Role of media in democracy vs pseudo
democracy
23 September, 2009 | by Hussain Kiflu
A s a foreign resident of Uganda, I have enough decency that forewarns
me of the pitfalls of dabbling in local politics. Being essentially a political
animal, though, I cannot resist from always tuning into local and global
politics. I do this in two ways; in my mother tongue, Amharic and in
English.Because, English has always been here for me in Kampala and in
my eagerness to improve my spoken English - though it got thwarted
for the most part - I read the main print media of Uganda in English and
listen to all the important electronic media.
Hence for the most part, I find them to be balanced professionally and a
good market place of ideas where you counter one with another.
Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing as to whether other media that
print or air in the various ethnic languages promote hate ‘Radio Mille
Collines’style that orchestrated the 1994 Rwanda genocide as alleged by
Gawaya Tegulle in his piece; Buganda crisis; Reflections on the media’s
mistake (Saturday Monitor, September 19).
Let me share with you what I have observed in the spirit of Pan-
Africanism and defence of universal human rights. For anyone who
cared, it was easy to see that the bickering between Buganda Kingdom
and the central government would cause trouble, big time! Even me as a
foreigner, I predicted this and mumbled something about it to my wife
three days before. The media, at least, the ones I read and watched only
reported the escalating bickering between the two parties along with its
genesis. In genuine democracies, instead of bickering, you dialogue;
instead of polarising the nation through intransigence, you compromise.
And, the one holding the helm is expected most to show this
statesmanship. Failure to do so would result in what we witnessed from
September 10 to 12. And, Uganda is not unique in this. Just recall the
Los Angeles riots of 1992 which erupted following the acquittal of four
LAPD officers who brutalised one Rodney King, an African-American.
In that riot, 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damages to
3,100 businesses and loss worth one billion dollars were recorded.
Poverty, declining living conditions, corporate restructuring and
government deregulation along with racial tensions were cited as the
underlying causes of the riot in that rich nation. The media was mildly
criticised for its coverage of the riot which some thought caused similar
but smaller riots in Las Vegas and Atlanta.
The moral of the story - genuine democracies in the aftermath of crisis,
do soul-searching. They don’t pick on easy targets such as muzzling the
press, clamping down on freedom of speech, curbing civil liberties etc.
They simply stick to the immortal words of Alfred E. Smith who said
“All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.” They
refrain from eternally using tragic sagas like the Rwandan one as a
scarecrow on those who dare to exercise free speech.
On a lighter note, his Kabakaship showed good judgment when he
cancelled his trip to Kayunga on September 12 considering it was on the
same day that Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia got deposed in 1974 by
the military that hijacked the popular revolution.
Mr Kiflu is an Ethiopian refugee in Uganda
kiflukam@yahoo.com
Courtesy
democracy
23 September, 2009 | by Hussain Kiflu
A s a foreign resident of Uganda, I have enough decency that forewarns
me of the pitfalls of dabbling in local politics. Being essentially a political
animal, though, I cannot resist from always tuning into local and global
politics. I do this in two ways; in my mother tongue, Amharic and in
English.Because, English has always been here for me in Kampala and in
my eagerness to improve my spoken English - though it got thwarted
for the most part - I read the main print media of Uganda in English and
listen to all the important electronic media.
Hence for the most part, I find them to be balanced professionally and a
good market place of ideas where you counter one with another.
Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing as to whether other media that
print or air in the various ethnic languages promote hate ‘Radio Mille
Collines’style that orchestrated the 1994 Rwanda genocide as alleged by
Gawaya Tegulle in his piece; Buganda crisis; Reflections on the media’s
mistake (Saturday Monitor, September 19).
- Tegulle has a point when he
suggested that “time has to be
taken to analyse and
understand the role of the
media” in such a debacle. Yet,
I don’t agree with the way he
has hinted that the media
played a part “in causing and
creating” the carnage that
rocked Kampala starting on
Let me share with you what I have observed in the spirit of Pan-
Africanism and defence of universal human rights. For anyone who
cared, it was easy to see that the bickering between Buganda Kingdom
and the central government would cause trouble, big time! Even me as a
foreigner, I predicted this and mumbled something about it to my wife
three days before. The media, at least, the ones I read and watched only
reported the escalating bickering between the two parties along with its
genesis. In genuine democracies, instead of bickering, you dialogue;
instead of polarising the nation through intransigence, you compromise.
And, the one holding the helm is expected most to show this
statesmanship. Failure to do so would result in what we witnessed from
September 10 to 12. And, Uganda is not unique in this. Just recall the
Los Angeles riots of 1992 which erupted following the acquittal of four
LAPD officers who brutalised one Rodney King, an African-American.
In that riot, 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damages to
3,100 businesses and loss worth one billion dollars were recorded.
Poverty, declining living conditions, corporate restructuring and
government deregulation along with racial tensions were cited as the
underlying causes of the riot in that rich nation. The media was mildly
criticised for its coverage of the riot which some thought caused similar
but smaller riots in Las Vegas and Atlanta.
The moral of the story - genuine democracies in the aftermath of crisis,
do soul-searching. They don’t pick on easy targets such as muzzling the
press, clamping down on freedom of speech, curbing civil liberties etc.
They simply stick to the immortal words of Alfred E. Smith who said
“All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.” They
refrain from eternally using tragic sagas like the Rwandan one as a
scarecrow on those who dare to exercise free speech.
On a lighter note, his Kabakaship showed good judgment when he
cancelled his trip to Kayunga on September 12 considering it was on the
same day that Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia got deposed in 1974 by
the military that hijacked the popular revolution.
Mr Kiflu is an Ethiopian refugee in Uganda
kiflukam@yahoo.com
Courtesy
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