Pius Enam Hadzide, former Information deputy minister has denounced claims of culture of silence being perpetuated under the President Akufo-Addo’s government. According to him, there is a growing misconception on the true meaning of what ‘culture of silence’ means.
His statements follow the President’s denial of ‘culture of silence’ existing under his leadership.
Mr. Hadzide further explained that, the President’s comments were not a direct attack on Sir Sam Jonah.
However, Mr. Hadzide revealed that, Sir Sam Jonah’s statements were a rehash on “several press engagements” by the NDC on claims of culture of silence.
“The culture of silence phenomenon is something that we all know what it entails. So, it’s not for one to get up today to bring a new conception and definition… and impose it on us and say that’s what I call culture of silence, so we should accept it as culture of silence.
“I am rather surprised that people claim that Mr. President was responding to Mr. Sam Jonah and Mr. Sam Jonah was there. Mr. Sam Jonah is not the first person to have made the erroneous claim of culture of silence in this country. In fact, he merely is repeating something that, for instance, the leader of the NDC former President John Dramani Mahama said on the 12th of August 2020 and repeated on the 3rd of May 2021.
“So, the claim is not original to Mr. Sam Jonah and so the response is not to Mr. Sam Jonah as a person. It is to all the persons who have been making that erroneous claim over sometime. I thought that it was wise for the President to have dealt with the misconception and to have cleared the air on something that we all know was just being pushed into the system for whatever [reason]”.
Understanding culture of silence
Commenting on his stance on the matter, Mr. Hadzide maintained that disagreeing with someone in opinion does not qualify as culture of silence. As such, rebutting Sir Sam Jonah’s remarks on the issue does not insinuate culture of silence.
“If that coincides with Mr. Sam Jonah, he’s fine, there’s no culture of silence. But when I disagree with him, then that’s culture of silence? That’s a warped understanding of culture of silence.
“We have lived through it; we have read all the materials there is and we know… the culture of silence days in this country that we know about are the days where you’ll see the state persecute and prosecuting people who are in the business of expressing their opinion. This was the days of the criminal libel that was repealed by the very same person today who we are accusing of superintending an era of culture of silence”.
Sir Sam Jonah ‘attacked’
On his part, Dr. Clement Apaak, MP for Builsa, suggested that, the President’s speech was directed at Sir Sam Jonah. According to him, the President should know that his address was to people “whose experience has led them to conclude that indeed there’s culture of silence”.
Recounting some incidents of ‘culture of silence’, Dr Apaak revealed that some personalities were “harassed” by government for their utterances.
“We can speak about the example of Mugabe… So, there are practical examples that have allowed people to believe that there is a culture of silence. When Sir Sam Jonah made his statement, he catalogued a long list. He even made references to the fact that even in academia… a lot of them have suddenly gone mute.
“So, the President can choose to exact his pound of flesh in front of Sir Sam Jonah but that does not take away the perception, rightly so, that we are experiencing the culture of silence”.
Read Also: Trade Balance shoots up by 22.2% in April, still below pre-pandemic levels
