Propaganda blitz futile Financial Gazette (Zimb) Date posted:Fri 31-Oct-2003 Date published:Thu 30-Oct-2003
Back to previous page		I remember watching a news clip on television in which a reporter commented rather uncharitably that while the rest of the delegates were grappling with important issues, the Malawian nonagenarian’s main objectives was to prove that he was still alive! Comment Before being booted out of power in multi-party elections in 1994, Malawian dictator, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, attended a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in an Asian country. Banda, who was in his 90s, had been ailing for sometime and because Malawi was a closed society at that time, no official information had been released to the press pertaining to the state of his health. As a result, there were all sorts of rumours, including that the autocrat had died. Consequently, when he showed up at the NAM summit, his mere presence was a big news story in its own right. I remember watching a news clip on television in which a reporter commented rather uncharitably that while the rest of the delegates were grappling with important issues, the Malawian nonagenarian’s main objectives was to prove that he was still alive! The report was accompanied by film footage showing the tiny, stooped figure of Banda leaning heavily on a cane, seeming unsure where he was and why he was there. What a shame, I thought at the time, that by clinging to power into his dotage, the only impact Banda could make on the international stage was merely to be present at the venue of a conference. Sad to say, six years after the Malawian strongman’s death, the absurd and aimless quality of his irrelevance to international discourse now applies to my own country. Apart from the serious issues that have earned Zimbabwe the embarrassing distinction of being a Pariah state, the country is also now best know for its belligerent, unremitting propaganda which is characterised by torrents of denunciations, threats and declarations of invincibility. These usually reach a crescendo in the build-up to important intentional gatherings such as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Abuja in December, from which Zimbabwe has been barred. Don’t get me wrong. The point I am trying to make is not that Zimbabwe has no right to present its case and be judged accordingly. I am merely arguing that the thrust of its propaganda campaign should involve the communication of facts and opinions that are credible and realistic enough to enable, as John Milton once said, "the truth to emerge in the market place of ideas." Novelist and essayist, Aldous Huxley in Propaganda in a Democratic Society highlighted the power in all human beings to respond to reason and truth, not subterfuge and contrivance. The problem I have with the propaganda offensive mounted on behalf of this country by Jonathan Moyo is that it is limited to harping on entirely irrelevant themes, such as the machinations of the West and Zimbabwe’s sovereignty. If past experience is anything to go by, we should get ready to cringe in embarrassment in the coming weeks as we are bombarded with boasts on what countries support Zimbabwe, which racists are plotting against it and why in spite of what everybody else says, the government of Zimbabwe is right to adopt its stubborn stance. That most self-evident fact, this country’s sovereignty, will be advertised ad nauseum as though it were something unique. The Vatican, with a total area of 108.7 acres and the principality of Monaco, which measures 0.75 square miles, are two of the smallest states in existence. Yet both are confident enough of their moral standing in the world to submit to international scrutiny (even the Pope is criticised) without ducking behind the smokescreen of sovereignty. Zimbabwe is not in trouble because anyone is questioning its sovereignty but because of serious issues for which its own citizens and the international community demand answers. These include human rights abuses, lawlessness, lack of democracy, muzzling of the press and suppression of dissent. The country’s propaganda machinery should throw some light on what improvements have been made in these critical areas instead of bombarding us with inane slogans like "Howard the Coward" or any of the tired anti-Tony Blair barbs. Former United States Senator William Fulbright has been quoted as saying, "There is something basically unwise and undemocratic about a system which taxes the public to finance a propaganda campaign aimed at persuading the same tax payers that they must spend more tax dollars to subvert their independent judgement." I personally question the expenditure of billions of dollars on Moyo’s ill-conceived and crude propaganda initiatives which, if anything, achieve only the very opposite of the normally intended objectives. Moyo’s undiplomatic language and penchant for threatening litigation when he should provide information, hardly make him the best candidate to act as the human face of this beleaguered government. The "command" type of propaganda which relies entirely on the numbing repetition of epithets and furious denigrations of "imperialists" and any other perceived "enemies of the state" was used in Mao’s China more than 50 years ago. It relied for its success mainly on China’s isolation and the inability of its people to access alternative sources of information to enable them to form their own worldview. I find it incredible that our so-called propaganda experts still expect such archaic methods to work in the age of the Internet, instantaneous satellite communication and increased and faster international travel. It makes even less sense under these circumstances to continue to throttle local television screens and blight the pages of state-controlled newspapers with this outmoded dogma. Such an approach can only serve to unwittingly highlight the fact that by being only concerned with its own self-preservation and survival, the government has become unresponsive and irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of its own people - just as Hastings Banda was at that NAM summit referred to above.