Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director, MFWA
The Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah has added his voice to the ongoing 'culture of silence' debate by questioning New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko to identifying the group he finds intolerant in Ghana.
Mr. Braimah's comment was a response to an earlier opinion shared by Gabby Otchere-Darko on his Facebook page yesterday, that Ghana is in a "Culture of Bizarre Intolerance but by a Special Class" and not the government as it has been circulated.
To Mr. Otchere-Darko, the "special class" is made of people who think they have the right to criticize others but in actual facts, they hate it when others challenged them.
However, in a letter addressed to Gabby, Sulemana Braimah said, once the former has himself admitted there is a "culture of intolerance" in the country, it would be appropriate if he [Gabby] identifies the individuals in that "special class" who are not ready to tolerate the views of others.
"I agree with you fully, that the problem is with that group you call the "Special Class" who are stimulating "a Culture of Bizarre Intolerance." But to confront the challenge, we need to identify the folks who make up "Special Class." Unfortunately, you didn't identify them. So who are those special folks who are stimulating the culture of Bizarre Intolerance in our motherland?" He questioned.
Sulemana Braimah has since listed a few of several actions carried out by those he believes are the intolerant folks in Ghana.
Read his letter posted on Facebook:
Dear Mr.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko,
I have read some of your views on the ongoing conversations on the issue of the gradual return to "culture of silence" in our country with interest. One of such views you shared on this platform, which I entirely agree with, states:
"What I see now in Ghana is a Culture of Bizarre Intolerance but by a Special Class who believe they have the right to speak and squeal freely but others must be silent and not challenge the views of that Special Class."
I agree with you fully, that the problem is with that group you call the "Special Class" who are stimulating "a Culture of Bizarre Intolerance." But to confront the challenge, we need to identify the folks who make up "Special Class." Unfortunately, you didn't identify them. So who are those special folks who are stimulating the culture of Bizarre Intolerance in our motherland?
In my view, the folks in the special class include the ones who are or were uncomfortable with the ugly noises from opposition-aligned radio stations and used their power to mute 'those ugly noises' by selectively shutting down media houses affiliated to the opposition, while granting new frequencies to those aligned with their colleagues in the Special Class so that they can amplify their 'fine noises'.
The special class who perpetrate that "Culture of Bizarre Intolerance" in our country are the ones on whose behalf security folks will storm a media house, blindfold journalists and whisk them away to security enclaves to teach them where power lies because the media house had said something unpalatable about some people in the Special Class.
Those in the Special class exhibiting the "Culture of Bizarre Intolerance" include those who will sit on their television stations, threaten investigative journalists, reveal their identities and ask people to attack one of them anywhere they see him and he will pay for the consequence; then that journalist is mudered months later, and the person walks free. That is certainly a mark of belonging to that Special Class that is exhibit what you call the Culture of Bizarre Intolerance.
The people in the special class include those with the power to arrange for a journalist to be picked up by police at a public place where an interview had been scheduled, then have the journalist accused of publication of false news about them, when the journalist hadn't even published the story yet. Those are the people in the special class indulged in what you rightly call "a Culture of Bizarre Intolerance." It can only take a member of the special class to get a journalist arrested for publishing what they are yet to publish.
Those in the special class are the ones who can threaten the life of a journalist with impunity until the journalist leaves the country because the journalist has published something unpalatable about members of the "Special Class" In fact, the list can go on to help us define the folks in the "Special Class" who are engaged in what you rightly call "a Culture of Bizarre Intolerance" It is these folks in the "special class" who are engaged the "Culture of Bizarre Intolerance" who are trying to get us back to the days of the culture of silence. But I trust you will contribute your quota to help deal with the challenge posed by the Special Class. Greetings, Sir.
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