Namibia at 20: Good lessons from Malaysia - by Armas Abdul Malik Shikongo
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My four years of advanced academic studies in Malaysia (must) have given me some level of privilege to make some comparative observations between Namibia and Malaysia, in relation to development and progress. This may be relevant in the context of our Independence Anniversary.
Malaysia has been politically independent and socio-economically developing for more than 50 years now.
Namibia will only be politically independent for 20 years, exactly on the 21st March 2010.
The differences between Namibia and Malaysia can already be observed even at that superficial level. In terms of population, Namibia is estimated to be just above 2 million, while Malaysia is now close to 30 million, about 27 million, according to recent statistics.
Namibia is a predominantly Christian nation, with over 95% of the population professing Christianity, while Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim society, with over 60% of the population professing Islam.
Some similarities are that both societies are multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual. These are some of the features that can potentially complicate harmonious socio-economic development.
Politically, Namibia is a secular democracy, while Malaysia is mixture of democracy, monarchy and elements of Islamic theocracy, a very interesting combination!
For example, the Malaysian Constitution makes Islam the official religion, while, of course, making clear provisions for freedom of religion, culture, language and political association.
An interesting and unique political situation in Malaysia is that there is a permanent coalition government (Barisan Nasional - loosely translated as National Coalition), with three major parties working together but separately, namely, the majority party of the Malays (UMNO); (MCA) for the Chinese, the second largest population group and one other party (MIC) representing the Indian community, who are the third largest population group.
It also has an active political opposition, made up of other political parties in another coalitions. There are other many social and political formations in Malaysia, looking after various interests and social issues.
What is fascinating about such a socio-political arrangement is that the major political parties are not expected to lose their political and ideological identities; the parties remain separate by largely concentrating their political activities within their own racial groups.
After elections if the BN wins, for example, the government is thus made up of ministers from all three parties, allocated substantive ministries and responsibilities. BN has been in power for the last 50 years.
Being a federal state, BN only lost some few states to the opposition coalition, in 2008, having been in charge of most of the 13 states of federal Malaysia, with an exception of one state that has been in the hands of the Islamic Party of Malaysia for a couple of years.
The influence of religion is very strong in Malaysia, with a large section of the Malaysian society adhering to various traditional religious values and morals.
Yet clearly observable are the high levels of modernization and very sophisticated use of modern technology in the Malaysia society.
The importance of a moderate, progressive and self-confident political leadership is further evident, especially when one looks at the major reasons for such a modern and progressive society to come about, needless to say, with the universal human imperfections.
It became very clear to me that visionary and bold leadership is the key to peaceful, stable and balanced development.
As a federal state, as opposed to a unitary state, like in the case of Namibia, Malaysia seems to have tried her level best to decentralize economic and infrastructural developments, on an equitably basis.
Evident also is the modernization of their agricultural sector. In terms of natural resources, Malaysia seems to be more endowed with all kinds of essential natural resources, oil, gas, palm oil and of course, human resources.
The country receives rain, literally, throughout the year! It is, thus, very green, hence full of all kinds of freshly homegrown fruits and vegetables, most of which I only saw and tasted there for the first time - in my life.
The weather is always hot and humid, not always favourable for the human respiratory system, as most of the time people have to use air-cons and fans, thus, depriving the human body of fresh and clean air. My six-year-old daughter suffered a lot from that. That was one part that made my family and I to miss Namibia, with so much fresh air, legendary wide open spaces and of course, way less crowded than Malaysia.
The Malaysian weather seemed to be good for my skin though, as I had no reason to use body lotion at all!
Having stayed in Kuala Lumpur, the high-tech capital city of Malaysia, it was enough to make us socio-phobic, with its estimated 4 million inhabitants, but, we loved the shopping malls and affordable and exotic food!
There are number of differences and few similarities between Namibia and Malaysia, as evident from the preceding remarks and personal observations. Following are personal observations - I would, thus, like to further expand on them and later share some of what I feel are good lessons to borrow from Malaysia, that could possibly and contextually be applied to Namibia.
My being in Malaysia was primarily academic, yet the other personal motivation was also faith-based. Being a Muslim, Malaysia became an attractive destination of study, due its Islamic and Muslim nature, and the fact that the university where I went to study was an English medium institution, apart from Malaysia being a Commonwealth nation, something it shares with Namibia.
I also had an impression that Malaysia was a moderate, progressive and modern Muslim nation, so that was an added motivation for me to choose Malaysia as my country of choice for academic study.
Having been there for four years, I must say I was largely impressed with their level of development, generally moderate and progressive politically leadership and fairly harmonious society, despite the ugly recent incidents that were linked to some extremist elements in Malaysia. Yuck! Extremists have a nasty talent as serious spoilers!
Being a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-lingual society, Malaysia for the large part of her national existence has done particularly well to maintain peace and stability, thanks to their able and enlightened political leadership and of course, the tolerant nature of the Malaysian people.
Maybe the weather has also something to do with it, as the Malaysian personality seems to be generally peace-oriented, which goes a long way to facilitate social harmony and creating a conducive environment for accelerated economic development.
I was particularly impressed with their level of industrialization and infrastructural development. Malaysia is, thus, a place of serious technological innovation and manufacturing, producing so many of their goods for domestic use and export.
For example, Malaysia manufactures her own cars, the Protons. They also have their own oil and gas industries that are well developed and seemingly their profits put to good use for the benefit of the whole society.
The transformation of Malaysia from an agrarian economy some 50 years back, to a super highway information society today, is really something to emulate for Namibia.
It also seemed to me that the time of Dr Mahathir Mohamed saw a lot of smart developments in Malaysia, making Malaysia to be included in the so-called Asian Tigers, a category of countries that accelerated their economic developments
Clearly, societies are unique, at so many levels, due to different historical influences, hence the difference in many areas, as well.
For example, the historical influence of Islam as a global faith and civilization on Malaysia is clearly evident everywhere.
From my own perspective, it appeared that Islam played a very positive role in their societal development, of course, in addition to other factors, as well.
The Islamic influence is particularly evident in the dress code, lack of high levels of alcoholism and substance abuse.
The Islamic social ethics also seem to have made it easy for Malaysia to have some of the lowest statistics on HIV/Aids.
With regard to alcoholism, it was very fascinating to note that no public adverts of alcoholic beverages are freely allowed in the media.
For the past fours in Malaysia, we have never seen a single advert about alcohol on national TV or even in the print media or big billboards, especially in some places where we have had a chance to travel to, that as well included no adverts of cigarettes.
In fact, most of the public advertising in relation to alcohol and cigarettes was negative and de-campaigning, not commercial and promotional. With regard to drugs, there is a law in Malaysia that recommends capital punishment to serious offenders, whether national or expatriates! Illicit drugs are just a serious menace to society. Little mercy there!
When, it comes to health, practical religion and education, these are the crucial areas where Namibia has a lot to learn from Malaysia. The numbers of schools, universities, colleges and learning institutions are so many, comparable only to hospitals, clinics, and health centers.
Being a Muslim nation, there is also a very high number of mosques, very beautiful ones, at that! I happen to have been attending one of the most prestigious academic Islamic institutions in the country, nay, in the Muslim world, the International Islamic University Malaysia.
The university is so well equipped and highly developed, in terms of infrastructure, in such a way that technology is also fully integrated in the entire teaching, researching and administrative systems!
The resources of the university are not even comparable to the City of Windhoek, in the case of Namibia, despite the affluence of the latter. For example, the bus system and general transport system of the university is fantastic! But, here in Namibia, the Municipality of Windhoek seems to think and deceive the paying public that by simply painting pre-Independence buses is a serious development!
It is really pathetic to note that even SWAPO buses have been replaced with new, fancy and proper buses, something that has escaped the CoW up to now, 20 years after independence!
It was also nice to note that the university highly and practically encourages student entrepreneurship. The whole campus is a hive of commercial activities by students and staff alike.
Some students fully fund their academic studies from their business activities on campus. As a case in point, Unam with so much under-utilized and un-used spaces can learn a lot on this!
Such a practice is a practical bridge between theory and practical experience on site! Maybe Unam can use the available spaces for this, as well.
Obviously, with regulation and control, this would be a chance for employment creation.
It was also heartening to see the respect of the family unit at the university. Most students are married (and marrying), staying with their families in Malaysia - renting very affordable houses, flats and condominiums, around the university campus, since family accommodation is not yet available on campus.
In my case, I was also with my family, wife and daughter; we were renting a three-bedroom house, at just above N$1000. 00. That is, for the entire duration of our stay there, without increase!
As a family of three our water bill never went beyond N$25.00 and our electricity bill also never went beyond N$180.00. Despite the fact, I was ever up researching.
In fact, for the first two years we used to pay water. However, a change was later introduced for the residents of Selangor state, where Kuala Lumpur is situated, that if the water bill does not go beyond about N$25.00, or 10 MR, the household need not pay water.
We were beneficiaries to that arrangement for the last two years! Our water bill was, thus, 0.00, for the past two years (2008-2009), an example of true pro-social government policies!
The same level of life affordability permeates the economic system of Malaysia, to a point where we decided to buy some high purchase goods in Malaysia rather than in Namibia due to the almost criminally high cost of living in the motherland - Namibia. No regrets.
For the first time, I realized that affordable cost of living is possible, only that political will and wisdom must be there, not just empty eulogies of natural resources and flowery political rhetoric that do not put food on the table or clothes on the bodies of the economically vulnerable.
The Malaysian government's pro-people policies are also reflected in its establishment of a Price Control Board, whereby in times of economic crises or slowdown like the recent or current one, the government legally puts a cap on the prices of basic goods, and anyone found to be in violation of the law, faces the full wrath of the law!
Namibia claims to be a so-called mixed economy, by constitutional stipulation, but where the economic mixture, when only the capitalist dimension is allowed to run amok, to a point where our Minister of Trade, recently almost helplessly confessed in the media that Namibia is simply a "capitalist state"?
Isn't that supposed to be unconstitutional, if my layman reading and understanding of the Namibian constitution is right?
With regard to political and media freedoms, Malaysia is not doing badly at all, although, if one were to ask the Opposition in Malaysia, they may disagree with me on this one, but I am entitled to my own observations.
Yet, truly-speaking Malaysia is doing well, regarding the media - there is even an observation that the media has become more freer in recent times, thanks to the alternative media, in the form of the Internet and particularly the use of social networks, such as blogging, facebooking, friendstering and twitting.
As a matter of fact, all the major politicians in Malaysia have their own active and informative blogs, including the current Prime Minister His Excellency Mr Abdul Razak Najib.
The former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir, recently published a book of his blog postings, still very much intellectually and politically active, an Information Society in full force. It looks like in Namibia we are not quite there yet.
With regard to education, it was evident that to facilitate early childhood and primary education the government has provided a lot of school buses for students, apart from the various types of cheap public transport.
In addition to metered taxis, there is an additional and affordable public transport system in the forms of public buses, LRTs, monorails and commuters. Some of those different types of transport are not even available or known in Namibia, maybe Malaysia was also forced that direction by its own population size to control congestion, since the population is much bigger than Namibia's.
Yet, what is clear is the serious government and private sector efforts to improve and modernize public transport for the people living in modern times. Lessons from Malaysia are so many and space so little to enumerate - however, the idea is to share the little that can be fitted in a discussion paper like this.
Understanding the socio-cultural and historical contexts between Namibia and Malaysia, it is clear, that some of the problems and achievements will not be the same and thus, it may not be easy and fair to compare all aspects of different societies and make sweeping statements about them.
Hence, the intention of this paper is meant for reflection, appreciation and critical input to our own national efforts towards the realization of Namibian's Vision 2030.
One big lesson I got from Malaysia is : It is entirely possible for any government and society to genuinely and equitably look after its own people, unless there is there no political will or there is a severe lack of ethical wisdom!
- Armas Abdul Malik Shikongo, counselling psychologist and psychology lecturer at the University of Namibia. Armas completed his PhD thesis (late 2009), on the theme of Psychology of Religious Conversion.
The opinions and observations are made in full sincerity and done in his private capacity.
Lessons from Malaysia are so many and space so little to enumerate - however, the idea is to share the little that can be fitted in a discussion paper like this.
Understanding the socio-cultural and historical contexts between Namibia and Malaysia, it is clear, that some of the problems and achievements will not be the same and thus, it may not be easy and fair to compare all aspects of different societies and make sweeping statements about them.
Hence, the intention of this paper is meant for reflection, appreciation and critical input to our own national efforts towards the realization of Namibian's Vision 2030.
One big lesson I got from Malaysia is : It is entirely possible for any government and society to genuinely and equitably look after its own people, unless there is there no political will or there is a severe lack of ethical wisdom!
- Armas Abdul Malik Shikongo, counselling psychologist and psychology lecturer at the University of Namibia. Armas completed his PhD thesis (late 2009), on the theme of Psychology of Religious Conversion.
The opinions and observations are made in full sincerity and done in his private capacity.
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Malaysia has been politically independent and socio-economically developing for more than 50 years now.
Namibia will only be politically independent for 20 years, exactly on the 21st March 2010.
The differences between Namibia and Malaysia can already be observed even at that superficial level. In terms of population, Namibia is estimated to be just above 2 million, while Malaysia is now close to 30 million, about 27 million, according to recent statistics.
Namibia is a predominantly Christian nation, with over 95% of the population professing Christianity, while Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim society, with over 60% of the population professing Islam.
Some similarities are that both societies are multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual. These are some of the features that can potentially complicate harmonious socio-economic development.
Politically, Namibia is a secular democracy, while Malaysia is mixture of democracy, monarchy and elements of Islamic theocracy, a very interesting combination!
For example, the Malaysian Constitution makes Islam the official religion, while, of course, making clear provisions for freedom of religion, culture, language and political association.
An interesting and unique political situation in Malaysia is that there is a permanent coalition government (Barisan Nasional - loosely translated as National Coalition), with three major parties working together but separately, namely, the majority party of the Malays (UMNO); (MCA) for the Chinese, the second largest population group and one other party (MIC) representing the Indian community, who are the third largest population group.
It also has an active political opposition, made up of other political parties in another coalitions. There are other many social and political formations in Malaysia, looking after various interests and social issues.
What is fascinating about such a socio-political arrangement is that the major political parties are not expected to lose their political and ideological identities; the parties remain separate by largely concentrating their political activities within their own racial groups.
After elections if the BN wins, for example, the government is thus made up of ministers from all three parties, allocated substantive ministries and responsibilities. BN has been in power for the last 50 years.
Being a federal state, BN only lost some few states to the opposition coalition, in 2008, having been in charge of most of the 13 states of federal Malaysia, with an exception of one state that has been in the hands of the Islamic Party of Malaysia for a couple of years.
The influence of religion is very strong in Malaysia, with a large section of the Malaysian society adhering to various traditional religious values and morals.
Yet clearly observable are the high levels of modernization and very sophisticated use of modern technology in the Malaysia society.
The importance of a moderate, progressive and self-confident political leadership is further evident, especially when one looks at the major reasons for such a modern and progressive society to come about, needless to say, with the universal human imperfections.
It became very clear to me that visionary and bold leadership is the key to peaceful, stable and balanced development.
As a federal state, as opposed to a unitary state, like in the case of Namibia, Malaysia seems to have tried her level best to decentralize economic and infrastructural developments, on an equitably basis.
Evident also is the modernization of their agricultural sector. In terms of natural resources, Malaysia seems to be more endowed with all kinds of essential natural resources, oil, gas, palm oil and of course, human resources.
The country receives rain, literally, throughout the year! It is, thus, very green, hence full of all kinds of freshly homegrown fruits and vegetables, most of which I only saw and tasted there for the first time - in my life.
The weather is always hot and humid, not always favourable for the human respiratory system, as most of the time people have to use air-cons and fans, thus, depriving the human body of fresh and clean air. My six-year-old daughter suffered a lot from that. That was one part that made my family and I to miss Namibia, with so much fresh air, legendary wide open spaces and of course, way less crowded than Malaysia.
The Malaysian weather seemed to be good for my skin though, as I had no reason to use body lotion at all!
Having stayed in Kuala Lumpur, the high-tech capital city of Malaysia, it was enough to make us socio-phobic, with its estimated 4 million inhabitants, but, we loved the shopping malls and affordable and exotic food!
There are number of differences and few similarities between Namibia and Malaysia, as evident from the preceding remarks and personal observations. Following are personal observations - I would, thus, like to further expand on them and later share some of what I feel are good lessons to borrow from Malaysia, that could possibly and contextually be applied to Namibia.
My being in Malaysia was primarily academic, yet the other personal motivation was also faith-based. Being a Muslim, Malaysia became an attractive destination of study, due its Islamic and Muslim nature, and the fact that the university where I went to study was an English medium institution, apart from Malaysia being a Commonwealth nation, something it shares with Namibia.
I also had an impression that Malaysia was a moderate, progressive and modern Muslim nation, so that was an added motivation for me to choose Malaysia as my country of choice for academic study.
Having been there for four years, I must say I was largely impressed with their level of development, generally moderate and progressive politically leadership and fairly harmonious society, despite the ugly recent incidents that were linked to some extremist elements in Malaysia. Yuck! Extremists have a nasty talent as serious spoilers!
Being a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-lingual society, Malaysia for the large part of her national existence has done particularly well to maintain peace and stability, thanks to their able and enlightened political leadership and of course, the tolerant nature of the Malaysian people.
Maybe the weather has also something to do with it, as the Malaysian personality seems to be generally peace-oriented, which goes a long way to facilitate social harmony and creating a conducive environment for accelerated economic development.
I was particularly impressed with their level of industrialization and infrastructural development. Malaysia is, thus, a place of serious technological innovation and manufacturing, producing so many of their goods for domestic use and export.
For example, Malaysia manufactures her own cars, the Protons. They also have their own oil and gas industries that are well developed and seemingly their profits put to good use for the benefit of the whole society.
The transformation of Malaysia from an agrarian economy some 50 years back, to a super highway information society today, is really something to emulate for Namibia.
It also seemed to me that the time of Dr Mahathir Mohamed saw a lot of smart developments in Malaysia, making Malaysia to be included in the so-called Asian Tigers, a category of countries that accelerated their economic developments
Clearly, societies are unique, at so many levels, due to different historical influences, hence the difference in many areas, as well.
For example, the historical influence of Islam as a global faith and civilization on Malaysia is clearly evident everywhere.
From my own perspective, it appeared that Islam played a very positive role in their societal development, of course, in addition to other factors, as well.
The Islamic influence is particularly evident in the dress code, lack of high levels of alcoholism and substance abuse.
The Islamic social ethics also seem to have made it easy for Malaysia to have some of the lowest statistics on HIV/Aids.
With regard to alcoholism, it was very fascinating to note that no public adverts of alcoholic beverages are freely allowed in the media.
For the past fours in Malaysia, we have never seen a single advert about alcohol on national TV or even in the print media or big billboards, especially in some places where we have had a chance to travel to, that as well included no adverts of cigarettes.
In fact, most of the public advertising in relation to alcohol and cigarettes was negative and de-campaigning, not commercial and promotional. With regard to drugs, there is a law in Malaysia that recommends capital punishment to serious offenders, whether national or expatriates! Illicit drugs are just a serious menace to society. Little mercy there!
When, it comes to health, practical religion and education, these are the crucial areas where Namibia has a lot to learn from Malaysia. The numbers of schools, universities, colleges and learning institutions are so many, comparable only to hospitals, clinics, and health centers.
Being a Muslim nation, there is also a very high number of mosques, very beautiful ones, at that! I happen to have been attending one of the most prestigious academic Islamic institutions in the country, nay, in the Muslim world, the International Islamic University Malaysia.
The university is so well equipped and highly developed, in terms of infrastructure, in such a way that technology is also fully integrated in the entire teaching, researching and administrative systems!
The resources of the university are not even comparable to the City of Windhoek, in the case of Namibia, despite the affluence of the latter. For example, the bus system and general transport system of the university is fantastic! But, here in Namibia, the Municipality of Windhoek seems to think and deceive the paying public that by simply painting pre-Independence buses is a serious development!
It is really pathetic to note that even SWAPO buses have been replaced with new, fancy and proper buses, something that has escaped the CoW up to now, 20 years after independence!
It was also nice to note that the university highly and practically encourages student entrepreneurship. The whole campus is a hive of commercial activities by students and staff alike.
Some students fully fund their academic studies from their business activities on campus. As a case in point, Unam with so much under-utilized and un-used spaces can learn a lot on this!
Such a practice is a practical bridge between theory and practical experience on site! Maybe Unam can use the available spaces for this, as well.
Obviously, with regulation and control, this would be a chance for employment creation.
It was also heartening to see the respect of the family unit at the university. Most students are married (and marrying), staying with their families in Malaysia - renting very affordable houses, flats and condominiums, around the university campus, since family accommodation is not yet available on campus.
In my case, I was also with my family, wife and daughter; we were renting a three-bedroom house, at just above N$1000. 00. That is, for the entire duration of our stay there, without increase!
As a family of three our water bill never went beyond N$25.00 and our electricity bill also never went beyond N$180.00. Despite the fact, I was ever up researching.
In fact, for the first two years we used to pay water. However, a change was later introduced for the residents of Selangor state, where Kuala Lumpur is situated, that if the water bill does not go beyond about N$25.00, or 10 MR, the household need not pay water.
We were beneficiaries to that arrangement for the last two years! Our water bill was, thus, 0.00, for the past two years (2008-2009), an example of true pro-social government policies!
The same level of life affordability permeates the economic system of Malaysia, to a point where we decided to buy some high purchase goods in Malaysia rather than in Namibia due to the almost criminally high cost of living in the motherland - Namibia. No regrets.
For the first time, I realized that affordable cost of living is possible, only that political will and wisdom must be there, not just empty eulogies of natural resources and flowery political rhetoric that do not put food on the table or clothes on the bodies of the economically vulnerable.
The Malaysian government's pro-people policies are also reflected in its establishment of a Price Control Board, whereby in times of economic crises or slowdown like the recent or current one, the government legally puts a cap on the prices of basic goods, and anyone found to be in violation of the law, faces the full wrath of the law!
Namibia claims to be a so-called mixed economy, by constitutional stipulation, but where the economic mixture, when only the capitalist dimension is allowed to run amok, to a point where our Minister of Trade, recently almost helplessly confessed in the media that Namibia is simply a "capitalist state"?
Isn't that supposed to be unconstitutional, if my layman reading and understanding of the Namibian constitution is right?
With regard to political and media freedoms, Malaysia is not doing badly at all, although, if one were to ask the Opposition in Malaysia, they may disagree with me on this one, but I am entitled to my own observations.
Yet, truly-speaking Malaysia is doing well, regarding the media - there is even an observation that the media has become more freer in recent times, thanks to the alternative media, in the form of the Internet and particularly the use of social networks, such as blogging, facebooking, friendstering and twitting.
As a matter of fact, all the major politicians in Malaysia have their own active and informative blogs, including the current Prime Minister His Excellency Mr Abdul Razak Najib.
The former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir, recently published a book of his blog postings, still very much intellectually and politically active, an Information Society in full force. It looks like in Namibia we are not quite there yet.
With regard to education, it was evident that to facilitate early childhood and primary education the government has provided a lot of school buses for students, apart from the various types of cheap public transport.
In addition to metered taxis, there is an additional and affordable public transport system in the forms of public buses, LRTs, monorails and commuters. Some of those different types of transport are not even available or known in Namibia, maybe Malaysia was also forced that direction by its own population size to control congestion, since the population is much bigger than Namibia's.
Yet, what is clear is the serious government and private sector efforts to improve and modernize public transport for the people living in modern times. Lessons from Malaysia are so many and space so little to enumerate - however, the idea is to share the little that can be fitted in a discussion paper like this.
Understanding the socio-cultural and historical contexts between Namibia and Malaysia, it is clear, that some of the problems and achievements will not be the same and thus, it may not be easy and fair to compare all aspects of different societies and make sweeping statements about them.
Hence, the intention of this paper is meant for reflection, appreciation and critical input to our own national efforts towards the realization of Namibian's Vision 2030.
One big lesson I got from Malaysia is : It is entirely possible for any government and society to genuinely and equitably look after its own people, unless there is there no political will or there is a severe lack of ethical wisdom!
- Armas Abdul Malik Shikongo, counselling psychologist and psychology lecturer at the University of Namibia. Armas completed his PhD thesis (late 2009), on the theme of Psychology of Religious Conversion.
The opinions and observations are made in full sincerity and done in his private capacity.
Lessons from Malaysia are so many and space so little to enumerate - however, the idea is to share the little that can be fitted in a discussion paper like this.
Understanding the socio-cultural and historical contexts between Namibia and Malaysia, it is clear, that some of the problems and achievements will not be the same and thus, it may not be easy and fair to compare all aspects of different societies and make sweeping statements about them.
Hence, the intention of this paper is meant for reflection, appreciation and critical input to our own national efforts towards the realization of Namibian's Vision 2030.
One big lesson I got from Malaysia is : It is entirely possible for any government and society to genuinely and equitably look after its own people, unless there is there no political will or there is a severe lack of ethical wisdom!
- Armas Abdul Malik Shikongo, counselling psychologist and psychology lecturer at the University of Namibia. Armas completed his PhD thesis (late 2009), on the theme of Psychology of Religious Conversion.
The opinions and observations are made in full sincerity and done in his private capacity.
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