Why politicians hate journalists so much

When the prodding media questioned Jubilee’s appetite for huge loans soon after it came into office in 2013, they were quickly dismissed as enemies of development and reminded that gain would only come with some pain.

We protested; why was Jubilee falling over itself to invite the Chinese to do no-strings attached business in town?

We support liberalism. We love the feel of unhindered freedom and liberty.

Moreover, we champion economic liberalism not because we appreciate its contribution to the well-being of society, but mostly because we appreciate the dangers of the reverse.

They picked out media and the civil society as a threat that needed to be dealt with immediately to avoid the inconvenient truths that would surely come out.

They came at us hammer and tongs. Declaring that newspapers were only fit for wrapping meat, the Jubilee administration dug a grave for mainstream media and dissuaded their followers and the public from trusting the Public Watchdog.

They were fully aware that the old tactic of crushing skulls and breaking limbs would yield little.

So besides lampooning the Fourth Estate, they thought of ways that would neutralise the mainstream media.

Soon, Jubilee was bogged down by a morass of pettiness and incompetence. But like wounded tigers, the media pounced.

Here is the thing about media; we won’t standby when politicians are ruining the country. We speak up against odious politicians fleecing and then vomiting on the public.

Hard questions

We ask the hard questions as we did when the National Treasury was seemingly unwilling-or unable-to provide the parts to the $2 billion Eurobond jigsaw puzzle.

Truth was hard to come by. We had to plough through official obfuscation to get to the truth. Many think we did not.

Media is not just hellbent to draw blood. No, there is so much good happening out there. We don’t ignore that as well. We report about it.

The tangled lives of political class and the elites will always interest reporters because we are not there to make them happy. Those who chastise the media for crossing the line make tangential arguments and frankly, most of them never really justify why they want us out of the way.

Media the world over is a force for good or bad; often times, it is a force for good. At the most basic level, it makes people appreciate cause and effect. We challenge the ruling class about their failings and lapse in judgment. On behalf of the public, we engage in ceaseless muckraking. Make no mistake, the media cannot be an alternative government nor replace the Opposition. By giving equal chances to competing forces, it moderates the relationship between the leaders and the led.

Paying taxes

A properly functioning media will therefore make the people understand why despite paying taxes, there are no drugs in hospitals; the roads and the schools are crumbling and why the police won’t stop taking bribes. And the teachers and the nurses are on strike. It does this fully aware of the consequences these choices present to them.

A dogged media that has overcome so much cannot be cowed. Already, there is a balance set up in how things work. It would take so much to unravel it because all of us-including the political class-benefit from it. They just won’t admit it because it would shame their lies.

When everyone seems happy, thanks to the March 9, 2018 handshake, it is the media that keeps the discussion going- they also smell around. Be wary of a quiet political class. It only means that their interests – not the public’s- have merged. We act in the interest of the public.

“An unthinking press is not good for Singapore,” said Goh Chok Tong Singapore’s former PM. And he should know better. His predecessor Lee Kuan Yew knew better still. Though he was tough on media, he opted to have the national media cake and eat it too. He wanted a press “that could report, interpret and analyse like the best newspapers in the most developed and freest countries”.

We will demand clean politics, good governance and fairness in political competition. We will demand that corruption and other forms of malfeasance are cured. That comes at a huge price. The political and the “deep State” fellows will always devise ways to weaken, cripple and finally silence media. Try they may, but they won’t succeed.

Yet for all its faults, conventional media still remains a critical ingredient in democracy.

Should we lose the media, who will speak on behalf of Wanjiku? Certainly not the politicians; certainly not the cowed civil society groups smarting from a vicious State crackdown and dwindling donor funding.

Mr Kipkemboi is the The Standard’s Associate Editor for Partnerships and Projects