The Politics Of Insults Must Cease!!

Incessantly, our political discourse had been and continues to be characterized by innuendos, plain insults, mudslinging amongst other uncivil behavior put up particularly by some political party Youths and other politicians on the top rungs of the political ladder which apparently had heightened tension and insecurity.

This moral and cultural deviation in our body politic is not only counter-productive and an anathema to national development, but also makes our democratic experiment fragile and vulnerable to negative consequences.

Indeed the crescendo of this canker has reached epic dimensions manifesting intra-parties as well as across the political parties (inter-parties). Noticeably, the use of insults, vilifications and mudsling has become easily accessible weapons of attack against competitors and their agents within same political parties whilst jostling for political offices. Indeed rather than doing the noble thing of engaging in the debate and competition of ideas, the resort generally had been to the ignoble.

Africa and Ghana in our case is faced with diverse developmental challenges and had had to grapple also with poor leadership (leadership deficit) and an ideological gap in its attempt to assert itself among the comity of nations. For instance, although we are endowed with great natural resources and wealth including our nascent oil wealth among others, the masses of our people can barely eke-out a living; they are deprived amongst others of the basic bread and butter opportunities and had lived largely in great deprivation, squalor and abject poverty and emasculated therein.

The youth of Ghana have limited access to opportunities that would enhance and unleash their talents and release their energies and expertise for national development contrary to the great openings of socio-economic opportunities available to their counterparts abroad. Admittedly, in place of engaging in the debate of ideas and the best policy options and prescriptions relevant towards finding best and lasting solutions to these afflictions of under-development, the resort has been to run down individuals and attack personalities often in plain invectives.

Doubtlessly, the advent of a vibrant social media platform as well as the proliferation of both print and electronic media had rather than helping in advancing our national developmental agenda become the conduit for perpetrating the indecent use of unpalatable, uncomplimentary and uncivil language. While there is nothing ethically un-called for in an ideological posturing of any media house and the propagation of views in that direction, there is everything wrong with the tendency of some of these tabloids and media houses to engage in the deliberate publication and spread of falsehood, propaganda, blatant lies and character assassination of well-meaning men and women in our country.

Oftentimes, some of them publish screaming and sensational stories and banner headlines just in a frantic bid to sell-out their newspapers without recourse to the best and ethical and professional standards set out in the Act which set up the National Media Commission(Act 449) including the various guidelines of the Ghana Journalist Association(GJA) and even the code of conduct of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association, caring less about what is in the public interest and acceptable behavior.

What is trending and had become fashionable today is the early morning radio and television newspaper reviews dubbed ‘’Morning Shows’’ and its late afternoon complemented political talk-shows On these programmes, discussants and panelist engage in irreverent provocation as against putting up cogent and coherent arguments to debate on the issues put before them. Indeed, those stations aligned to political parties are often engaged in lope-sided discussions and use this platform to peddle propaganda, insult and run-down the other side.

It would be re-called that during the run-up to the 2012 national elections which eventually had to be fought at the Supreme Court, this tendency reared its ugliest head when Senior Citizens including members of our Revered Clergy were variously accused, abused and heartlessly attacked for expressing and making their voices heard in the expression of one view or the other on the critical matters that affect our Nation.

Further, what is much worrisome and heart-rending in all of this is the involvement of high profile people in leadership who constituted the top echelon of our National Public life who ostensibly have developed the penchant for throwing tantrums and the casting of aspersions at their political opponents and citizens in general by their intemperate and offensive conduct. We cannot as a People overlook the fact that, propriety of leadership is to show example and decorum since example it is said is better than precepts. Our Men and Women on the high rung of the political ladder on the contrary, prod the youth on to slight others and urge them also on to engage in violent behavior. In all of this, the media as the fourth estate of the realm has shown no signs of helping in educating our citizens to value and place premium on decent conduct.

With the media, there however exists constitutional framework to reverse this unfortunate trend using the National Media which presently appeared submerged and overwhelmed. Yet with the appropriate strategies available per the Act establishing it, can turn the situation of the media around for the national good.

Indeed, our current political dispensation is replete with Youth leaders and we anticipate that a good example and exemplary behavior is put up so as to ignite some sense of responsibility in the entire Ghanaian Youth populations, who apparently constituted over 60% of our population. The old habits of inappropriate use of language by our Political Youth leaders on high profile people must cease forthwith. All the major stakeholders in our social economic and political process such as the National Commission for Civic Education, the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture, the National Youth Authority , Ministry Of Youth and Sports et al should endeavour to put together, sensitization and re-orientation programmes in place geared towards revamping and re-engineering our degenerated social and cultural values, respect for one another, decorum in public life, accommodation of divergent views for national cohesion.

The fact remain that our political opponents are not our enemies and we can disagree on issues to agree for our common goals of rapid national development. We all must show commitment, resolve and believe in our chosen path of multi-party democracy which has as its tenets, equal rights, rule of law, freedom of association and of opinion, right to life and property as well as security to all of which the government and laws of the land shall be dedicated and in the words of the legendary and foremost statesman and Doyen of Gold Coast politics, Dr J.B Danquah, in order specifically to enrich life, property and liberty of each and every citizen.

Emmanuel Attafuah-Danso
Converner,
The Africa Young Conservatives Dialogue, Ghana (The Dialogue)

[email protected]
0208231667/0203003824/0204074751