Artful Forgetfulness

Politics in the management of development cannot be wished away. But, if it is to be creative, politics must be the servant of social sympathies. It must be an instrument for purposeful social change rather than a ticket to power and privilege or another lucrative profession.

— South Commission

The common saying is that politics is a dirty but thankless job. Yet, politics has been used for all manner of things, some of which clearly subvert the national cause but enure huge undeserved benefits to some individuals. Others also assume importance that otherwise would be unthinkable or not dreamt about because of political influence and patronage.

Shakespeare exposes the treachery of men, especially politicians, when he submits in King Lear that “This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeits of our own behaviour we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon and the stars; as if we are villains or necessity, fools by heavenly compassion, knaves, thieves and treacherers by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on, an admirable evasion of Whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star.”

This is exactly what is happening with the voters registration exercise. Granted that the Electoral Commission does not have the resources to open all the registration centres, does that account for minors reporting to be registered?

Politics of deceit and forgetfulness has been at play again. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are engaged in accusations and counter-accusations over inadequate funding of the Electoral Commission through to virtual conscription of minors to register. The arguments suggest that no one is culpable, some form of alibi.

On one hand, the NDC has accused the NPP of conveying busloads of children to register in some parts of the Eastern and Ashanti regions, but has not said anything about the queues of children captured at some registration centres in Tamale.

Similarly, whereas the NPP has made copious reference to the children openly registering in Tamale, it has said nothing about the allegations that it was also registering children in the Ejura area.

When the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, recently interacted with members of the Editorial Board of the Daily Graphic, he underlined the fact that elections could be rigged by political parties if they entice minors to register for elections. He said if that happened, they should not turn round to blame the Commission for electoral fraud. How apt Shakespeare's observation, expressed through a character, Edmund.

The ominous and dreadful seeds of electoral fraud are being sown and yet those who stand to gain from the evil are claiming innocence and blaming others for whatever is wrong, criminal and illegal. They are dabbling into what George Orwell described as doublethink in One thousand nine hundred and eighty-four.

In essence, “doublethink” is “to know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them; to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the party was the guardian of democracy; to forget whatever it was necessary to forget them to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed and then promptly to forget it again and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself.

“That was the ultimate subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness and then once again to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you have just performed. Even to understand the word doublethink involved the use of doublethink.”

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them. If refers to those who know and understand issues but choose to act the other way. There are people who are privileged to have better knowledge of what is happening, but owing to some base considerations are further removed from seeing the world as it is. In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion, the more intelligent, the less sane.

Thus, if indeed as our politicians claim, they believe in democracy and have faith in our people, why are some encouraging cheating and why should those behind the cheating be the ones to cry foul and taint the image of innocent souls. We must never forget that those children we would lure today to register, may be forced to retire prematurely in the future. We reap what we sow.

To those encouraging children to register and the children who are allowing themselves to be abused and misused, Shakespeare has a faith that “Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides, who covers faults at last with shame derides” and that “All friends shall taste the wages of their virtue and all foes the cup of their deservings” because “the gods are just and of our evil pleasant vices make instruments to plague us.”

If you doubt this, think about why the NDC continues to blame the NPP of reaping where it has not sown when it comes to the benefits of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). You see, when the NPP was in opposition, it opposed a bill to increase the Value Added Tax (VAT) to 15 per cent, thereupon the NDC came up with the ingenious option of setting up the GETFund. The NPP had to vote for the law.

As of now, the NDC has made claims as having pioneered the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). However, when it mattered and the bill came up in Parliament, the NDC members boycotted proceedings. Now the NPP is using that against the NDC.

Or think about the Capitation Grant. During the last election, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills was reported to have said that anyone who promised free education was a liar. The NPP introduced the policy and now the NDC is saying that when the party comes to power in 2009, the policy will be extended to include provision of free school uniforms.

We have to learn and do things right, otherwise we would continue to accuse others of reaping where they did not sow or pledge our support to policies we considered weird or inordinate, but which we later realise to have popular and functional appeal.

More important, the majority of our people cannot sit idly by as a few charlatans, in the name of politics, take us for a ride and resort to violence to seek political influence and authority. Children must never be encouraged to register and parents who condone such criminality must be ashamed of themselves. We have to take a collective action to stop the nonsense.

We have tolerated the abuse of the system in the name of partisan interest for far too long. Our governments under the Fourth Republic have failed to deal with deviants who are members of their parties.

From the murderers of the Kumepreko demonstrators, through the demise of Alhaji Issa Mobila, to those who are getting minors registered now, too many criminals have escaped the arms of the law and justice.

Some of these same villains have been erroneously projected by the media as human rights advocates or champions of freedom of expression. They are poison to democracy and constitutionalism and must be fought and dealt with in line with due process and the rule of law. The right thing must be done no matter whose ox is gored.

As Mahatma Gandhi has noted, “there is wisdom in taking serious steps with great caution and hesitation. But caution and hesitation have their limits and we have now passed them... have taken leave of all sense of decency. We would only be betraying our unworthiness and cowardice if we cannot stake our all in the face of the conflagration which envelopes us and sit watching it with folded hands”.

The blame games cannot be allowed to continue. Party activists who are sincere and genuine to the national cause of democracy would not dabble in unlawful acts, resort to violence to defend their actions and turn round to blame others for their voluntary actions, like the proverbial “anomaa kokone kone” which moves upstream to make the water muddy but runs downstream to complain and seek redress.

One thing, the people of Tamale cannot claim monopoly to the misuse of fire arms. They must learn to resolve their differences without gunshots. The mad rush in the use of firearms at the least disturbance must be condemned without reservation.

On the question of adequate funding of the activities of the Electoral Commission, we must take a non-partisan position. In 1984, the government could not provide funds for photo ID card for all voters. The decision to go for photo ID cards for voters in the regional capitals was mooted by the Inter Party Advisory Committee, but when some supporters of the ruling NDC kicked against the idea, the NDC opted out, dissociated itself from the decision and described it “as one more evidence of discrimination against rural dwellers” and maintained that “the NDC does not consider this to be right or constitutional. If the Electoral Commission is to be bound by the advice of a body privately set up for purposes of consultation, then the NDC does not intend to contribute to the illegality.”

Today, the NDC thinks it is heretic for the Electoral Commission to refuse to abide by decisions of the IPAC. Time flies.

Yes, after the 1992 presidential election, the NPP wrote the “Stolen Verdict” because it did not see the necessity of challenging the results in open court, since the judicial system did not command any respect.

Today, the NPP says it upholds the independence of the Judiciary and that nothing must be done to erode public confidence in the Judiciary, otherwise democracy would suffer. Time changes.

To err is human. But maybe, this is the time for all of us to rethink this our biased and selective art of forgetfulness. A free man, when he errs, must blame no other, so says a Soviet philosopher.