Am I the only person observing the ratcheting up of the decibel level during the drive-time phone in debates that are now the forte of Ghanaian talk radios? My typical experience is a moderator who comes across as being very nonplussed and even blasé, with guests in the studio or with listeners and contributors phoning in. But that is where the civility ends. The din of the discussion is such that the guy with the loudest voice or the ones who shout the most tend to be the only ones heard.
The moderation appears inconsequential, the fact checking of the shouting match non existent and the whole arrangement becomes a spectacle of comedy of errors rather than a sanguine and genuine debate of issues.
When was the last time you heard a female voice on any of these programs? Or has the tone of politics, at the ordinary level, in Ghana so descended to the level of alpha-male hyperventilating vacillations? And you have political parties sending their acolytes to these shouting bouts not to promulgate or propagate any meaningful information, but with the sole purpose of ensuring that the other side does not get its story or message across. It is beyond cynicism. It is the assassination of free speech!
Having witnessed the lack of decorum shown by the politicians themselves towards each other and the amount of disdain that flows through their various party apparatchiks towards each other, the drive-time shouting bouts do not necessarily come as a shock. But there is a consequence and unchecked, a price to be paid.
When those at the pinnacle of the national discourse acquiesce to the disembowelling of etiquette, and its spill over into the drive-time radio shouting bouts are accepted as the norm, the inevitable consequences are the wretched campaigning and election day violence and atrocities that are so emblematic and endemic across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ghana is still been held up as a beacon of exemplary behaviour to our neighbours and cousins for the smooth transitioning from incumbent to the elected. How long that beacon will keep burning in the face of such wanton inflation of the rhetoric and the raising of the decibel level we hope we never find out.
Debating is sustenance to free speech and must be sacrosanct; but surely, the mark of a democracy and true debate is that we are able to disagree without being disagreeable. There is no point debating if the whole purpose is to ensure nothing is heard. Let us tone down the rhetoric, adjust the volume to low and let civility reign.
Richard Boat
