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02.07.2009 Feature Article

Our Politicians are Endangering Ghana’s Democracy - Part 1

Our Politicians are Endangering Ghanas Democracy - Part 1
02.07.2009 LISTEN

Whenever I hear an NDC politician badmouth an NPP politician (or vice versa), I am tempted to laugh out loud, and then pause to ask myself: Does he really know how Ghanaians perceive them all, regardless of which political party they belong to? Or that there is nothing about the other that he lacks? I wonder; if he does, he will think twice before shooting his mouth. Ghanaians don't like to hear one toad refer to the other as ugly.

The truth of the matter is that there is nothing in one Ghanaian politician that the other lacks, especially when it comes to pursuing self-interest in politics. If you doubt what I have just said, go into the records. From all indications, Ghanaians can tell that these politicians are made of the same stuff and are in politics more for personal gains than anything else. Who, then, do these politicians think they are deceiving when they make a public display of their mutual distaste for each other in political terms?

In effect, they are all the same in taste, outlook, and performance, separated only by the thin line that defines them in their respective party colorations as either NDC, CPP, PNC, or NPP functionaries. Some in the CPP or PNC are even willing to sell their “political birthright” in pursuit of their own self-serving agenda. Who will so soon forget the treachery of Freddie Blay, Paa Kwasi Nduom, and John Ndebugre against their own political parties?

From the NPP's mantra of “Positive Change” to the NDC's “Change for a Better Ghana” (or “Yere sesa mu”), nothing has changed as far as the politicians' penchant to satisfy self-interest is concerned. Neither has the attitude to governance changed. It's just a matter of having new wine in an old wine bottle. Within a short while, the new wine ferments, loses its flavour, and emits the stench that it has gathered from its environment. Our politicians take turns in this wine bottle. This systemic problem endangers democracy.

By their very nature, public posture, utterances, activities, and desire for the benefits of politics at the expense of the suffering people of Ghana, therefore, these politicians are creating anxious moments. The problem is attitudinal, which is a major cause for worry. It is no exaggeration to say that they are endangering our democracy. This danger cuts across several sectors of national life.

A particularly worrisome danger is the recourse to intimidation on the part of the MPs now that they have begun inviting, grilling, and browbeating people who criticize them. This show of force will stifle freedom of speech as far as public criticism of Parliament is concerned. What has happened in the case of the Director-General of the GBC (Ampem Darko) and journalists who dared criticize the MPs is deplorable. Intimidating people who disagree with their performance threatens our democracy. What it means is that our politicians have become too powerful for comfort.

The danger they pose is overwhelming. In the conduct of Parliamentary business, they leave room for much to be desired. They are known to have vehemently taken entrenched positions and stalled Parliamentary business as they defend issues of partisan political character, regardless of its negative impact on national life. They even indulge in trivialities or unsavory conduct, heckling or insulting each other in defence of their political interests.

But in matters that hold huge economic benefits for them, they are known to quickly bury their political differences and work harmoniously together to reap the fruit even in the teeth of public dissension. Here are some instances: MPs' car loans, emoluments and other perks of office, recommendations of the Chinery Hesse Committee on end-of-service benefits, foreign travel and per diem allowances, and many more.

And now, with President Mills' intended adding of an MPs' Common Fund to their coffers, they are on their way to paradise, brushing aside the peculiar narrow circumstances of the poor people whose mandate has lifted them to such a status. All this is about to happen despite the existence of a package under the District Assemblies Common Fund for the MPs, much of which has become the bone of contention between them and Chief Executive Officers of the Assemblies, especially in areas where the MPs and the CEOs belong to rival political parties and lock horns at will.

Those politicians who are not satisfied with their share of the national cake even go to the extent of indulging in vices for more money. The Eric Amoateng cocaine case, visa racketeering, kickback-grabbing through contracts improperly awarded, immorality in terms of wife-snatching, and other corrupt practices are fresh in people's minds. To top it up, when their government loses power, they ransack public property and use all opportunities to perpetuate their greed.

MPs who are quick to read between the lines know how to corrupt their constituents. They entice the electorate with gifts and promises of development projects. In a country where many people can't make ends meet, they fall for such enticements. On a larger scale, we all saw the flaunting of wealth by the NPP functionaries in the heat of the 2008 electioneering campaigns. Those of the NDC, on the other hand, were barking out lamentations that their party was broke but ended up funding all their activities to the hilt. We are now being told through allegations where the funding came from.

Corrupting the conscience of the people takes several forms, as one can determine from some of the electioneering campaign promises made by the politicians. There is a lot gone wrong.

We all know that our chiefs have also been compromised by these politicians. Take, for instance, the 35-million-dollar loan that the Kufuor government helped the Asantehene to contract from the World Bank/IMF and its implications. Again, consider the open display of support by prominent chiefs to the NPP (e.g., Gyapong Ababio of Sefwi Wiawso) and the close association of the Ho Asogli Chief, Togbe Afede Assor, with the NDC and you should determine for yourself how the politicians have encouraged the chiefs to flout the law that debars them from partisan party politics. This is not to say that outside politics, the institution of chieftaincy itself is not corrupt. It has a lot of dirt to clean off itself.

The politicians have bought the journalists too and use them at will to fight their cause(s). A cursory look at the Ghanaian media reveals an appalling picture that in itself is a major threat to our democracy.

More disturbing is the fact that our politicians are quick to play the tribal card if they know that it will help them discredit their political opponents. By appealing to ethnic sentiments and taking practical action to demonstrate it in appointments to public office, for example, they create a major problem that endangers our democracy. The NPP under Kufuor favoured Asantes as the NDC appears to be favouring Ewes and Northerners.

I acknowledge, however, a subtle shift in the focus of tribal politics under President Mills. Unlike Kufuor's sickening and brazen preferential treatment for his Asante ilk whom he flooded high office with or projected (as in the case of the Asantehene), the situation under President Mills seems to be somehow encouraging, especially at the level of appointments to high public office. At least, the appointees are of diverse ethnic extractions even though some comments indicate that Asantes have been largely ignored and Northerners and Ewes favoured. So now, it is an anti-Asante politics under President Mills, eh?

That's the problem with Ghana politics. The danger that tribal politics poses to our democracy is real and won't diminish overnight. Visit a discussion forum like GhanaWeb, for instance, and you can draw inferences from comments to confirm my fears. Tribal politics at its best because our politicians will it so!

Not satisfied with their destructive tendencies in the secular life of Ghanaians, some of these politicians have even extended their negative activities to religion. They have either bought church leaders and sowed seeds of discord among the people or become self-appointed spokesmen for God! Take, for instance, Kennedy Adjapong's claim that Ghanaians had annoyed God by voting the NDC into office. Arrant nonsense!

There is a Latin proverb, which says: “Corruptio optima pessima,” meaning that the corruption of the best is the worst. And it is the corruptors of our political system who are a major menace to us today, in giving the profound patterns of Ghanaian politics a crude and sinister distortion. To our politicians, politics and greed must necessarily converge!

Such selfish and corrupt practices have only one major effect: they drain our national politics of its vitality and force. In that sense, then, politics will become more and more irrelevant to the people's lives and be reduced to the act of voting every four years. Nothing is more threatening to a democracy and the political existence of its citizens than the illusion that all questions of existence will be answered by the casting of votes when the people presumably sell their conscience to their elected leaders. To be able to grow, democracy demands more than the casting of ballots.

Whether they like it or not, the conclusion has already been drawn that Ghanaian politicians from all the political shades are consistently creating a bad name for themselves. Public perception is clear that they are self-centred hypocrites who will do anything to win the people's mandate for political office only to turn round to work for their own well-being. Let them prove me wrong if they think otherwise.

I am bold at this point to say that our politicians have become symbols of greed. Danger looms wherever they tread. Why should it be so?

Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
[email protected]

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