Former nbc radio veteran and co-founder of Prime Minister’s Question Time Robin Tyson hailed, the late President Hage Geingob’s willingness to attend to the public’s questions through the programme when he was Prime Minister.
Robin Tyson says that despite being unsure if then Prime Minister Hage Geingob would be open to the idea of answering questions from the public, they went ahead and pitched the idea.
Which the late President welcomed without any hesitation.
The radio veteran says the late Geingob said the programme would enable him to hear what the public was saying about the government and its policies.
“I’ll never forget the reason he said he wanted to do Prime Minister’s question time. His reason was that it would enable him to hear what the country was saying about his government and his policies. And you know, in other words, he said to me that it’s not possible; he’s not able to travel to all four corners of Namibia, such a huge country, so many people, and such long distances. So this radio programme would be a way for him to hear what people were saying. From all four corners of the country. And I thought that was a very interesting take that the programme was not him telling us the citizens. The programme was for him.”
The Prime Minister then answered all questions with no fear or favour, and the programme later adopted by nbc Television became a success on the radio.
People would write or call in from all four corners of the country.
“The prime minister, heard us, the citizens, and, well, I mean, the programme went on for many, many years. And I think it was successful; people seemed to enjoy it. And he always answered every single question, no matter how difficult the question was, and there were some challenging questions, obviously. And yet he answered all of them with a problem and, of course, with his normal eloquence, diplomacy, and normal tech. I think I’m glad that so so far after independence, and so far after these ideas were put down on paper, constitutions, freedom of expression, press freedom, etc. And I am glad to know that the late President Can Cop was instrumental in guiding this idea of freedom.”
“And I know that colleagues, especially at the public broadcaster, especially nbc will continue that legacy, whether it’s people phoning in, whether it’s people writing in, whether it’s allowing people to debate, whether it’s having opposing political parties in a studio debating with one another, whether it’s panel discussions, whether it’s before an election, allowing representatives from each political party, whatever it is, these are all manifestations of putting into effect, the idea of press freedom and freedom of expression. And I think by doing that, we are certainly enhancing the memory of what the late president can put into effect. May his soul rest in peace.”
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