|
|
|
|
| Features |
| Playing blame game |
|
by
Mzati Nkolokosa, 22 February 2007
-
05:44:15
|
Is President Bingu wa Mutharika right to accuse the media wholesale as responsible for the negative image Africa and Malawi have in the West and elsewhere?
President Bingu wa Mutharika is a leader who looks at himself as successful—and he is right. But his blame on the media on Saturday revealed he lacks a strategic communication programme to promote his government.
On arrival from France, Mutharika said African leaders are worried with the poor image painted by the international media to the extent that they agreed to establish a continental television station to defend Africa. The worse thing, said Mutharika, is that even Africa’s media is not doing much good to the continent. Not only that. Journalists in Malawi publish negative stories about Malawi to the extent of scaring potential investors.
“There are a lot of good things happening and you don’t write about that,” said Mutharika. “But when a bridge collapses, that’s a story.”
Of course, the President is right to worry about his government’s image. This is so despite having the State House press office, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Television Malawi (TVM) and Malawi News Agency (Mana).
In a way, Mutharika was accepting that these media organisations have failed his government, meaning people tend to believe the private media a lot more than the public media.
Sadly for him, the private media is capitalist, doing the core business of journalism, the public watchdog duty, not praising government.
Mutharika should, therefore, not blame the media but engage communication experts in formulating a meaningful public media policy and programme. He should accept that he overlooked some important areas in his vision for Malawi.
Why is the private media so powerful in Malawi? One, it has hired qualified journalists, mainly graduates from the University of Malawi.
Some are still teaching on part time while some full-time lecturers are seriously considering becoming journalists. The result is that private newspapers, The Nation for example, have meaningful stories that engage readers.
And it is not true that the private media has not written about success stories. Think of the innovative Dowa farmer Griffin Chinkhutha of Freedom Gardens, Manthimba farmers of Thyolo and the Chingale farmers of Zomba. Think of them as Nation Achievers!
The government media has never done projects as those carried by the private media except when government discovers a successful person and, even then, it is the government official who shines, not the achiever.
If Mutharika wants strategic communication that can portray his government as successful here are tips.
One, he must employ a graduate press officer who understands communication and social theories, one who can use words and symbols to capture the interest of people, not simply antagonise former presidents and opposition parties. The State House press office should be empowered with a meaningful job description, not simply refuting allegations (unsuccessfully, so) and moderating press conferences. Mutharika can learn from South Africa and Nigeria.
Two, public broadcasters, MBC and TVM, should be empowered by making them people-centred not necessarily government-centred.
The BBC, for example, has done a lot of good to Britain without favouring any ruling party. The station is funded by government to do good to the country, not an individual. It is independent from any government interference, of course. But it is not independent from the people of the United Kingdom. The BBC serves the agenda of the British and, as a result, they are one proud people despite divisions brought by war in Iraq.
In a country like Malawi, where regional politics is order of the day, once a public broadcaster favours one party (and in essence one region), the rest feel sidelined. If MBC and TVM were left to serve Malawians, Mutharika would be surprised with the public broadcasters’ credibility which is good for Malawi and him, too.
The public broadcasters have not done meaningful analysis of the benefits of Shire-Zambezi waterway. It is, instead, the private print media that has analysed the importance of the waterway in a meaningful way.
People tend to believe reliable sources of news and journalists in the private media are slowly becoming public intellectuals, not teaching in lecture theatres but running street classrooms in newspapers.
Three, Ministry of Information and Mana should be funded and improved. Mutharika talked of establishing a media centre. This is not a priority. Instead, government should buy computers for Mana offices. Mutharika talked of training journalists. This, too, is not priority. Instead his government should employ journalism graduates from University of Malawi. It will be a total difference from Mana reporters at district and regional offices who wait to be picked by ruling party politicians who say nothing good about Malawi at rallies.
Government needs to help the Department of Journalism at the Polytechnic and the Malawi Institute of Journalism to establish a media research centre which will benefit all journalists in the country. Mutharika needs to think of the country’s future, not just the now.
Five, Mutharika should hire educated speech writers who understand the world, who can play with words to retain supporters and win new ones.
These are speech writers who know where to put a comma, another comma, and a semicolon; they are people who know where to put a colon: a punctuation that moves in line with the heart beat. In a nut shell, Mutharika should hire people who can play with the mind until they come to the end, to the full stop.
Six, Mutharika should hire a qualified politician (and everyone is politician) as Minister of Information, with a qualified and competent principal secretary.
With such people at the top, government should fund the Ministry of Information adequately so that it can sell Malawi abroad.
Take the example of South Africa, a country with one of the world’s highest crime rates, where a serious crime is committed every 17 seconds, with unnecessary loss of life everyday. Johannesburg has the highest crime rate followed by Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban in that order.
Cars are hijacked every hour. Yet despite this crime rate South Africa registers hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. The numbers have not necessarily decreased. Why is this so?
One, Nelson Mandela. He is a politician who put South Africa on the world map. Malawi does not have a politician of Mandela’s stature. Never mind Mandela, we don’t have a politician of Joachim Chissano’s status to sell our country.
In the absence of statesmen, writers sell a country as Chinua Achebe and Ngungi wa Thiongo have done to Nigeria and Kenya respectively.
Malawi is not that poor in literary terms. We have Jack Mapanje, an internationally acclaimed writer still making his name in Europe and America. But where is his place in Malawi? In general, where is the place of the writer in Malawi?
Two, South Africa has infrastructure. There are direct flights to Johannesburg from most world cities: Washington, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Atlanta, New York and Hong Kong. There are good roads in South Africa, even in the rural areas of Kwazulu Natal. Hotels and lodges are everywhere, cheap and better than those in Malawi. (Paul Theroux, the American travel writer, journeyed from cairo to Cape, on land and water and he says Malawi has the most expensive hotels in Africa.)
Three, South Africa has advertised itself worldwide and people know about the country. In achieving this, South Africa has used its statesman, Mandela, its natural resources, infrastructure and strategic sea position.
Malawi has not praised any of its artists or sportsmen and sportswomen who can sell the country. Malawi has not advertised in The Economist, Newsweek, Time or on CNN and BBC.
This is government’s work. The media do not construct roads. The media do not run hotels. Does Mutharika want the media in Malawi to tell the world that there is a good road from Mangochi to Cape Maclear when the road is dusty and in bad shape? What about the collapsing bridges?
Countries like Botswana and South Africa advertising at big international airports. In the three years I have been working, I have been to Oslo, London, Amsterdam, Washington, Accra, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Johannesburg but haven’t seen any poster advertising Malawi at the airports. This is the responsibility of the government, not the media.
Malawi should have by now made Kamuzu Academy a centre of high school excellence in the region. This is the school where Mwalimu Julius Nyerere sent his son.
By now the University of Malawi should have become a centre of academic excellence in the region. The university is still held in high esteem because of its high standards. Students from neigbouring countries are coming for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. What remains is for government to improve infrastructure in the colleges.
That is the responsibility of government, not the media. But can this happen with Anna Kachikho (JC) as Minister of Education and Roy Comsy (MSCE) as deputy minister?
So the ball is in the hands of Mutharika, not journalists as he wanted the world to believe on Saturday.
Mutharika should hire educated people not some of the type he has who lack knowledge in almost everything as if they live in a well and can only see the patch of the sky directly above their heads—the DPP and nothing more.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
