“There had been some unwillingness and resistance to change when errors were pointed out…some agents and advertisers, including lawyers, have resisted the correction of errors they had made,” Annor Nimako: ‘Mind Your Language’.
I am constantly worried, harassed, agitated and perturbed by a particular nauseous, queasy and solicitous colleague of mine to repeat my article on ‘Protocol’ which appeared in this column some time last year and also previously in the ‘Daily Graphic’. He has three reasons for this canvass: First, the ferocity with which the phrase ‘All Protocols Observed’ is permeating and becoming pervasive at many ceremonies and various fora like banquets, wedding parties, church gatherings, political meetings and state functions, is disturbing, to say the least. Second, the success which the advocacy for ‘lying in state’ (BETTER) instead of ‘laying in state’ (WORSE) has achieved was accomplished and effectuated by harping repeatedly on the inexactitude in the latter, and the same method should be adopted in the case of ‘Protocol’. Third, change, in all human endeavours, comes slowly, and in academic matters, once a concept has caught on, it is very difficult to sway the sticklers and the hardliners. As Annor Nimako points out in his book: ‘Mind Your Language “(t)here had been some unwillingness and resistance to change when errors were pointed out … some agents and advertisers including lawyers, have resisted the correction of errors they had made…”.
I have remarked before (2007), and I suffer the risk of sounding humdrum and vapid to repeat that ‘Protocol’ plays an important part in inter- personal and inter-statal relations; and this must be guarded jealously, especially on important state functions.
What is ‘Protocol’? The ‘Encarta World English Dictionary’ defines ‘protocol’ as (1) Etiquette of State Occasion: The rules or conventions of correct behaviour on official or ceremonial occasions.
(2) Code of conduct: The rules of correct or appropriate behaviour for a particular group of people or in a particular action.
The ‘Cambridge International Dictionary of English’ defines ‘protocol’ as the system of rules and acceptable behaviour used at official ceremonies and occasions, e.g. Protocol would require detailed preparations and notification of appropriate authorities in advance of a royal visit. ‘Protocol ‘is also defined as a formal international agreement, e.g. The German Protocol of 1925 prohibits the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases.
‘The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary’ has a number of definitions for ‘Protocol’, among which is: ‘Official, especially, diplomatic procedure and etiquette in affairs of state and diplomatic relations. Another definition of ‘protocol’ is ‘The accepted or established code of procedure, rules formalities, etc. of any group, organization, etc.
The word ‘protocol’ was originally ‘protocoll’ from Medieval Latin ‘Protocolium’ and late Greek ‘protokolion’, literally a leaf or tag attached to a rolled papyrus manuscript containing contracts. Proto (first part), kolla (glue). ‘Protocollum’ was a draft, literally the first sheet of a volume (on which the contents and errata were written).
We can have several ‘protocols’, including safety protocols; academic protocol; a protocol statement (in Philosophy is a statement that is immediately verifiable by experience); protocol in computing or Internet Protocol or Network Protocol (a set of formal rules describing how data is transmitted, especially across a network); protocol in medicine (the plan for a course of medical treatment ); protocol in Science(a set of standards and procedures for transmitting or storing data); Business Protocols regulates business dealings .
On the political scene, we have : the Kyoto Protocol which is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Protocol 1 is an amendment to the Geneva Conventions ; we have the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees; and there is diplomatic protocol.
It can be seen from these definitions that ‘protocol’ for social or societal purposes, embraces the whole array of etiquette or distinct or particular steps or guidelines observed at an official function: in simple terms, the ‘protocol’ constitutes the whole ‘arrangement’ or ‘programme’.
The ‘protocol’ or ‘programme’ may embrace the following: Arrival of Invited Guest , Opening Prayer, Introduction of Chairman, Chairman’s Acceptance Speech , Speech by …, Music by…, Chairman’s Closing Remarks, Vote of Thanks, Closing Prayer. All these together may constitute the ‘protocol’ for a particular occasion. One of them, e.g. ‘Introduction of chairman’ alone, cannot compose the ‘protocol’ or ‘programme’. A Minister of State addressed, the audience at a gathering thus: “Mr. Chairman, Honourable Ministers of State, Honourable members of Parliament, Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Members of the Governing Board of … Distinguished Invited Guests, Members of the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have gathered here this morning to…”.
In matters of ‘protocol’, one should be careful not to offend guests and officially invited persons, or diminish their positions. Some personalities get nervy when they are not properly ‘recognised’ or accorded respectability due them.
A lazy, disrespectful, nonchalant way of applying ‘protocol’ is to use the expression: ‘All protocols observed’, especially when acknowledging the personalities present at a function. It is simply un-Englishy, poignantly unacademic and strikingly un-protocol to use the expression ‘All protocols observed’. Furthermore, it is demeaning, humiliating, disparaging, degrading, and discrediting, ‘Public Relations’ would not permit the interlocutors to be so humbled, if not humiliated. The final expression of ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ embraces everybody else not particularly mentioned.
By Africanus Owusu-Ansah
