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 9th
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 15th
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.
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