Policy paradox: Destroying counterfeit products
LAWS may seem solid and enduring but they are riddled with paradoxes. That is to say that they are social constructs, not value-free, and can be interpreted in many contradictory ways. Contradictory interpretations are nothing but trouble because two/ many different things cannot be true at once, to paraphrase Deborah Stone.
That is the dynamic we are witnessing playing out at this moment in this country of us, starting from the Namibia Revenue Agency’s (NamRA) action of destroying, worthy N$5 million, the confiscated counterfeit products on the 10 May 2022 to the reaction of the Namibian Police in which eight activists were arrested, including AR’s Dimbulukeni Nauyoma and NEFF’s economic commissar Michael Amushelelo.
Others were injured, including a journalist and a pregnant woman.
Both NamRA and the police have justified their actions as part of their mandate to enforce the laws of the land. It’s in the right, laws are there to be enforced or otherwise why should they be made?
However, laws do not affect people evenly or uniformly.
Under the current socio-economic condition, the extreme and heavyhanded approach make NamRA and Nampol appear elitist, insensitive, indifferent and out of touch with the economic reality on the ground. Why would NamRA opt for the drastic measure of destroying goods that citizens possibly have invested their last cent without, warning, public information, awareness and education about the law and the danger of counterfeit products? Why would the police resort to heavy-handed tactics and arrest without negotiation, dialogue and de-escalation methods of crowd control?
There is no denying, in theory, that laws and policies are a force for the good of society. The unfortunate truth, however, is that laws and policies have a dark side too. Apartheid laws were full of such dark sides and paradoxes, and that led to people challenging and revolting against them because they advantaged certain groups or class while disadvantaging others. Imagine, if people obeyed some of those laws blindly without challenging them. Political agitations bring change as citizens use their agential power to question and challenge dogmas, including laws and policies. That right is boldly highlighted in the Namibian constitution: The right to protest. There is no arguing, that a counterfeit-driven economy poses health and safety risks as well as has serious negative consequences for our economy. But, given our worsening socio-economic condition, is there an exception to the rule? Under certain economic conditions, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) allows for flexibility in enforcing international trade laws, which in itself is an invitation for creativity and innovation. But those two elements seem absent in the NamRA and the police response.
Put it differently; is the counterfeit economy in our country a symptom or a cause? Why are so many of our fellow citizens lured by the counterfeit economy, both on the supply and consumer side? Of course, affordability is the resounding answer, which may also say a lot about our skewed economy.
In an economic condition where almost 40% of the inhabitants have been estimated to live in squalor informal settlements-with no access to clean water and proper sanitation, and insufficient access to education and health services-how can we expect people not to get attracted to cheap counterfeit products? In a country where nearly 43% of the population is classified as multidimensionally poor, do we blame people’s desperation for carving out a living from cheap and fake products?
The original brands that we strictly want to import are not made for lower and socially stressed economies like ours. Nor will they benefit the majority poor among us. Namibia may be classified as a middle-income country, a label we often have been refusing to accept, but for the majority of Namibians, these brands are a luxury they cannot afford.
In the absence of robust socioeconomic strategies to address the factors pushing and pulling our people towards the counterfeit economy, strict enforcement of laws and prohibition of counterfeit products in our economy may actually do more harm to the poor and those vulnerable to multidimensionally poverty.
Have we wondered why China towns are so popular in this country? They provide an alternative economy for the poor and the struggling masses against exorbitant and unaffordable prices offered by original and luxurious brands. Something is better than nothing, as they say!
A theory of good law enforcement must start with the people and end with the people. This means that laws must not only affect people procedurally but also substantively, humane, and sensitive to people’s situations and context. This calls for a transformative or decolonised law enforcement model that is holistic, community-driven and consensusbased than a narrow and technical one. In this way, our meagre resources and energies would be directed towards negotiation, consultations, dialogue, mediation, mutual trust, cooperation, sympathy, compassion and openness, not secrecy, hostility and fear like in the case of NamRA and the police approach.
Independence press upon us to come up with new values, beliefs, culture and way of doing things, therefore, separating ourselves from colonial practices, including enforcing laws blindly.
That’s the context under which a free Namibia’s laws should be enforced and applied. Failure will turn us into a replica of our colonial masters.