Maravi

Refuse to be manipulated

Refuse to be manipulated
By Editor
Wednesday February 21, 2007 [02:00]


It would seem for the media the most important verses in the Bible are John 1:1-4.

And these verses say, “Before the world was created the Word already existed; He was with God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through Him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without Him. The Word was the source of life and this life brought light to mankind.” It is clear to us that for those whose job is to seek the words of others and transmit them so repeatedly these verses are very important because everything starts with the Word. Humankind’s ability to speak out is clearly the bedrock of civilisation.

And for this reason we agree with Uganda’s Deputy Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga’s observations that the responsibility of the media to the public is very big and it should not be manipulated in any way. It will not be possible for the media to fulfil its duties to the public if it is manipulated. As we observed yesterday, no one would respect the media if they believed it was manipulated. Manipulators and those that manipulate have never deserved anybody’s respect. Manipulation doesn’t have substance; it doesn’t have roots. And the media can and plays a very big role in preventing evils in society. The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles which are deeply rooted in human nature. One is that by the very order of things, such evils are not demonstrable until they have occurred: at each stage in their onset there is room for doubt and for dispute whether they be real or imaginary.

Hence the besetting temptation of all politics to concern itself with the immediate present at the expense of the future. Above all, people are disposed to mistake predicting troubles for causing troubles and even for desiring troubles: ‘if only’, they love to think, ‘ if only the media wouldn’t write or publish anything about it, it probably wouldn’t happen’. Perhaps this habit goes back to the primitive belief that the Word and the thing, the name and the object, are identical. At all events, the discussion of future is grave but, with effort now, avoidable evils is the most unpopular and at the same time the most unnecessary occupation for the media. Those who knowingly shake it, deserve, and not infrequently receive, the curses of those who come after. But we should always remember that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a good place for all of us to live in.

Zambia is in trouble today not because her people have failed, but because her leaders have failed. And what Zambia needs are leaders to match the greatness of her people. The media, including ourselves, make a lot of mistakes every day. Mistakes, yes. But for personal gain, never - not for us, maybe for others. We do what we believe in. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong. We say this because greatness comes not when things go always well for you, but the greatness comes and you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

Those in the media can only do their work properly if they care. We care all the time. We don’t think it is a soft sentiment, we don’t think it is ‘wet’ . We think that care is the essence of strength. And we believe that because we know that strength without care is savage, brutal and selfish. Strength with care is compassion - the practical action that is needed to help people lift themselves to their full stature. That’s real care - it is not soft or weak. It is tough and strong. We cooperate, we collect together, we coordinate so that everyone can contribute and everyone can benefit, everyone has responsibilities everyone has rights. That is how we put care into action. That is how we try to make the weak strong, that is how we try to help lift the needy, that is how we try to give talent the chance to flourish. This is the whole purpose of freedom of the press. And its whole purpose is individual freedom. There are many of our people who have stood together with us, the media, many times, but no time has been more important than now. The problems and challenges facing our country are now a struggle for the souls and the future of Zambia for we are more than the sum of our prospects. Most of all, we are the trustees of a dream.

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce agents of now, in the unfolding life and history. There is such a thing as being too late. We must work unceasingly to lift this nation to a higher destination, to a new plateau of compassion. For the last 15 years, we have heard many stories of how our country was flourishing in so many ways, how happy we all were, how we trusted our government, and what bright perspectives were unfolding in front of us. We refuse to join these lies.

Our country is not flourishing. The enormous creative and spiritual potential of our nation is not being used sensibly. But all this is still not the main problem. The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought. We learned not to believe in anything, to ignore each other, to care only about ourselves. Concepts such as love, friendship, compassion, humility, or forgiveness lost their depths and dimensions, and for many of us they represented only psychological peculiarities, or they resembled gone-astray greetings from ancient times, a little ridiculous today.

When we talk about contaminated moral atmosphere, we are not talking just about the politicians. We are talking about all of us. We seem to all have accepted the evil ways as an unchangeable fact and thus we are helping to perpetuate them. In other words, we are all - though naturally to different extents - responsible for the operation of this rotten and corrupt system; none of us is just its victim: we are also its co-creators. Why do we say this in an editorial comment that is supposed to be about the role of the media? It would be very unreasonable to understand the sad legacy of the last 15 years as something alien, which some distant relatives bequeathed us. On the contrary, we have accepted this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves.

If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us only, to do something about it. We cannot blame leaders of the previous government or governments for everything, not only because it would be untrue but also because it could blunt the duty that each of us faces today, namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly. Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own. And it will also be wrong to expect a general remedy from them only. Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all. If we realise this, then all the horrors we have inherited will cease to appear so terrible. If we realise this, hope will return to our hearts.

Comrade KK based his politics on morality. Let us try in a new time and in a new way to restore this concept of politics in our country. Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community. Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not only the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals and pragmatic manoeuvring, but it can even be the art of the impossible, namely, the art of improving ourselves, our country and the world in which we live.

Let us not allow all this to be lost in the jungle of skirmishes for power. Let us not allow the desire to serve oneself to bloom once again under the fair mask of the desire to serve the common good. It is not really important now which political party, club or group is in government. The important thing is that they do their very best, they try to become the best of us, in the moral, civic, political, professional sense, regardless of their political affiliations. This is what the media should work towards, should stand for - this is what we have been trying to contribute to for the last 16 years. And this is what we will continue to work for whatever the odds. We will always refuse to be manipulated.

Labels: EDITORIAL

posted by MrK @ 5:26 AM