Government must proactively communicate

Mmegi Editor | Thursday August 28, 2014 06:00

The shocking reality is that the information was provided at the instigation of Mmegi, and from the look of it government was not bothered in the least to inform the general public. We say so because government claims to have suspected there was an outbreak of the disease as early as July, but failed to authenticate its suspicions. This is absolutely reckless behaviour on the part of government considering the serious risk posed by Rubella. A woman infected with Rubella during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy may miscarry, give birth to a stillborn baby, or have a baby with birth defects. Studies show that as many as 15 percent of young women have never had Rubella, so they are at risk. And yet to the officers at Ministry  of Health (MoH), there was no need to inform the public about the outbreak and the potential risk to those exposed. 

The failure of the MoH to pass information to the public should not be condoned. But then again, there is nothing shocking about the attitude of the MoH. It appears this is the trend across government. Whether it is due to lack of knowledge and training in communication, failure to appreciate the need to be proactive, or simple ineptitude on the part of government officers concerned, we can never know. From time to time as media, we have to prise information that directly affects the nation from government.  Then, government comes trotting from behind to either set the record straight or dismiss our reports. But that is not how democracy works. A democratic government understands the need for proactive and transparent communication. Transparency subsumes trust. There is no doubt that many Batswana do not trust the government. And that is not because the media fomented the distrust, as government tends to believe. It is because government will not honestly communicate issues.

The Botswana Government Communication and Information Systems (BGCSI) was set up, we were made to believe, to coordinate government communication. However, from the look of it, it is either the BGCIS is constrained in its efforts to proactively communicate, or its many professionals who are strewn across government simply have no idea what they were hired for. We suspect the former. BGCIS receives on a daily basis, information from across government, but as governments work, the organisation must share whatever information it has superiors at OP for “vetting”.

Unfortunately a lot of such information appears to rate as “unnecessary to share” or “secret”. But then it eventually comes into the public domain, and government is forced to come limping from behind to clarify issues. Surely this must stop.

Today’s thought

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

 

- George Bernard Shaw