Since the start of his presidency, our
President, Dr Hage Geingob, has spoken of ‘building a Namibian House.’ He has
stated that “Namibians want a house where everyone feels a sense of belonging,
where everyone is presented with a fair opportunity to prosper in an inclusive
manner and by so doing, ensure that no one feels left out.” I feel that
Namibians in general agree with that sentiment, and have hope his Harambee
Prosperity plan can build the house the President proposes. But while the plan
has concrete goals, it lacks in one significant area – what we as the Namibian
people need to be for the plan to succeed. There are several values I believe to be
crucial for our Namibian House, and one of these, is honesty.
Honesty has many
definitions, but the one I prefer, is that honesty is the refusal to fake
reality. In other words, refusing to pretend that certain facts are different
depending on your viewpoint. I’ve heard it described as the flipside of
rationality – where rationality binds one to think and act while considering
the relevant facts, honesty compels one to do so without choosing to distort or
ignore facts.
Honesty frequently appears simple, and yet it
is anything but. After all, if you apply for a job, and list your actual
qualifications, you will be able to perform your duties, and keep your job and
perhaps even be promoted. But if you lie, soon your lack of skill will be
noticed, and you’ll lose your job. Similarly, cheating on a test might seem
like an easy pass, but knowledge builds upon previous knowledge, and with each
coming test, your ability to pass honestly becomes more difficult.
And therein lies the rub with dishonesty.
It spread to infect your life like a multi-headed hydra, growing a new head
every time one is cut off. A person who lies to cover up fraud at work, soon
has to lie to her friends about where her extra money came from. They have to
lie to their boss and falsify reports. Now they have to worry that the lies
told to their work colleagues and friends are different, and that they don’t
find out the truth. As people want to know more and more, additional lies have
to be told to cover up previous ones. To avoid dishonesty being exposed, more
and more lies have to be told – a veritable house of cards that can come
crashing down at any moment.
The sad part is that while an honest person
can afford to surround herself with competent people with good judgement, the
dishonest person cannot afford that – after all, they might suss out the truth.
They can only surround themselves with the gullible, and the foolish. Dishonesty
can never be contained, and its effects never escaped.
After all, can you truly enjoy the fruits
of dishonesty? If you stole a beautiful necklace to give you your partner, you
might enjoy making him or her happy, but every time you see it, you’ll be
reminded that you could not provide it yourself – you had to steal it. And
every time someone else looks at it, that anxiety of being caught out will be
there.
Perhaps the saddest thing about dishonesty,
is that all that effort and mental gymnastics required to maintain a web of
deceit, could have been used to obtain those rewards honestly! If all that time
and effort had been expended towards productive goals instead of trying to feed
this hydra of dishonesty, imagine what could have been achieved!
Honesty is especially important for our
Namibian House, because dishonesty has a profound economic cost. Trust in
strangers save on what economists term transaction costs – the price you pay for
doing business. If people can trust one another to do what they say, and
deliver what they promise, these costs remain small. But if such trust is not
to be found, these costs escalate. Suddenly formal contracts have to be drawn
up. Courts need to intervene in even the smallest affairs to ensure that
justice is being served. Lawyers are therefore required, and soon these costs
add up.
When dishonesty infects a nation – when the
integrity of the average citizen’s word is in doubt – economic downturn is sure
to follow. Research has shown that in societies where trust and integrity are
paramount, their economic and political futures are much brighter than in those
where they are neglected.
An easy measure of our honesty as a society
is perhaps corruption. For a Namibian House that aims to combat poverty, it is
clear where we need to focus our energy – after all, it is the poor who
shoulder most of the burden of corruption in society. An increase of only 0.78%
in corruption causes a corresponding drop of 7.8% in the income growth of the
poorest 20% of the population, according to an IMF study.
Namibia has made some strides in this area
at least, moving from 55th in Transparency International’s
Corruption Perception Index in 2014, to 45th in 2015, giving us a joint 4th position in Sub-Saharan Africa, after Botswana (28th),
Seychelles (40th), Rwanda (44th) and being alongside Mauritius. We still have a
long way to go, but it is worth it. The World Bank states that: “countries that
improve on control of corruption and rule of law can expect (on average), in
the long run, a four-fold increase in incomes per capita. Similarly, such a
country could expect, on average, a 75% reduction in child mortality.”
I believe honesty is a key ingredient we
need to foster in ourselves if we are to build this Namibian House. It promotes
authenticity, fosters courage, and shows you care. It shows maturity and
self-acceptance, and fosters connections between us as members of the new
Namibian House. It frees us as Namibians to be our true selves. And after all,
how can we be true to ourselves, if we cannot be true to others?
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