By Tony Bee, Sydney Australia.
It is high time Sierra Leoneans stopped their political, tribal or regional hatred. This bad and chronic way of life of some Sierra Leoneans that is destroying the fabric of the nation’s development should stop for the sake of peace, love, unity and the country’s progress. Stop the monkey politics that will not make you gain political sympathy. It does no longer exist.
Most times political and regional hatred lead to gutter journalism, as is now evident in Sierra Leone. Some irresponsible and fake journalists in the country, who go with the false notion that they are professional journalists, have nothing in mind but to destroy the image of the profession. They write bogus information for the public, most times libelous, and are quick to go on their knees to say they are sorry for their unprofessional reporting. Is that what we call professionalism in this noble field? Professional journalism in any society, whether developed or under-developed, should always be responsible and selfless.
Those “over night” and fake journalists in the country, who spring from no where with no experience or qualification whatsoever, should be discouraged from bringing journalism into disrepute. The journalism they pretend to do is nothing short of political and regional vendetta. I personally don’t see the need for that in this era of our country’s bloody history when we should all reconcile and rebuild the broken land.
It is because of a few people that journalism in Sierra Leone in recent past was described as a haven for school drop-outs. This was because the practice of the profession lacked its desired culture of professionalism, which calls for objectivity and balanced reporting.
Nowadays, however, we have university graduates, some of whom with acquired or assumed PHDs in Journalism, but the face of the profession has hardly changed at all for the better because the “school drop-out” syndrome is now more evident than ever before. It is now you really see the PHD holders being used by the old and wicked power-hungry political butterflies who had destroyed the country in the past and still want to finish off the little that is left.
Some of the so-called journalists or writers endeavour to spoil the good name of the country, basking in the pretext that they are castigating the APC government. Some or majority of the news stories and commentaries about the government are most times written under a false names, sometimes the writer even falsely forcing people to believe that he/she is writing from a part of the country where no opposition to the government is expected.
Those who could read between the lines are normally quick to pick up the writer by his/her style. For example, a writer of contemptuous articles about Sierra Leone’s present government would call himself Samura or Kabbah from the north of the country while, truthfully, he could be Lans Gberie or somebody else writing under a false name. Such tricks had been happening in the Patriotic Vanguard and other newspapers recently before and after the parliamentary and presidential elections in Sierra Leone.
The reason for all that is not because some journalists love Sierra Leone but simply because of political and regional hatred. Journalists who write under a mask have no good reputation and are enemies of progress. It is now time for a positive change for the development of our country.
Another salient point is that without love for one another, both at home and abroad and, above all, without love for our country Sierra Leone, we will find it very difficult to make the country a better place to live. The country today is far behind in terms of development because of our lack of patriotism. I think we should stop blaming the 11-year war for our under-development, for the fact that the war itself was started through our selfishness and greed and some people still want another war in the land because of political and regional hatred.
The pull him/her down (PHD) syndrome will not take us anywhere. We should therefore put partisan and regional interests aside for the benefit of Sierra Leone. We should begin to appreciate one another’s efforts in the development of our country. Let us try to be true nationalistic Sierra Leoneans with good deeds but not destructive words. Let us put aside our political membership, tribal membership and regional affiliation for the interest of all.
Before anyone will have to come to our aid, we have to be in front first. We have to tell the world that Sierra Leone is not only a land of diamonds, iron, bauxite, etc. but also a land of peace, love and unity. We will only be able to do that by being selfless and patriotic. But if we continue to say or write negative things about the country with the aim of destroying the APC government, even though the government is using all its energy to make Sierra Leone a better place, we are obviously not destroying the APC government; we are destroying the country in order to satisfy the egoistic and the unpatriotic politicians that plundered the country.
A case in point is the recent visit to Sierra Leone of one of the most renowned and respectable personalities in the world, former Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair. He highly commended our able President Earnest Bai Koroma for his total commitment to hard work and patriotism in the country, even though the country is being portrayed badly in the outside world by some backward-thinking individuals.
We should therefore stop the promotion of false propaganda to satisfy those wicked and over-ambitious politicians. Let us learn to engage the APC government in constructive criticism that will benefit the country but not malicious, baseless or hate criticism that will damage the good image of the country
Those butterfly (recycled) politicians have more than one passport and have places to run to when trouble comes, leaving the poor innocent, defenseless and powerless masses to bear the brunt. When AFRC/RUF overthrew Tejan Kabbah and the SLPP, didn’t the politicians flee the country leaving the poor people in danger?
The APC government, like any other government, will not live in power for ever, the reason why we should give them praise when they do well. But if we say because the SLPP government had failed the nation in their 11 years of rule, as such we should undermine the present APC government in order for them also to fail the people through our negative words and writings, there will be no progress and investors will shy away from us and then we will lose and the whole country will lose too, which will be a mere tragedy. However, if God says yes, who will say no? God bless Salone.
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