Time to show resilience- Van Rooyen
By Hilary Mare
NAMIBIA needs to remind itself that is it resilient and it can and will stand back up if individually and collectively the nation works towards it, Group Managing Director & Executive Director of Trustco Group Holdings, Dr Quinton van Rooyen has sad.
Speaking at the turn of the year and in view of prospects facing Namibia this year, van Rooyen reiterated that even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
“We cannot do so if we allow others whose self-interest works against our national interest, either via corruption or by co-opting national processes and institutions. We need to stand strong against those who would oppose the will of the people.
“We need to show the world that while some in Namibia may be corrupt, we as a nation are not. We cannot denigrate our nation and expect others to respect us. Let’s show them we can be respectable even in the face of factionalism and adversity,” he said.
He further noted that citizens need to remember national core values of unity, liberty, justice.
“Together we can prosper, with freedom, as long as justice prevails. We as a nation can exemplify these values with dignity, a constitutional obligation that Namibia requires from each and every one of us. Our freedom, peace and justice will flow from there. We need to ensure our high ethical standards are exemplified in our schools, work places, social media and other gatherings, showcasing our transparency and ethical culture. We should grow our culture of national dialogue in the spirit of give and take.”
Van Rooyen further spoke of the need to enable oversight to facilitate and entrench these ethical standards, so the supervision becomes the safeguard against those who would poison and destroy others.
With these tools in hand, he said that Namibia can start stamping out the cancer of corruption that has taken hold, and finish the cleansing process to strengthen the rule of law, and restore the dignity of those institutions that were assaulted by greed.
“We need to respect our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow citizens, and address the social ills of our nation. While we are facing corruption in government, at home we are faced with a corruption of family – Gender-based violence. Let us stand together to stamp out both. We must unite against poverty and help our fellow citizens wherever they are struggling. We cannot begrudge success, and those who have achieved it, should not pull up the ladder and deny that success to others. We cannot punish the bad without also rewarding the good, and true success should not be brought under suspicion by the actions of those who fed off greed.
“We must start creating our own wealth to combat economic lethargy, and support Namibian entrepreneurs. The rest of the world will not assist us, unless we can assist ourselves, and entrepreneurship is the bedrock from which wealth will grow.
“We need to stop coveting what we don’t have, and start focusing on what we do have – only then will we be able to turn our country into a truly self-sufficient nation. We, as Namibians, must recognize that the root of corruption is caring about ‘wanting’ instead of ‘needing.’ The needs of our nation should inspire us, not the wants,” extended van Rooyen.
Lastly he noted that many people desire prosperity only for themselves and their friends as they are quite content that their enemies should suffer.
“We have now become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be prosperous yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also prosper.”