Can Namibia save its Constitution from being amended?

After a week of discussions and demonstrations, there still is no final result to be reported. Can we save our Constitution from being amended arbitrarily by the SWAPO government with its two thirds majority?

Some how I have grave doubts today.

Quite a few public persons have spoken out against the proposed amendments.
Human rights organizations have initiated a campaign in opposition to the bill being passed, but the people as such are still too ill informed and too intimidated to really speak up. AND the rest of the world is too busy with their own problems to think of supporting a small African nation like Namibia.

The ONLINE PETITION has come to a standstill at a mere 250 signatures. This by no means reflects the convictions of the Namibian people, but their intimidated status.  It isn't a question of not having access to the internet either, because many of them have that via their i-phones these days. NO, fear of retribution keeps them from speaking up in public or sharing the link with others. 

The DEMONSTRATION  in Windhoek did not deliver any meaningful turn up and information about it is being hidden. Sure, it was arranged on short notice and only advertised via social media, but once again, fear of retribution kept the turnout low, especially after riot police was deployed the previous week at a meeting organized by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

It remains to be seen if the CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT  by Misa will deliver any results at all. 

So, the coming week will most probably see the bill being passed by the two thirds majority in parliament. SWAPO wants a one party dictatorship and they will get it, come high or low water. That is why they did not ratify the AFRICAN CHARTER ON DEMOCRACY, ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE.

Namibians fight for their Constitution

The Constitution Amendment Bill is to be tabled in the Namibian parliament today. We, the people of Namibia, do not want to be railroaded into this before the November elections. So we've started an online petition , as well as an email/fax petition to the Ombudsman.

Our petition to the Ombudsman will most likely not deliver any fruit, if we look back to his achievements with the police, but according to our Constitution he is our line to follow if we have a complaint against governing institutions. So we take that line of defense anyhow.

Online petitions  only work if thousands of people sign it.
Below is an excerpt from a longer video about how the people of Nanaimo in Canada won their case against their city councilors. You can find the complete story HERE




             

Namibians, however, haven't yet gotten used to sharing news online with others. So this petition hasn't yet really taken off. By the time it does, the amendments will most probably have been implemented.

Thursday 7 August a demonstration  is to take place in Windhoek, our capital city. Yet even that is approached with mixed feelings.