Politics: A Contest of Ideas Not Insults

Tijani Kassim Abdallah

As a country that came from colonization, many thought that our politics would be civil and responsible than before, as our democracy keeps growing from strength to strength – but that is not the case. Rather, it is tending to remind us of the dark days of our political history.

As a former Student leader and someone who sits on the fence with basic understanding of conceptual politics,' I have always held the belief that politics is and should be a competition of ideas and never of insults as has been the case in the last few months, sadly so.

So what is politics? The academic discipline that describes how power is exercised through the administration of public power, to manage citizens' affairs.

The recent development on Ghana's air waves and print media in relation to the politics of insult is as shameful as it is unproductive.

I am not alone in worrying about this development and I know many other well-meaning Ghanaians are also concerned.

The media should be seen as a powerful tool for education and as such must not be used for malice.

As a celebrated country and the pride of African democracy, our politics should be issue-centered rather than vitriolic attacks on personalities.

It is very inappropriate to destroy a person's hard earned reputation for money or parochial ends.

In our daily lives, we are faced with myriad of challenges like lack of good drinking water, hawkers on the streets, inflation, armed robberies, poor services in our hospitals, lack of quality education in schools yet we digress from all these sensitive issues and talk about how short or tall a presidential candidate is, how handsome or ugly another is, how sick or mad, “ntafoo koa”, “wonai chi a apai pai”., “kooko-ase kurasene”, etc.

Enough is enough! We must wake up from our slumber and extricate ourselves from this journey to destruction.

The best way to kill a tree is not to cut its branches but to dig out its roots. The root of this problem has to do with unethical journalism. Discretion is the better part of valour.

As the Prophet Mohammed ₍PBUH₎ wisely pointed out “Speak good (well) or be Silence” clearly, this is means that if you have nothing meaningful to say, the best you could do is to humbly keep quiet.

I recommend to editors to look for those mature people in the society who are inspirational to the youth, who set an exemplary good life for others to emulate, those who make sense in their discussions rather than noise.

THE MEDIA
First, there must be laws and regulations that will empower the media commission to enforce professionalism in their modus operando.

Second, the media profession must have ethical values far from political ideologies and organizations. We must end the practice of corrupting the press for partisan purposes.

Third, media practitioners should exercise their freedom of expression with a high sense of responsibility.

Fourth, media practitioners require a lot of investment both in human resources and in technology to be able to offer excellent professional output and reduce temptation from inducement from interest groups and parochial politicians.

Fifth, the media should censor reckless or “loose talkers” and offensive writers. Practitioners should pluck up courage and dissuade foul mouthed politicians from spewing insult and abusive language through the media.

As we approach Election 2012, I am urging all of us to be circumspect and discerning in the use of the written or spoken word to get our point of view across.

Tijani Kassim Abdallah/