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It is wonderful that we survived that extremely competitive, sometimes acrimonious and in some cases, brutal political campaigning towards the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Any sincere appreciation should confirm that it was a “touch and go” brinkmanship situation that could have plunged the nation into senseless lawlessness.

Of course, we have every right to clap aloud for ourselves for not plunging our nation into chaos. And surely, we should also be happy for receiving universal acclaim for the successful conduct of the elections.

But it is important to note that the effects of the elections have not yet settled into a course that leads to reconciliation, cohesion, development and progress. Indeed, it seems that across the board some political elements that fuelled the acrimony and divisiveness do not appear to have reconciled to the political logic of the situation.

This negative attitude needs monitoring and management so that it does not continue to sow the discordant seeds for the 2012 elections. Four years is not too long a distance.

It is positive that various institutions, groups and individuals have been assessing what went wrong with the elections and what ought to be done to assure a more credible and applaudable elections next time.

Some of the issues are incompetent or compromised security arrangements, suspected bloated electoral registers, partisan, corrupted or irresponsible election officers and party agents and so on.

In all the discourses, one thing is clear. There is the determination to ensure that those wrongs, difficulties, challenges and problems are dealt with through constitutional, legal, institutional and regulatory mechanisms.

But there has been one dangerous issue that has not received the serious attention it commands. That is, money, politically referred to as monetics. The pervasive invasion of money into our political process and the threat it poses to our democratic development, and, indeed, our national security, has not been fully recognised. It is about time that was done otherwise we could labour in vain.

The massive publicity campaigns swallowed big piles of cash. The huge political rallies gulped down loads of cash. The mindless political hoodlums and goons who unleashed violence on opponents sucked in plenty of cash. It was monetics all over.

Of spectacular significance were the primaries that elected presidential and parliamentary candidates, because of the obscene splashing of hard cash. That was money in profane display.

There were immediately several pressing questions. Where did all that money come from? The banks? Which banks? Was it genuine money voluntarily donated by clean sponsors and well-wishers? Was it money from dubious, even criminal sources? There was even allusion to drug monies.

No matter where those loads of raw cash emerged, it is naive to expect that that was “free lunch” cash. Never. Obviously, some of those vast sums expended were meant to constitute the dark foundations for blatant corruption that would manifest in kickbacks, dubious contracts and the resulting shoddy unaccountable performances. And of course, it is the people who suffer the consequences. It is the adverse effects of monetics — political money.

There was this piercing joke that I heard the other day. It was such a loaded one. Asked about what he would do in future, the young boy of 10 years promptly replied that he would like to be a “delegate”.
Delegate? Yes of course. His father was a clever professional delegate during the political campaigning.

Money, rice, sugar, pieces of cloth, cartons of fish etc. flowed unto the house after every “delegates” meeting. So the youngster concluded that the “delegate business” was quite lucrative. Of course, all those attractive goodies came from “political cash”.

Monetics.
Then there was that schoolmate of mine who, as a rolling stone, had done almost everything under the sun with no indication of any improvement in his rather not too successful situation. So when in early 2008, I met him looking financially rehabilitated, I was intrigued and had to enquire what he was doing for a living.

“Oh K.B., I am in the “political industry'”.
“Political industry? I never heard of that”.
“K.B., there is money in politics. You can make it in politics either as a Member of Parliament, a minister, District Chief Executive and so on. But I make money dancing around politics and with politicians. I make plenty of political money”.

He was going on, but I cut him short. To make fast money from the “political industry” is in my judgement, the sharpest way to corruption and political disaster.

The other question that arises is this. What is it in politics that drives people into sourcing and spending so much money? Why would people contract huge loans to enable them to campaign or bribe their way to become Presidents, Members of Parliament or District Chief Executives? Why would people sell valuable property to enter into political office?

Is it really the noble desire to serve the people that drives people to burden themselves with possibly huge debts if they lose? No. It cannot be; because it does not make sense. Continued    Source: myjoyonline - Myjoyonline.com

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