Editorial: Did the Ministry Of Defence Lie?

THE CHRONICLE AND THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE 2007 DIARIES

In our editorial, we pinpointed that the diary was un-Ghanaian without any feature portraying the Ministry of Defence and even there were no pictures of the Minister of Defence or the Military Heads of the Ministry of Defence nor was even Ghana mentioned in the diary.

We equally brought to the attention of the Ministry that the diary contains only the holidays of the United Kingdom, that of Australia and the other dominions then known as Britannia and even most amusing, has not the name of our dear country in the national holiday page of nations.

This paper thought the Ministry of Defence will peruse the diary very diligently and try not to make this type of a mistake again. But they sent this paper rather a rejoinder, which we published on July 31, 2007 defending the defensible.

For instead of the Ministry to dwell on the fact that the diary was non-Ghanaian, lacking our cultural values in terms of publishing by a high institution like the Ministry of Defence, their rejoinder was at pains to tell the whole world that the diaries were not printed in the United Kingdom but by, “ A small Ghanaian enterprise operating under the corporate name of Five Links Printing Works, based at Accra New Town and that, that company was paid in cedis and not in any foreign exchange”.

Yes, we do agree that you have an active Public Relations Department but your whole rejoinder was just beating about the bush. For how come that your diary on page 6 specifically stated that the diary was, “ Made for and distributed by Tallon International Limited, Coventry CV1 4JY, England”. And assuming your small enterprise at the Accra New Town printed the diaries on behalf of a United Kingdom company, is the Ministry of Defence saying that the commission of the printers’ fee to Tallon International of the United Kingdom would have been paid in cedis?

The Ministry of Defence had goofed and should accept our free advice this paper was giving them but where it wants to hide under the Queen’s English and to throw dust into the eyes of the Ghanaian public then God save us all.

The last paragraph of the Ministry of Defence’s rejoinder that, “ I must admit that some Ghanaian firms, companies and the government ministries have not been as original as they could be in the design of diaries in general because of heavy emphasis on borrowed formats and even contents,” puts the Ministry back at its own backyard.

And with this assertion by your own ‘active’ Public Relations Department, this paper is very surprised for even your Ministry to come out with a rejoinder but we applaud you for stating that, “Perhaps it is about time we went beyond mission statement and functions of the Ministry to more interesting country specific information for the benefit of our readers”, and we are happy for your conclusion for it straight forward exonerates The Chronicle from your rejoinder.