MPs walking Caesar’s curse

By John Mwazemba

I strongly believe that in our system no citizen has to face any leader on bended knee. He is not standing before a monarch, or a descendant of the sun god.

(Dan Rather, a Veteran American journalist in his book The Camera Never Blinks)

Caesar Augustus was the formidable Roman emperor who had unbelievable hubris and an ego towering to the sky. He fought his battles ruthlessly, with hallucinatory desire for victory at all cost and a maelstrom of youthful passion.

However, in a terrifying tryst with destiny, his high ego was obliterated. The great emperor had the shock of his life in the battle of the Teutoburg when Germanic tribes ambushed and wiped out three Roman legions — with over ten thousand soldiers led by Publius Varus.

In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the lead character — by the same name — goes through horrifying change.

Greek tragedy

He starts off as a loyal person to the King but suffers hubris along the way. Macbeth perfectly fits the role of a hero in Greek tragedy whose main flaw is unchecked ambition. He slays King Duncan and immediately wonders what came over him to kill a friend and even worse, the king.

Our politicians are behaving like Caesar and Macbeth. In Greek mythology hubris is defiance; arrogance; thinking you can outsmart the gods. Like Caesar, the political elite think they are invincible — we know they are not. Voters can choose to roar in angry rebuke and they will recoil — and realise they are mere mortals.

Our politicians are behaving like Macbeth — they started off well in their relationship with the media and electorate. Most of them were built by the power of the media. They used the media to highlight their plight and win public sympathy. Now that they are in power, they have forgotten the role the media played — and are angering the same people who put them in office.

From not paying taxes to gagging the media, politicians have suddenly and inexplicably turned into frightening ogres and horrid fiends.

The contentious debate in Parliament recently on the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2008, was amazingly revealing. One of the MPs, who has changed most from the seemingly progressive to gallingly dictatorial is Garsen MP Danson Mungatana. Arguing that the media must be muzzled, he thundered, "The President must sign that Bill". When a seemingly young MP starts using words like "must", then we know we are in trouble.

The Achewa of Zambia say, "Mlendo ndiye abwera ndi halumo kakuthwa"— ‘the visitor brings a sharp knife.’ This means outsiders may have better judgement and should be listened to as they may bring helpful ideas. If politicians only hear themselves argue, they could easily be caught in self-deception.

Dissenting voices

Once in a while, there must be dissenting voices, sometimes arguing bitterly against their points of view. Dissent is not treason. As someone aptly said, "The dissenter is every human being at those moments in his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself".
Our politicians forget easily.

A few years ago, no one in this country knew who Mungatana was. In fact, one of the most memorable questions asked by Prime Minister Raila Odinga (then Lang’ata MP), when Mungatana challenged him to a duel was, "Who is Mungatana?" Thanks to the same media he now wants gagged, Mungatana has become a household name, especially for faithfully reporting his penchant for bare-knuckled ‘crocodile-like’ political brawls.

To be fair, he is not alone in the warped school of thought that the media must be gagged. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens wrote: "It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home".

Some Kenyans are now ashamed that anyone in this century should even attempt to control the media. Let’s leave that as a preserve of President Mugabe and other insecure despots.

Wole Soyinka, the great Nigerian author and 1986 Nobel Laureate in Literature, says: "In much of Africa, the challenge for journalists, editors, and readers goes beyond freedom of the press, and involves its very survival.

"Under Nigeria’s various dictatorships, for example, many journalists underwent a rite of passage that most prefer to forget: Routine harassment, beatings, torture, frame-ups on spurious charges, and incongruously long prison sentences.

"Among the numerous victims, perhaps the most bizarre case was that of a young journalist named Bagauda Kaltho.

His body was found in a hotel toilet in the city of Kaduna with the remains of a parcel bomb after an explosion that no one heard. Yet there he lay, and with a copy of my book The Man Died beside him".

When politicians advocate censorship, they do so in a subtle way using the guise of words such as "national security". Soyinka also mentions some of these words that leaders hide behind when he says: "The cheap recourse to dismissive invectives such as ‘outside interference’, ‘jaundiced reporting’, and ‘imperial mouthpiece’ — so beloved by corrupt and/or repressive regimes — is recognised as self-serving even by those who routinely mouth them. Africa’s media must respond with its own analyses, explanations, and narratives".

Without a free press, there will be no watchdog for holding leaders accountable and champion the causes of the masses. No matter the weaknesses, the media should be given room to do their work and give greater regulatory powers to the Media Council.

Objectivity

It is also incumbent upon members of the Fourth Estate to uphold their professional code of ethics for fairness and objectivity in their reports and commentaries. The benefits of a free press are many especially in countries where the opposition is weak, has been compromised, or has had its members co-opted into the ruling party to form a coalition government, like is our case. When the lack of a strong opposition party is coupled with the lack of a bold free press, the resultant vacuum is dangerous.

This is perfect breeding ground for a dictator, who Emmanuel B Dongala (in his book Jazz and Palm Wine) satirically calls "the enlightened guide and saviour of the people, the great helmsman, the president-for-life, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the beloved father of the people".

Both opposition politics and a free, bold press must check executive authority and any other kind of power because absolute power corrupts absolutely.

johnmwazemba@yahoo.co.uk