Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, June 27, 2016
Former United Nations Secretary
General Busumuru Kofi Annan says it is not necessary for the government to shut
down social media on election day as threatened by the Inspector General of
Police, John Kudalor.
“What you shut down here is
available elsewhere; and today’s world is interconnected that you may think you
are keeping information from them but they get it and I don’t think it is worth
the effort,” he said on Thursday evening in Accra.
UN Warning
Already, the UN has said it is
against the ban of social media on election day and that sentiment was
expressed through Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, who is currently the Special
Representative of the UN Secretary General for West Africa and the Sahel
(UNOWA).
Kronti ne Akwamu Lecture
Mr Annan gave the advice when he
delivered the 12th Kronti ne Akwamu Lecture on the topic, “Credible
and Peaceful Elections: A Prerequisite for Africa’s Progress,” annually organised
by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Ghana.
The lecture, which was massively
attended by very important dignitaries including former President J.A. Kufuor and
diplomats, was chaired by Justice Professor Akua Kuenyehia who retired from the
International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in March 2015.
Mr Annan, in his short lecture,
said instead of shutting down social media, the public rather should be
educated on how to use the tool responsibly.
“Social media is a tool.
Sometimes I hear people talk about social media revolution. Social media can
bring people together. It can get them to go to a stadium.
You can get them to
go to a square,” he said and told a story of how a similar channel was used in
China in 1989.
Tiananmen Square Revolution
“In 1989, during the Tiananmen
Square Revolution in Beijing, China, I was in New York and we had several staff
members but two in Beijing at their offices overlooking the Tiananmen Square.
Radio stations and all communications were closed down but the students were
using faxes, which was the technology of the day; so one would say it was a fax
revolution. In the Arab Spring, we say it was a social media revolution because
it was the technology or the tool.
“What tool we will have tomorrow,
I don’t know but we should not look at these means as a source of power in
itself,” he said.
Election Tension
The former UN boss, who is also
the Chancellor of the University of Ghana, acknowledged that Ghana had “earned
a reputation as something of a democratic role model in Africa” in a relatively
short space of time by organising six credible elections and two peaceful
transitions of power but said “despite this glowing international reputation,
we Ghanaians know that each election has generated a worrying degree of
violence and uncertainty.”
He said the country should not approach
the November 7 elections “with the sort of tensions we are noticing today and
any step that reduces tension and brings the parties together, I think, will be
essential.”
Strong Institutions
He said for democracy to thrive,
there was the need to strengthen the rule of law and to empower professional
and independent national bodies tasked with the responsibility to manage
elections.
Dr Annan said Ghana must make
greater effort towards building the institutions which manage the processes for
multi-party democracy, saying, “Only this will ensure the legitimacy for
winners in election and provide security for losers.”
Political Equality
The former UN Secretary General
called for political equality and the need to fight the incidence of unregulated
money in politics which led to vote-buying and bribery by candidates.
He challenged Ghanaians to work
towards deepening and sustaining democratic ideals in Ghana, adding that with a
credible election, it didn't matter which party won the election as long as the
country won.
He affirmed the importance of
democracy as a system of government and called on Ghanaians not to let the
streets take over the ballot box, saying, “Democracy is not only conducive for
economic growth but a prerequisite for Africa's progress and development.”
Civil Society
He added that democracy depended
on what he called the lively participation of organised civil society in
political life. According to him, “Politics is too important to be left only to
the politicians.”
He said democracy was freedom
and that that alone was development. He however added that the concept of
democracy was work in progress, noting that any criticism would only lead to
making the concept of democracy better.
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