The last article introduced the diabolical role played by disinformation and misinformation in this era where dissemination of information has been super enhanced through advances in information and communications technology.
Both of these are used to spread false information deliberately and often covertly (such as by the planting of rumours) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.
The aim of both is to distort the truth and confuse the public into thinking that something is bad when it is really good and vice versa.
Players using these techniques aim to drop little “breadcrumbs” on the internet so that eager keyboard warriors (and other more legitimate ones) would take the bait and help move messages from the fringe to the mainstream.
In this way, the public gets hit by “news” that is not entirely factual.
The damage, however, is done in the public domain.
The Nazi propaganda machine used this same approach albeit without access to social media at the time.
And Joseph Goebbels, the chief propagandist for the Nazi Part,y was a particular favourite of Adolf Hitler.
One of the present-day masters at using disinformation and misinformation to twist public opinion and sentiment is the former president of the United States, Donald Trump.
To this day he insists vehemently that the 2020 US elections was “stolen” from him.
He continues to flog the issue by releasing “information” and “proof” that there was widespread cheating in that election to deny him the right to rule for another term.
What is absolutely amazing is that, despite 63 rebuttals at courts of law where many Trump appointees presided as Judges, his MAGA (make America great again) followers believe him implicitly and insist that he was denied by conspiratorial forces who have pervaded the US public administrative apparatus – the Deep State they call it.
Many of these Trump-Cult followers even refuse to address Joe Biden as the “President of the United States” and many stand on roadsides with placards loudly shouting “F-Biden”.
That is how dangerous disinformation and misinformation campaigns can be.
The US is fractured and polarised as never before in its highly eventful history.
Lessons for Boxing Fiji
What is instructive for us is that similar campaigns have been mounted against BCF and its board starting from September 2019 when this board was appointed.
At that juncture, boxing was virtually “dead” in Fiji.
Prior to that, there had been so much bickering and controversies that trust in Boxing Fiji had evaporated.
It was obvious that firm hands were needed at the helm.
This, however, would not be enough as the BCF Act 2015 and the manual used to support it had too many loopholes that could be questioned opening up opportunities for manipulation by ingenious vested interests.
For example, when a promoter proposes a match-up, we were told that BCF had to accept it even if it appeared like a mismatch.
This was clearly not in the interests of the public and BCF wised up to it in quick time.
Then there were multiple title fights being proposed in obvious attempts to deny rival promoters the opportunity to also stage title fights.
All these had to be straightened out and rules were needed.
These were duly set to assist the management of boxing and to make the decision-making processes more predictable and transparent.
Unfortunately, it is part of human nature to dislike, distrust and detest rules.
People have always insisted on asserting their freedom and rights often choosing to give scant regard to their connected responsibilities.
This is why “road courtesy” is now a relic of the past as restive trigger-happy drivers irritatingly toot their horns behind you if you give way to someone in need.
This is why people forget to say “please”, “sorry”, “excuse me” and “thank you”.
These are considered oldfashioned niceties in this era of amplified rights where children can threaten their own parents.
In an extension of this same logic, the whole paradigm of public sector reforms is largely predicated on the reduction or removal of rules in order to let “business do the business of business”.
The justification is that if you reduce/remove rules, businesses will be able to operate more “freely” (unencumbered by social niceties as opposed to economic imperatives) and make money which is their primary aim.
In the process, all of society will benefit through better wages, business expansion, job creation, more government taxes, better quality products, wider variety of products, and the list goes on.
The reality, however, is often very different as seen from the global financial/economic crisis of 2007-8.
What happened is that the deregulation mantra was pushed so far that greedy financial operatives simply went berserk because there were now fewer rules to constrain and guide them.
Their enterprising and ingenious quest for economic gains and personal enrichment totally hobbled the system leading to that global financial crisis.
The sickness was not confined to the US as the whole world was invaded by opportunistic financial sharks.
In Fiji, we saw Matapo Holdings begin a development project at Momi Bay.
Through an intricate web of shareholdings, Fiji-registered Matapo Ltd was linked to Rod Petricevic, the founder of Bridgecorp, who was subsequently tried in a court of law and jailed for 6.5 years in New Zealand.
The fallout from this crippling crisis was a forced realisation that human greed could not be disregarded in decision-making processes.
And that the higher the level of responsibility the more intricate the governance system overlooking that position needs to be.
The resistance to rules and laws, however, continues unabated.
Trump promises “freedom” repeatedly and his MAGA flock simply lap it up.
The same continues to happen with boxing in Fiji.
Despite repeated attempts to explain the need for rules and the various roles it plays in the whole process of managing boxing, one promoter (and his cohorts) has continued to resist rules and in the process has launched a relentless disinformation and misinformation campaign against BCF via social media.
Let me share with you one example here.
One piece of “information” doing the rounds is that in a recent trip to New Zealand, a group of three boxers were not abandoned by their trainer.
The fact is that the trainer, who had a formal release from BCF, left for Melbourne after the NZ event.
In his place, another official who had no clearance or authorisation from BCF was deputised to manage the boys and get them back to Fiji.
A small message to BCF would have helped sort this out, but that was not preferred as the chosen course of action.
Instead, the official has continued to lambast BCF for pulling him up on this breach.
Rules and trust
It should not take a rocket scientist to understand and accept that rules are needed in any organisation.
Just imagine if your two neighbours have asked you to take care of their four under-10 children one evening.
You have three of your own taking the total number to seven.
That’s seven children below 10 in a small house with you in charge!
If you don’t set any rules there will be bedlam and the house will be turned into a warzone in no time at all.
This is because in each of those children resides two personalities: one devilish, the other nice.
Which one can you trust?
More importantly, which one should you trust?
It is the same with boxing in Fiji.
We have devils as well as doves and it is not easy to identify one from the other.
Over time we have managed to get things right and rules have helped greatly.
Things have stabilised to the extent that trust has reached levels where key big-name sponsors have begun to show interest in funding boxing with considerable financial commitments.
I will talk about trust in boxing and the attraction and role of sponsors in my next article.
Until then sa moce mada va’lekaleka.
• DR SUBHASH APPANNA is a USP academic who has been writing on issues of historical and national significance. He is also the Chair of Boxing Commission of Fiji. The views expressed here are his alone and not necessarily shared by this newspaper or his employers. subhash.appana@usp.ac.fj.