The political sociology and essence of public diplomacy in electoral politics

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OPINION

By Hebert Samuel Baligidde

Here is why the Government should consider tolerating the Media and accepting objective criticism, and by the same token, the Media ought to behave.

In an environment of competitive electoral politics, the speeches and public statements of top national leaders and official Government spokespersons rarely contain statements of self-assessment in as far as the government’s performance in managing particular challenges, situations or the economy and governance is concerned.

Some observers and analysts contend that self-assessment by vote-seeking politicians cannot, therefore, be relied upon! While this might not be true in all cases, the way the Government-media relations ought to be conducive to the gathering and dissemination of what makes reliable news and true information. It is incumbent upon Media Professionals to be fair in their reporting, an objective view of a ‘’free press’’ and “responsible media’’ implies allowing them to hold up a mirror to the face of a Government which is then prompted to find it easier to detect its blind spots, blemishes, weaknesses and strengths.

Criticisms or accolades by political observers, analysts, experts, and public opinion, as reflected in the Media, assist Governments to learn more about themselves. Criticism and/or assessment of Government programmes or policies gives credibility to claims made by politicians and government officials.

If Government Leaders, such as the Cabinet or Junior Ministers, make a statement confirming that a government project has been mismanaged and apologise for the shortcomings, many good people are likely to believe them. Transparency arising from official response to public concerns, which the media honestly and professionally highlight, usually buffers national Governments against neo-colonialist imperialist pressures of all kinds.

However, if with confidence they were to state that previous performance of Government or a particular MP or District Council Chairperson, with regard to implementation of particular projects was ‘excellent’ or ‘bad’, at times like these when public confidence and trust in both the public as well as private institutions have seemingly been badly eroded, nobody can believe them even if the claims may be true. The voters might scornfully say, “There they go...they are blowing their own trumpets again (or) the old culprits are at it again...how can we trust them?”

Unpatriotic statements like ‘but this is Uganda, what do you expect’ are irresponsible and as unacceptable as alluding to politics being a dirty game. But it need not be dirty. Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister and President General of the Democratic Party, Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere [RIP], who the Management and Senate of the Catholic faith founded Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) [whose main campus is located in rural Nkozi astride the Equator], appointed him to be the chair of the then new Rubaga Campus Advisory Board.

During its [the campus’s] nascence, he used to find time after attending the early morning mass at Rubaga Cathedral, to drop by my Office [to reminisce over the past because as Minister of Foreign Affairs, he had been my ultimate boss while I was still in the Foreign Service]. I had the distinct privilege and honour of being the pioneer Director of UMU’s metropolitan campus at Rubaga.

When I imprudently joked that he was too good and principled to be a politician and that he was in the wrong profession, he should have been Provost Adjutant of a Seminary; he became visibly angry. He looked straight into my eyes and said, ‘Baligidde, even Politics needs good people…it need not be dirty’!

I could not believe that this was the same man in whose Hotel Suite in Tripoli Libya in the early 1990s the late eminent industrialist James Mulwana and myself had spent almost a whole night sipped cupfuls of coffee while discussing strategies for the Ugandan Business Community taking advantage of the excellent official diplomatic relations that existed between Libya and Uganda and the pan Africanist ideological congruence that existed between President Yoweri Museveni and Libyan Leader Muammar Gadhafi.

Pleading for forgiveness, I promised to repair my inadvertent trespass against him by writing an Op-ed in a major newspaper on the imperatives of conducting clean politics. I wrote the article and submitted it to the Daily Monitor, which dutifully did me the favour of publishing it under the title ‘Even Politics needs good people’! He once travelled abroad to attend an international conference.

When he returned from duty abroad, his personal assistant was on leave, and I had the opportunity of temporarily serving him in that capacity by drafting a cabinet information paper he was to present to Cabinet. He had returned from abroad without using either his per diem or the contingence funds usually given to a leader of delegation of his rank in the Government hierarchy because the hosts of the International Conference on Refugees he had attended had in accordance with international conference protocol practice taken care of everything [i.e. provided a chauffeur driven car to pick him from the hotel every morning to the conference venue and back, and paid the bill for his VIP Suite.

He gave me an envelope containing all the money in dollar bills and instructed me to give it to the Undersecretary in charge of Finance and Administration, Ambassador [now Owekitiibwa, former Deputy Prime Minister of Buganda Kingdom] Emanuel Ssendaula, for onward transmission back to the Treasury! When I advised that it was okay to return the contingency funds but not the per diem because the latter had been signed off by the treasury and was legally his, he smiled but with calmness refused to take my ‘typically Ugandan advice’.

He then told me to do exactly as he had instructed. However, I will mostly remember him for his benevolence and kindness. When I fell critically ill with COVID-19 almost five years ago, my daughter Audrey called him after midnight to inform him. He did not immediately pick up the phone, but when he did an hour later, he saw the missed call, and at such an unfriendly hour for a person of such a high status, he called back!

When she told him that I was close to meeting my Maker and needed urgent assistance, he instructed his personal doctor [a senior doctor] to immediately join the team of three medics who were treating me at home. He did take action online with the Medic who was spending the night watching over me at home that night, and in the early morning of the next day, he drove himself to where I was. What seemed to be inevitable [succumbing to severe COVID-related conditions] was reversed!

Forget the diversion, but it was important to give a brief background to a politician whose humanity and ‘obsession’ with doing good and making Politics clean had no limits. President Museveni recognised his inherent goodness and inducted him into his first Cabinet. He was a formidable potential opponent in competitive politics, but President Museveni chose cooperation rather than antagonism in the national interest of forging a united Cabinet consisting of the leaders of other political tendencies.

But for now, let us focus on Public Diplomacy and its inevitable ecosystems. Without delving into the semantics of defining ‘objectivity’ as a concept, objective criticism through a free and fair independent media therefore restores confidence to the public and other concerned stakeholders, such as a country’s development partners as well as political observers abroad.

An independent or even government-owned media houses should avail reliable evidence of performance to its readers, viewers and various publics interested in learning that their expectations have been met and concerns are being addressed. Public opinion and criticism through the media of mass communication provide mechanisms for continuous assessment and improvement in sustaining good governance and managing development programmes/projects.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s contention that “the teaching of politics is that Governments, which were set for protecting and comfort of all good citizens, sometimes become the principal obstruction with which we have to contend with...the bully and malefactor people meet everywhere are Governments” is quite objectionable.

In Discourses on Davila, John Adams once averred that “the essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries” and Edmund Burke replied thus, “If any ask me what a free Government is, I answer that for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so” and continued, “Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom”. That is perhaps why in Uganda which is in the early stages of an election fever, ceteris paribus (all things being equal) attempts at gaging the Media or preventing the enjoyment of freedom of expression when the political class is moving at full throttle towards the forthcoming Presidential and General Elections may not augur well with current voter wisdom because it may provide potent propaganda ammunition for the Government’s rivals.

The sarcastic view that every country has the government it deserves cannot be overstated, and as the late British Premier Benjamin Disraeli once claimed, apparently, “No Government can be long secure without a formidable opposition”! Yet, against the backdrop of so many current leadership wrangles in all parties across the political spectrum and intraparty member discontent, mainly in the opposition parties, that element is becoming conspicuous by its absence.

Politically toxic rumours, which the so-called “gutter newspapers” as well as some so-called respected media houses perhaps inadvertently tout and sometimes even toy with, cannot contribute to forging a conducive environment for good Government-Media Public relations and the need for improving transparency and accountability. Although irresponsible gossip is a vice that is vicariously enjoyed by journalists, the respected Media professionals should at times like these perhaps steer clear of it even though in his famous article titled “What is News?” published by the New York Sun in 1882, Charles Anderson Dana wrote, “When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news”!

It is the newsperson’s job to get as good a story as possible and preferably to get the right messages or something new or unusual for dissemination to the electorate. But the word ‘news’ is simply a linguistic contraption meaning new things. Therefore, journalists or ‘News people’ [that is, everyone with a smartphone with a TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, X, and other media platform features has become a self-appointed news provider], try to give a new twist to a story or find a different way of presenting the same old facts.

The problem, though, is that the erstwhile noble ‘Fourth Estate’ has seemingly been invaded by not only bad-mannered novices and amateurs [like this writer] and seemingly utterly vampish political ‘mercenaries’ whose motives for crafting inadvertently or intentionally fake or unresearched facts for inclusion in skewed stories for sharing with the public are monetary gain or sponsored malice aforethought. That is partly the reason why most Government Ministries, Departments, Parastatals and various Agencies employ experienced press secretaries, spokespersons or public relations professionals to cooperate with the news media in disseminating verified information on governmental activities in the public sphere.

They are well aware of the importance and value of what is known as good press, and try to help the ‘News people’ to do their job. Even if toxic news stories are likely to be painful to the Government, the way it is presented on TV or in the newspapers can make all the difference to their effect and impact on ‘public opinion’. It is therefore up to Government spokespersons to give ‘News people’ a straight or true story, even if politically damaging, and hope to get lenient treatment in reporting it during times of adversity like a national or natural disaster, moments of possible shame, such as an election when the lenses of the international community are focused on the country.

They do so because they have been helpful and cooperative in the past. We call this kind of cooperation between the Government and the Media, Public Diplomacy. But, quite apart from highlighting “man bites dog” stories, the Media also often unfairly touts misleading pseudo-facts and untruths about Government, focuses too much on bad news, negative reporting and not enough on explaining what programmes and policies it has initiated or is successfully implementing.

Hostility and bias are allegedly sometimes reflected in the editorial policies of most of the media reports and news stories the media platforms push. Alleged Government so-called sycophants, who one Kenyan writer prefers to call ‘apologists’, contend that media freedom should be guaranteed only when the media is or becomes ‘responsible’.

Yet, such a suggestion, which this writer thinks should be elevated to the status of being an imperative, seems to be somewhat peremptory if not presumptive. It is deemed unfair because constitutionally, the Media has a right to be hostile, but is it?  It isn’t, but it is also true that the Media does not have to be ‘responsible’ in order to be free because media freedoms are guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and were acknowledged by the 1995 Uganda Constitution.  I seem to remember that any law, statute, by-law or regulation by a parastatal, authority or agency which is ultra vires a country’s Constitution is, according to the Lawyers, held to be ‘null and void’, isn’t it? It damn is!

For better or worse, Media rights and freedoms are a constitutional right, not a privilege to be conferred on the Media and Journalists or removed only if they “behave well”! The human relations or behavioural approach to managing society is concerned with designing a social environment that stimulates or enables Governments, organisations, Groups and Individuals to strive to achieve their objectives. Thus, the human relations approach, which seeks to achieve satisfaction in their jobs, encourages high productivity and stimulates co-operation and facilitates the avoidance of destructive conflicts.  

Good behaviour and working within what the Law permits makes it easier for Journalists to practice and enjoy their profession. Media freedom is not an end in itself, but it empowers Journalists to fulfil their responsibility, if not obligation, to act as the proverbial watchdogs of democracy. It cannot be suppressed or limited without it being altogether lost, can it? Nyet! Besides, since the degree and level at which Governments tolerate Media ‘blunders’ [and freedom of press abuses by the journalists themselves], is generally held to be a kind of gauge or instrument for measuring democracy, deliberate or inadvertent suppression of it undermines the fundamental principles of democracy advocating for a ‘free press’.

Restricting Media freedoms through unlawful Police action, punitive or seemingly harsh legislation suggests constriction of the functioning of democracy; even if democracy has to be guided, it is, diplomatically speaking, certainly not a best practice.

As Uganda’s President Gen. Yoweri Tebuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni, who Journalists in neighbouring countries and beyond once acknowledged as “having a strong stomach for criticism” and his Western admirers hailed him and the late Ghanaian President Flt-Lt Jerry Rawlings as “beacons for democracy in Africa”  in the 1990s, recently correctly observed, some aspects of the law such as the ‘idle and disorderly’ which during the colonial era criminalized gatherings of more than ten people standing on their mother-country’s soil, in their own capital and other towns, for a certain period of time without doing anything [and if I may add, libel and sedition laws; official secrets act; confidential information; alleged incitement; obscenity and privacy] were ridiculous.

Against the backdrop of the farmer’s crop price riots of 1948 [Naamba munaana] and 1949 [Naamba mwenda], the discontent of the Abataka Bu Freedom Movement, Augustine Kamya’s Boycott of Asian ‘Dukawallahs’, among others, were some of the weaponised tools with which the Colonial Police, Governors and Administrators held their oppressed subjects in thrall!

In the case of the so called Uganda ‘Protectorate’, one of the first ‘Native’ Policemen to rise from the rank of sub Inspector to Assistant Commissioner of Police Tom Lwanga [RIP] who in the later post-independence period became Makerere University’s Chief Security Officer and by happenstance was my neigbhour at Lungujja Wakaligga when we both retired from our respective employments [he from Makerere and I from the Foreign Service] told this writer that the Uganda Police was initially conceived as a paramilitary force consisting of an anti-Stock Theft Unit based in Karamoja and the Anti-Riot Special Force [for a long time headed by one fine Officer by the name of John Odongkara (RIP)], whose training focused on the doctrine of ‘Shock and Awe’ tactics intended to instill fear in the general populace, stop would be leaders of an uprising against the British Authorities and to overwhelm anyone toying with the idea of overthrowing the Protectorate Government!

Hence, the colonial Governors were extremely nervous about gatherings of more than 10 people or loiterers on the Streets. Like the now obsolete Enguli Act, elements of the old colonial Public Order Laws that still linger in the Penal code, such as being charged for being idle and disorderly, perhaps need to be reviewed.

In a situation where multitudes of youths, both educated and uneducated, are wallowing in abject poverty because they are unemployed, and others are underemployed, part of the solution is to create employment and income-generating projects for them. During the four decades he has been in power, President Museveni has not seemingly but visibly spared no effort in finding new avenues of creating wealth for households and self-employment projects for them.

This writer is not a sycophant or an apologist nor planning to stand for any elective position as some people think but simply someone who is interested in empirically based debates that may be useful for good governance, improving service delivery and providing information that could help in making the country where all Ugandans of goodwill, my children and grandchildren will live in peace and prosperity after I have gone. I am of the opinion and strongly believe that Museveni is not only the best choice for managing the transition to the future of this country, but is also the candidate with the capacity, ability, honest willingness and requisite experience to transform this country.

The Colonial Governments were bad because they were not only exploitative, were also oppressive. Confucius characterised oppressive governments thus: “An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger”. The question is, how do you transform an institution whose conception of governance was based on a military foundation into one intended for keeping law and order from a civilian perspective without attracting disruptive unintended consequences?

Shouldn’t journalists and the general public consider some of these historical variables when covering certain incidents in which the Policemen are alleged to use excessive force, when the doctrine upon which it was initially founded was ‘force’?

Train the FFU to rush into battle while making warrior chants wielding plastic shields and batons with the commanding Officer running ahead of the contingent flashing 10 placards with numbers one to ten written on them, suddenly standing and reading the riot Act to them before ordering his or her men to charge as their ancestors used to do in the past, when confronting rioters in this era when angry youths who have unfortunately lost their innocence and fear for guns [thanks to its demystifying programmes through cha mchaka programmes!] are also hungry begin to riot? Pay no attention, though, to Daniel Defoe’s allusion to the “fear of danger being ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself” because, as James Anthony Froude put it “, fear is the parent of cruelty”, which it can foment in reverse. No, it ain’t so and need not be so!

It is also the beadle of the law, isn’t it? Perhaps it is because, as the saying goes, Quem metuunt, oderunt [whom they fear they hate]. Considering that, unlike in the past when the armed forces lived in well-organised barracks, a substantial number of them now reportedly live with civilians in squalid hired rentals and compete not only for women or men but also for basic essentials for survival.!].

18th-century English philosopher Edmund Burke warned the newly formed French Assembly after the Revolution of 1789 of the unintended consequences of ‘mixing riotous civilians with mutinous soldiers’! The variables of the socioeconomic ecosystems that underpin alleged security forces' unprofessional behaviour are numerous.

Academia, as well as Journalists, have done wide-ranging research and journalistic investigations to elicit them, but Media Houses seem not to be enthusiastic about reporting them. Most of them are wrapped in incomprehensible academic rigmarole that the common public may not understand.

Be as it may, they could enhance quick comprehension by utilising the various AI applications despite its problems, to simplify and summarise them instead of focusing on ‘man bites dog’ or ‘policeman clobbered innocent civilians at rally’ kind of stories, can’t they?

Whereas individual cases of misbehaviour by the police and other security forces should be reported so that the authorities not only punish the culprits but also find solutions to prevent recurrence, can be found or crafted, but how innocent are the civilians in the often-reported incidents of violence, for example? As a child growing up in the suburbs of Kampala Municipality, I remember hearing police messages on Radio Uganda appealing to the public to help the police to help them and posters pasted at strategic points of the then Municipality carrying the same message.

The practice seems to have been mutually useful. The system of holding frequent security updates by the spokespersons of various agencies is a great leap forward and must, not should, be continued because it is a Public Diplomacy ‘Best Practice’. Asante sana. Tuna wasukulu. However, it should be enhanced with increased frequency public dialogues with all the stakeholders, especially at this time of electoral politics when tempers arising from perceived mistreatment or behaviour crop up.

It is unfortunate that the frequency of effervescent political invective and hate speech seems to be on the rise. This does not augur well with the imperative of calmness required to maintain peace during the election campaigns. The perennial ‘Politics of Hatred’ is extremely dangerous and is invariably contraindicated in the playbook of conducting a peaceful, free and fair election.

Yet, overzealous and unprofessional enforcement of restrictive or seemingly draconian laws targeting the Media, if not cognizant of the possible negative international image they may exude, are in this post-colonial era also still bad enough for modern democratic accountability to thrive.

Commenting on freedom, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms; the first is freedom of speech and expression; everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his way everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want...The fourth is freedom from fear”

Attempting to reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable needs of the “Catch-22 dilemma” [when a government of any country allows unbounded freedoms and liberties to the citizens it is finished. It is in human nature for them to abuse its magnanimity, and when the controls on certain freedoms are tightened it is still finished because the internal and external pressures from the neocolonialists become an hindrance to progress] they seemingly create, that is, reconciling democratic freedoms with the need for safety to which one scholar reacted by saying ‘democracy could not be eaten’, but there is no doubt that the kind of order and safety which Museveni’s NRM Government has for the last four decades been able to manage satisfactorily albeit with a few serious hiccups occasionally coming up here and there, creates an environment which promotes a conducive environment for productivity and development.

That, could put food on the table! The Media will not be deemed to have acted fairly when they unfairly troll certain political and national leaders or actors, politicians or individuals who make inadvertent mistakes, instead of highlighting constructive debates or discussions based on empirical facts and evidence, aimed at harmonizing various views on achieving socioeconomic transformation and development, without being sensitive to some unverifiable ‘rumours’ that have been touted about unilateral infringements of basic freedoms and rights.

Some of the ‘impugnations’ that are sometimes made in the media, albeit inadvertently, include dishonest conduct, unfitness for public office, immorality, and financial embarrassment are the very factors that help the public to determine the merit or credibility of those already in authority or positions of responsibility.

Would the Media be acting irresponsibly by ‘arming’ the public with information with which to hold incumbents in various elective positions, as well as hopefuls for public office, accountable, as the principles of democracy demand, one might ask? Nyet, hapana, nedda. Forget the obliquely skewed Oscar Wilde’s misleading contention in Picture of Dorian Gray, where he writes, “There is one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about”!

Therefore, Electoral Laws intended to curb rampant abuse and ridicule of eminent people like political, religious and cultural leaders, were and indeed are necessary to curb the misuse of the media. But they need not be overly draconian and certainly not for the general public, for whose benefit and in the national interest or public good all laws are supposed to be and are made.

With regard to media intrusion or snooping into the private lives of politicians, it is important to appreciate the fact that any person whose lifestyle generates news is likely to be pursued by the news Media. Some people object to this and refuse to cooperate, and their rights should be respected.

But others make themselves targets of media attention to build political profiles, make themselves too available by calling reporters and columnists at awkward hours of the day or night to witness prearranged political drama to gain the empathy of potential voters, or, in a few genuine cases, to give their views.

Something between the two is probably the best way of dealing with the media. As for the Journalists, opinion writers and other freelance bloggers and writers, would reinforcing the Journalists' code of professional ethics or other less punitive strategies, for example, not be sufficient? It would, but it is too late to look into such matters now because the campaigns are nigh. For God and my Country.