Liberia: Fiery-tongued Politicians Under Fire

21 June 2011

Recent vows and threats by the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT) to take national discourse in the gutter have come true in the unrelenting volleys of insults and curses that have characterized public debates over the national issues and traded by public figures in the last few months. One particular group that accepted the “gutter discourse” challenge from MICAT is the Movement for Progressive Change (MPC), which appears to even outdo Government spokespersons in the crudity of their language. But it appears the free latitude that extremist intellectuals enjoyed in the past months is nearing its end because the media which serves as vehicle of public discourse and intellectual exchange has risen up from its slumber and indirect patronage to discourteous discussants of national issues and has unleashed its anger on the first batch of victims. As The Analyst reports, the Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL), with solidarity from sections of the electronic media, has begun a campaign to shame and expose newsmakers that are given to derogatory orientation, beginning with the chief proponent of “gutter debates”, MICAT, and its partner in attitude, the MPC of businessman-turned politician Simeon Freeman.

At long last the Fourth Estate of Government, which conveys and trumpets the acts and thoughts of society, is awake to the phenomenal abuse of free speech and communication particularly by politicians in wake of crucial elections this year.

Newspapers owners, under the banner of Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL), in collaboration with several electronic media institutions, have slapped news blackout on one of Liberia’s many political parties, the Movement for Progressive Change (MPC) and its Standard Bearer Simeon Freeman, and the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT).

Tension was heightening in the country this year as politicians stepped their pursuit for power often using retributive invectives and other unsightly words and phrases to describe opponents.

Though such indecent public discourse is not new, it reached notorious proportions in recent months as Liberians brace up for elections which pundits believe are expected to disrupt or sustain the country’s peace and development.

Critics and opposition elements have particularly irked the ruling party, particularly its standard-bearer, with crude words to which the Ministry of Information concurrently responded in cruder language.

President Sirleaf herself in whose defense zealous partisans and MICAT officials unleashed retaliatory obscene words against critics once described critics of her administration as lunatics that needed to go the crazy camp for psychiatric treatment.

The President’s comments infuriated the opposition which has since responded with more discourteous characterizations of the President.

As verbal obscenities took the place of civil discourse in the Liberian political arena, the Ministry of Information announced that it was prepared to take public discourse in the gutter, meaning that they would employ insults, curses and vituperations to address or respond to opposition’s uncivil verbal attacks on the Government, principally the President.

Some pundits believe it is this declaration of MICAT, Government’s official spokes-organ, that has particularly fanned the unprecedented anarchy that has befallen the political space.

In an unsuspecting way, the media has conveyed the obscenities of the protagonists’ language; something that was further fanning the flames of verbal antagonisms amongst and between political parties and politicians.

But it seems the media has deciphered its complicity in the situation, and is coming down hard perhaps to put some sense in the heads of state actors and sanitize the political arena.

Last Friday the media unleashed its first round of venom, heaping the MPC and MICAT with comprehensive news blackout.

In a statement justifying its action, the media through the Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL), indicated journalists have the responsibility to maintain and sustain the peace Liberia currently enjoys and that the media needed to significantly ensure that the 2011 election is peaceful and successful so as to guarantee a smooth transition to a democratically elected government which is critical and crucial.

The group said that by its action against MPC and MICAT, it was sounding a caveat to all political actors that PAL would not hesitate to impose similar media blackout on candidates that will choose to thread the same uncouth and unpopular trajectory of verbal obscenity.

“We believe that political debates must be guided by tolerance and mutual respect for one another, as insults and personal clashes are certainly signs of intellectual inadequacy,” PAL said in its statement.

Issues with MPC

PAL said its decision against the MPC and its standard-bearer stemmed from the fact that it has observed with consternation and indignation the unprecedented raining of chilling insults on the Liberian presidency by Mr. Freeman and his MPC team.

PAL stressed that it is quite aware that as the country rapidly paces to the 2011 campaign process, the political zealots will be immeasurably charged with assertions and counter assertions traded by political actors; however, the organic respect and courtesy for the office of the Presidency must be upheld to the fullest.

PAL says while it acknowledges the right to free speech, it is at the same time reminding every Liberian including political leaders that free speech equally comes with responsibility and respect for constituted authority.

“But quite to the contrary,” the group said,  Mr. Freeman and his team at the MPC are sadly abusing this right to the extreme and must be called to order now,” the PAL pointed out.

The group says it is alarmed and appalled by the kinds of profanities being poured on the Liberian Presidency in the public and international glare.

PAL believes that the alleged sex saga involving Mr. Freeman is squarely legal and believes that the MPC torchbearer could simply consult his lawyers to handle the matter.

The news blackout on Mr. Freeman and his MPC party will remain indefinite until they change their “distasteful course of action and show some remorse for the unholy words used on the presidency”, according to the group.

Issues with MICAT

In the same regard, the PAL says it is with immediate effect imposing a one-month media blackout on the Information Ministry for repeatedly raining insults on opposition politicians and other Liberians with dissenting opinions.

PAL says it is disappointed to see MICAT repeatedly bashing opposition political leaders and other Liberians with dissenting opinions thus using expressions like “political dog”, “we will go gutter”, “political janjaweed” amongst others.

“We state in no uncertain terms that the Information Ministry cannot and must not be reduced to a ‘Propaganda Bureau’ for the Unity Party (UP) when it is financed by public funds to disseminate government’s policy information to the Liberian people,” PAL maintained, adding, “MICAT must disengage this ugly posture and perform in keeping with its statutory responsibility. People at the MICAT must be the pace sitters and not the ones instigating unnecessary tension that could possibly drag the country into another mess and shatter the gains already realized”.

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