Red Flag Over Hajj

The signs are that the forthcoming Hajj could be worse than last year's. As contained in one of our stories a couple of days ago, the Moslem caucus in Parliament has waded into the looming confusion, with a view to obviating a disastrous Hajj.

But their good spirited efforts might not register the desired impact because members of the Islamic community are themselves not committed to ensuring a smooth Hajj.

A number of groupings are claiming to be the rightful managers of the religious exercise, a situation which is counterproductive especially since arrangements for the religious exercise should have started by now.

Other countries have by now secured accommodation for their pilgrims and indeed airlines.

We recall the pains government went through to get the last Hajj go through and the fact that the Saudi authorities warned that it was the last time that they would bend the rules to give landing permission to our flights.

It pains us to think that with little time at our disposal to work on this issue which has for the past proved difficult to manage, we are still slumbering as though nothing is at stake.

The national security implications of the Hajj whenever it gets messy, it gets so every year anyway, cannot be overemphasized.

It would interest Ghanaians to note that for the past years, government has had to turn to the public kitty for money to salvage the tottering Hajj.

We are compelled to associate ourselves with the admonition of Honourable Muntaka Mubarak that only government can make this year's Hajj possible.

Since the religious exercise involves government to government contact, there is no way it can be organized without state involvement.

It is worthwhile recalling how Moslems decided during a conference that government should hands off the Hajj and leave it for members of the faith to manage.

Government agreed and the results have not been good.

A scheduled probe into last year's Hajj has failed to fly because of a number of hitches.

Many persons who were contacted to be part of the probe, we have gathered, declined to have anything to do with the Hajj. They are aware of the myriad problems associated with the subject.

We think that the probe should have gone ahead because since government money went into it, Ghanaians and Moslems in particular deserve to know what went wrong.

As we write, an amount of ¢300 million is required to pay for the luggage of pilgrims who arrived six or so months ago. There is no money to pay Aviance for keeping them in its custody.

Something must be done, and the time is now. Last year, one of the problems which disturbed the Hajj had to do with airline arrangements.

This was caused by late start of arrangements. When eventually a deal was struck, it was a charter one. There was no inspection of the aircraft as required by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulation, a risky venture.

All we are saying is that the suggestion of the MPs should be given serious thought so that this year the Hajj would not take centre stage on our FM stations.

If there are hitches this year, the political twist to it would be played out by those who think government must be held responsible for the anomaly.

Another matter which would disturb this year's Hajj is the issue of some 700 pilgrims each of whom paid over $2000 to the Interim Hajj Management Council but were unable to make the trip. We have learnt that the money cannot be traced. So who is going to be responsible for the refund at this time?

How can we be talking about a fresh set of prospective pilgrims when the over 700 persons do not know the status of their monies?

There is a looming problem and the earlier we tackled it, the better. We have sounded the alarm bells. If we act now perhaps we could obviate the looming Hajj crisis.