I offer you my sincerest greetings in the name of the challenges that confront us as a people, a community, a society, and a nation - unemployment crisis, bleak economic future, self-serving political processes, and lack of policy innovation, among other pertinent issues.

I was only in my late teens when our dear country was ushered unto this democratic trajectory called the 4th Republic with pomp and pageantry. Our expectations of what democracy could or can offer were beyond measure. But the workings of democracy require functioning institutions without which it becomes a nightmare. The absence of checks and balances, including a truly free press and an independent judiciary, had allowed personal ambitions to weaken the foundation of the nation rather than serve as rushing water at a mill of national debate and growth. One observer summed it up in the following words, “We have tried force, but force didn’t work. We have now turned to persuasion, and persuasion seems to be failing us.”

Instead of national debates, the airwaves are filled with insults, insinuations, and aspersions. The political culture prevents individuals who are disgruntled from making their needs known without receiving the flak that normally comes in the form of insults. If politics is a struggle over the allocation of scarce resources and improving public policy or policy choices, then we can only achieve the best when differences in opinion, priority, and temperament are allowed to come to the fore for electorates to make their informed choices. It is for these reasons that all and sundry must begin to condemn the nauseating political discourse on our airwaves.

For us teachers, lecturers, and all those in charge of shaping the social consciousness of the youth, we are in a unique position to condemn the invasion and the pollution of our airwaves with insults, threats, and counter threats. We are the first line of development practitioners because we serve as a light to our communities. Moreover, we are deeply immersed in the conditions under which our immediate beneficiaries – students, parents, and community members - live. Therefore, we practice development and live development. Let us rise up and tell our communities to say no to the insults and the aspersions before they consume us all. When you enter your lecturer or classroom in the morning, take a moment (1 minute of 2) to draw attention of the youth you lead to this issue.

As the 2012 electioneering cycle begins to unfold, let us be reminded that we have a leading role to play by mobilizing our communities and engendering a competitive platform for those intending to lead us to contest their ideas and not insults and aspersions. Since there are individuals within political parties with ambition, it is obvious that, at all times, ideas must be allowed to counter ideas, and not insults and unproductive aspersions in combat. This way, idealistic men and women with ambition can contest their ideas for the benefit of society. This is an inherent conflict in politics – both intraparty and interparty. It is only through these healthy conflicts that we can produce the best candidates for the overall good of society. If this is what generates that conflict, it must be seen as a positive conflict.

On the other hand, “when it is the perception of a given sector of any humanity that the enthronement of power is their birthright [and that birthright must be defended through insults, aspersions and use of money, then that conflict must truly be negative and this is what we must guard against]. For it has the potential to evolve, sooner or later, into a privilege of mediocrity, and logically still, into the quest for power, by right, on the part of the mediocre. In the end, even the mentally deficient grasp the real possibility – indeed, the absolute certitude – that his turn has come. Understanding of the accessibility of power and the means to it is not necessarily qualified by access to basic intelligence; observation and cunning are quite sufficient, especially where the opportunity is spread over a long period of closeness. In short, what would take the averagely intelligent a week or less to grasp and execute or reject will require in the mediocre years of sporadic penetration, a painstaking accumulation of significations that persuade him, in the end, that he is every bit as qualified as his predecessors for the trophy of power,” Wole Soyinka.

Consider the fact that in the face of the gigantic development issues that confront us, our legislative process has been turned into a self-serving process. To cite an example, in 1992, when the NDC government offered a government guarantee for a loan of US$5,000 to parliamentarians for their cars, the NPP opposition was on the rooftops that the taxpayer was being ripped off. When the latter had the opportunity to alter that in 2000 with a majority in parliament, they rather increased it by 300% to US$20,000. In the words of the strident editor of the Weekly Insight, Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., “the taxpayers risk being ripped off massively.” Nevertheless, in 2008, when the NDC took office against the backdrop of what its Finance Minister described as an economy in intensive care, they saw the need to raise this financial line to US$50,000, again with a majority in parliament. Today, MPs are asking for ?7,000 monthly remuneration in the face of massive systemic economic failures.

Remember that change does not come easily, especially when political parties have cultivated a political culture I have already described here and which has become the way politics is done. There are some who benefit from such arrangements and would resist any reformers who would like to alter the status quo. It is for this reason that we need to band together, whether you support the NPP, the NDC, CPP, or any smaller party, so we can challenge these self-serving processes of the political parties.

If you are not impressed with the nauseating discourse on our airwaves, then you need to rise and speak out loud with us before it consume us all.

“OPERATION SAY NO TO INSULTS” ON OUR AIRWAVES!!!
1. PRINT OUT THIS MATERIAL AND SHARE WITH A CONCERNED INDIVIDUALS
2. ENGAGE SOMEONE IN A DISCUSSION CONCERNING THIS ISSUE
3. JOIN THE FACEBOOK PAGE AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!!!

You can please reach me by email at: noinsults@yahoo.com
Prosper Yao Tsikata
1826 Metzerott Road
Hyattsville, MD 20783