other hand, to help people overcome the century-old prejudices required a
concerted and long-term strategy.
To
address this problem, we adopted a policy of
reconciliation. Reconciliation was seen as the only realistic way of cultivating a
national ethos in a society that for over a century had been racially and ethnically
stratified. In retrospect, it has been enormously satisfing that the past four and a half
The
Rt.
Hon. Hage G. Geingob
is
Prime Minister
of
the
Republic
of
Namibia.
CCC
0271-2075/95/03021145
0
1995
by
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
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