Issues At Stake: Savoring the Rich Political Lexicon

By Yerima Kini Nsom

The political lexicon, especially in many third-world countries, is usually very rich with words and expressions that carry the import of semantic elasticity. Deciphering the meaning of such words and expressions is usually a painstaking moral exercise that should never be taken for granted. For, the soapbox is a world of double stands, double-speak and double-talk. Politicians, often don’t say what they mean. A “yes” can be a “no” and “no” can be a “yes” depending on the circumstances and the fancies of the authorities.

In such a situation the truth, especially the bitter truth, is what sounds like honey to ears of such authorities. The truth in the circumstances, is what puts a smile on the faces of the authorities. Any truth that does not play in favor of the powers-that-be, is a fat lie. In the political arena, the truth is usually buried in palliative euphemisms, ambiguities, innuendo and circumlocutions. That is why the phrase “mistakes were made” is actually an apology for the extrajudicial killing of unarmed civilians. What is usually flagged off as “the legitimate violence of the state”, is a justification of the authorities’ newly found romance with medieval barbarism and state terrorism. In this context, those who are referred to as “patriotic citizens” are gullible people who take everything and anything from the leaders, hook, line and sinker. They are those have been cloned into being think-same and act-alike robots who are ever too ready to applaud even when the governmental odds are extremely high. Pseudo-intellectuals who have been cloned into hosanna singers belong to this fraternity.

In the political lexicon of dictatorial countries, the word “critic” is equal to terrorist and enemy of the republic. In the same perspective, human rights activists are people hired by the West to destabilize some countries. Here, “free, fair and transparent elections” are elections that are organized to ensure the victory of the incumbent. Here, a “professional military” are the soldiers who easily open fire on unarmed civilians, bloodying them callously to the hereafter. “The maintenance of law and order” is equal to the arrest, torture and even the killing of those who disagree with the establishment.  “A responsible press” in this logic, is the sum total of journalists and news media organs who have either been intimidated or bribed to become megaphones of government propaganda. Once you hear about the “separation of powers” in such a setting, know that the legislature and the judiciary are pliant tools in the pocket of an all-powerful and overbearing executive. The separation of powers also means that the state is the ruling party and the ruling party is the state.

“Dialogue” here is an incestuous act wherein a monologue is organized to ensure that people of the same ideological conviction in a country come-together to talk tough on their dos and don’ts. In such a context, it is likely that somebody who has a problem with his neighbor would prefer to gather his wife and children to talk about it and it would be referred to as “a major dialogue”.

A gain, “an independent electoral commission” is a commission in which the officials ensure that the person who appointed them emerges winner of the election at all costs. “Hate speech” is equal to public criticisms against authorities and their tribal warlords. In many of such countries, the Ministry of Territorial Administration is actually the Ministry of Territorial Intimidation that can go the whole hog to crush anybody who does not agree with the modus operandi of the establishment and the ruling party. The fight against corruption and the embezzlement of public funds is the fight against officials who have become so inordinately ambitious such that they are nursing the dream to take over from the incumbent one day. Here poverty alleviation program are actually designed to fight the poverty of the rich while the poor are left on their own.

Any group of people protesting in the streets for whatever reason, are young people who have been drugged by some irresponsible politicians and sponsored by the detractors of the republic abroad. Bilingualism in some of those countries is equal to linguistic osmosis wherein the official language spoken by the majority, is projected above the other official language spoken by the minority of citizens. In the political lexicon of such countries, “electoral promises” are potential unfulfilled promises that are naturally meant to be broken with impunity. The decentralisation of power to the local collectivities actually means hypercentratlisation wherein everything must be at the whims and frames of the big man in the national capital where decisions are taken as to who becomes the mayor of a particular area or not. Certain words have their bizarre meaning in such settings. Here, national interest means the interest and the wellbeing the ruling class while respected state men are those who have looted the state to bankruptcy.

Like Gwain Colbert states in a recent write-up, the excessive use of the Orwellian language is the deceptive cant that politicians are using to flounder along in expediency with appalling impunity. Power to the people is actually power to the leaders.