New Propaganda Module

Desperation sometimes prompts interesting innovations as evidenced by an ongoing propaganda advertisement on some selected television and radio stations across the country. What an appropriate case study for scholars of mass communication and even political science as it offers for them a rare opportunity to dissect a cornered ruling party and how such a grouping applies the principles of deceit and deception to suit its circumstance. The propaganda of the ruling NDC, although relatively sub-standard in quality and simplistic in nature, reminds scholars of modern history about the most formidable propagandist of all times, Paul Joseph Goebbels of Hitler�s Third Reich. Observers of the unfolding propaganda in the country, as if they have not had enough of the political drama in the country, are now coping with the boring and choreographed pictures of selected teachers expressing a managed �satisfaction� with the achievements of the Mills/Mahama government. In the countdown to the 2012 polls and in the face of a desperate ruling NDC determined to cling on to power, Ghanaians have not seen the end yet of such ploys. Inducing a few teachers, as though representing the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) or the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), to allow themselves to be paraded like highly prized game on the screens of television as tangible evidence of a �Better Ghana policy� is symptomatic of desperation. We wonder why the consultants behind such useless propaganda campaigns, if really there are such experts, would give the nod for their unfurling. Not surprising, GNAT has sneered at the advertisements as obnoxious and should be withdrawn with an apology without hesitation. Given the fact that significant aspects of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) remain unimplemented and in the light of the harsh economic realities, GNAT has a point in dismissing the propaganda as rubbish. The double standard being exhibited by the ruling NDC about teachers and politics is mindboggling. While in one breadth Lee Ocran, Education Minister, cautions teachers against using classrooms for politicking, in another, a selected number of this group of Ghanaians is induced, as mentioned in an earlier paragraph, to praise the Mills/Mahama administration. Why the propaganda department of the ruling NDC would seek to use teachers for their operations, when other public sector workers equally benefited from aspects of the SSSS, as posed by the General Secretary of GNAT is a legitimate rhetorical question. Although rhetorical, we can venture an answer. The propagandists find in teachers a docile group of Ghanaians who would not react the way GNAT has done in the face of the political absurdity. Interestingly, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has also reprimanded the brains behind the advertisement regarding it as unrepresentative of the impression of teachers. When a government is robbed of respect in the estimation of most of the ruled, such costly propaganda campaigns only aggravate the opprobrium of the people against those at the helm. Must a government go to such lengths to convince the people that it is doing well when facts point to the contrary? We would keep the answer to ourselves, believing that it is parallel to what the good people of this country hold in their minds.