LOVE IS PEACE

LOVE IS PEACE

Love unconditionally for Peaceful elections, 2020. Your political and religious opponents are not your enemies. They are Friends in nation's building.

EXPERIENCE IS PEACE

EXPERIENCE IS PEACE

A UNIVERSITY STUDENT’S EXPERIENCE OF CAMPUS DIRTY POLITICS 

Your political opponents today could be your party members tomorrow, but it all depends on how you treat them; this is why Cohen et al., (2018) advise all to stay away from dirty politics. In Ghana’s politics, known NDC members converted to NPP (Mynewsgh.com): likewise, known NPP members also joined the NDC (Smith, 2018). So, you see – belonging to a different political party does not make one your enemy (My Facebook’s Wall & Group’s Post, 08.01.13; Green, 2019)! Thinking of how to develop our country with different “political ideologies” (Coxall et al., 2003), cannot make us enemies. Enmity develops and makes “politic toxic” when some citizens are “married to their political parties” without putting their nation first (Green, 2019).

Hating each other because of political differences (Damoa, 2011; Starrfmonline.com, 2016; Milligan, 2019), defeats the beauty of democracy! Unfortunately, a gentleman’s Love for Peace that mostly pushes him to talk about issues of National Importance, has implicated him for discrimination and campus political victimization!

In his first post (October, 2016), there was too much politics on their school WhatsApp’s Group. So, he suggested that they should not bring too much politics there – making it look as if they are politically bias. In November 2016, he stressed it again in another post, not knowing that he was gradually getting enemies. On Ghana’s elections’ day (7.12.16) too, some members on their platform were threatening that they would not accept the elections if it favors the ruling party. He saw that behavior as a threat to peace! He said, what I was thinking about was that: “If this party is threatening not to accept the elections results, though elections were still ongoing and the results were not yet declared, what will happen should the other parties also decide not to trust the results of the EC because of that behavior?”.

The painful example of Ivory Coast ran immediately into his mind. Though he knows the party members involved, he did not mention any party’s name. He posted a neutral message that, behaviors like that should be stopped, because there are examples around them where the failure to accept elections’ results has led into violence. One of them insisted that he should give an example, he mentioned the example which has pushed him to write that post. He was only worried about the consequences of such behaviors; unfortunately, he was hated by some people; most of whom are his own friends. His character was assassinated such that people who were very friendly to him, suddenly started avoiding him and he was treated like an outcast.

How did he know that his character is assassinated? The sudden change and avoidance by those who previously treat him nicely, is a sign. Some of them openly told him why! He is labelled with a party’s colors and that is the problem! There were false rumors circulated about him on campus, that he was campaigning for a particular candidate. However, he said that has never been involved in any political campaign. An elderly female staff first told him on 9^th November 2016 that, she is aware he is that party’s member. He asked her why, she re-affirmed: “You think I don’t know?”. The following day (10.11.19), a gentleman also told him that he was told that he is campaigning for the same person. He asked him to tell him the person who told him, but he said nothing. He has never told anyone that he is party, so, why were they attaching party’s colors to him? There is nothing wrong if someone is a politician, but if he/she has not declared his/her political affiliation to anyone; then, why should he/she be labelled with political colors?

 Apart from the fact that those who were friendly to him and treat him nicely, were suddenly avoiding him, he was hated by others too. A colleague mobile phone was stolen and they all contributed money for him to buy a new phone. Unfortunately, when a taxi ran away with his phone (09.10.17) some colleagues were happy and one openly said that he thanks God that his phone got missing. That was a sign of hatred! Why is he happy because his phone is missing? No one showed concern, by at least saying: “Sorry”! On 15^th March 2018, when it was left with about three (3) hours for him to give his Project Progress Report’s Presentation, his Laptop too was stolen. Only three (3) colleagues showed concerns by calling to ask him whether he got it.

He said he suspected targeted stealing because the person who he suspects to have stolen it, is a colleague student. He came to meet him in their study room at 4:50AM and at 5:00AM, he was feeling sleepy. He asked when that colleague will be leaving there, and he said after 6:00AM. So, he set an alarm for Thirty (30) minutes and told him to alert him when he is going. He woke up before 5:30AM, but his colleague and the laptop were nowhere to be found. Three days later, he saw him entered into their hostel’s room. He did not approach him that day, he spied and monitored him for one week before. He admitted going to study there that faithful day; he also admitted that he told him to alert him when he is going, but added that he didn’t want to disturb him by then. These treatments have been confirmed by a bursary discrimination against him and others.

Meanwhile, for all his posts on their platform and elsewhere, there is only one post (Fig. 1) in which he made political comparison (19.03.19). That is when their bursary delayed; that sorts of positive comparison is allowed in politics. Making a positive comparison, without any insult, to explain your point/opinion is not a Dirty Political Mentality; but when we “insult” (Adomonline.com., 2019) and hate each other because of political differences (Milligan, 2019).

Figure 1: The Comparison’s Comment by the Student

Students are likely future leaders, it is a shame for them to be involved in “Dirty Politics” (Cohen et al., 2018)! Damoa, 2011 has already identified political hatred as a problem that is destroying Ghana. If they cannot tolerate their political opponents while on campus, they definitely will not tolerate them in National or International Politics; and this is a serious threat to modern democracy. Brock, 2018 advises politicians to practice politics that would lead to “social change, or even of a change in attitudes”; this should be the attitudes of students as future leaders. Politics is an expression of “ideas” or the application of different “political ideologies by politicians” (Coxall et al., 2003): it’s never a battle amongst humans!

Please, do not insult or attack anyone. This student has shared his experience, so that we can all learn from it and avoid Dirty Politics. He has forgiven everyone, but he wants us to know how one can be politically victimized. You can advise him and others, but don’t insult. Thank you!

References

Adomonline.com. (2019). Abronye DC, Kwaku Boahen trade insults on live TV. Retrieved from https://www.ghanamma.com/2019/09/14/abronye-dc-kwaku-boahen-trade-insults-on-live-tv/ on 15.09.19 at 11:58AM.

Brock., M. (2018). Political satire and its disruptive potential: irony and cynicism in Russia and US. Culture, Theory and Critique. 59(3): 281-298. doi.org/10.1080/14735784.2018.1496843.

Cohen, S., Perez, N., Douty, S., Hilliard, M., Sherrill, C., Johnson, D., Sy, A., & Reyes, J. (2018). Editorial: Keep a clean slate on dirty politics. Retrieved from http://m.theshorthorn.com/opinion/editorial-keep-a-clean-slate-on-dirty-politics/article_2c2bb8c8-bac8-11e8-a215-7f6eb4c3ed54.html on 09.07.19 at 12:32AM.

Coxall, B., Robins, L., Leach, R. (2003). Political ideologies: the battle of ideas. Contemporary British Politics. 50-72.

Damoa, A., K., A. (2011). Politics of hate and Hatred, Tearing Ghana Apart; Who is behind it? General News. Retrieved from https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Politics-of-hate-and-Hatred-Tearing-Ghana-Apart-205373 on 20.12.19 at 1:14AM.

Green, E. (2019). Americans Hate One Another. Impeachment Isn’t Helping. Why the ongoing fight may leave Democrats and Republicans even more suspicious of the other side. Politics, Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/11/impeachment-democrats-republicans-polarization/601264/ on 18.12.19 at 2:28AM.

Milligan, S. (2019). Democrats, Republicans and the New Politics of Hate. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2019-10-21/democrats-republicans-and-the-new-politics-of-hate on 18.12.19 at 2:39AM.

Mynewsgh.com. (2019). NDC Vice Chair, 2 others join NPP. Retrieved on 08.08.19 at 2:46PM from https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/politics/NDC-Vice-Chair-2-others-join-NPP-770383.

Starrfmonline.com (2016). So much hatred in Ghana’s politics - Arthur K. General News. Retrieved from https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/So-much-hatred-in-Ghana-s-politics-Arthur-K-432894 on 20.12.19 at 1:22AM.

Smith, P. (2018). NPP youth burn Akufo-Addo t-shirts; defect to NDC in Eastern region. Retrieved at 7:07PM, 13.10.18 from http://www.ghanavisions.com/news/221213-npp-youth-burn-akufo-addo-t-shirts-defect-to-ndc-in-eastern-region.html.