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Topic Discussion I
Politics of Hard Choices
Political Transition and Economic Restructuring
Room 3
(4 of 13 pages)
Is complimented by multi partizum a vibrant non governmental sector including
local trade unions and the free press. The rule of law assisted us to mold a Namibian identity. In such a society
it is not always possible to reach consensus on all issues. You know that the interest groups sometimes present
only the interest of their class. In this government we try at least to reach consensus whereby we try to address
the interest of all classes, not just one segment of society. However it would not be far fetched to say that all
Namibians had agreed on the outset of their society as it is rooted in the democratic constitution of our republic.
I believe, regardless of the challenges ahead, that the Namibian constitution has been the vehicle for our successes
in buffering society against external and internal shocks and disturbances.
Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Eryani: I am not prepared to make a long statement but I think that the politics of hard
choices are by themselves political and economic and I believe that the politics of choosing politics is easier
than fundamental adjustments in economics. Despite the fact that some societies would not find it easy to adjust
to a new political party, system, democracy or competition on political level, I think that the most difficult
choice is economic adjustment.
Yemen has not been as fortunate, as my colleague in Namibia said, they have been able to avoid the adjustment policies
of IMS and the World Bank. In fact after an internal conflict we had no choice but to embrace the hard and difficult
policies of economic adjustment. I believe difficult as they were, today we cannot really see that we have been
harvesting the fruits of economic adjustments. Our only weapon in front of those impatient few who say you have
only brought hardships is to tell them just imagine how bad it would have been.
In an Article by the Governor of the Central Bank he made certain predictions for 1994, and said had things continued
your dollar equivalent in three years would have exceeded at least 2,000 Riyals to your dollar. Today it has not
exceeded 160. So frankly I think we have been able to make the change in politics in an easier way where it has
been accepted by people. It has created social tension, no question about it and also political competition and
we are not used to it. However I think the hardest choice is the economic aspects of linking democracy to economic
validity. When you start with an economy like Yemen where the South was essentially a socialist economy, the north
was never absolutely a free market economy nor socialist, you mix those two and you will have the problem of defining
a cannon, it was house designed by committee. So we faced this problem and I think this is an adjustment we are
having a very hard time with but I believe that in a year or two we will be able to harvest the fruits of the hardships.
In economic and political changes I can assure you all that Yemen made the transition with flying colors without
difficulties because the Yemenite society is highly homogeneous. There are no ethnic groups, there are no racial
tensions and there are not even religious tensions. So for a homogeneous society it is very easy to change the
political set up and tell them we are starting a new game. We were a anomaly in 1962 and the south was a colony,
and suddenly we became a republic. Had it not been for external intervention we would have made the change very
easily, but external intervention created conflict for almost eight years. However with unification the entire
political system of both countries was completely wiped out overnight. We restarted and said to everyone this is
a new game, let's play it. I think we played it fair. We accepted the adjustment in economic problems and I am
convinced that had we not done this maybe you would not have been here. Maybe I would not be here myself. So I
think that the hardest choice is economic adjustment.
Chair: Why don't we go ahead and open the floor for other comments and questions. Again if possible keeping
them practical. I think the question being… following up what are in your view the hardest choices, how have you
handled them, what works and what doesn't work. Back to our panelists, if you have specific experiences that you
would like to share or mistakes that you might have made and things that you have tried that really did seem to
make a difference I think we could all benefit from those kinds of experiences.
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