THE STRUGGLING DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY

It is astounding how people still perceive our country to be the well known democratic country in the West Africa Sub-Region. Our country, Ghana is claiming to be democratic, meaning free and equal representation of people and equal right of every person to participate in a system of government often by the majority of the people. Democracy has been defined in two-ways in some literatures as; 1. Democratic nation: a nation with a government that has been freely and equally elected by its citizens.2.

Democratic system of government: a system of government based on the principle of majority in decision-making. It is obvious and you don't have to be a researcher before you can know that in Ghana today, the concept of democracy is being reduced to two-things;1. Freedom of expression-much of which is very poor in substance but rich in propaganda, intentional disinformation and distortion of facts, so long as it serves certain predetermined ends. 2. Periodic elections-a period during which partisan structures are given a new lease of life and ethnocentric sentiments are highly hyped up and exploited for the purpose of winning political power. The self-image and reputation of our dear nation, Ghana is reducing gradually due to the on and off conflicts among ethnic groups, religious sects, and even some of our own political leaders.

These are clear things that the country has been facing in recent times. The intemperate languages, provocative statements from political leaders and their followers and incitement against one group. These are not acts to be condoned by the people of Ghana especially the youth. Because these are things that can plunge the country into absolute chaos and upheaval. Moreover, the democratic status of the country has been “stained” with blame game. This is true, because day-after-day if you tune to your radio or television you can unquestionably attest to the fact. Apparently, we see from the major political parties in the country: the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) accusing each other for maladministration. If much care is not taken the peace we enjoy today after attaining our democratic status will become an illusion. I wonder which schools teach this blame game.

However, the repulsive tribal and ethnocentric verbal punches that these parties and their members keep throwing heavily like Mike Tyson's blow at each other is obscuring the democracy we are practising here Ghana and can plunge the nation into Sturm und Drang.Some couple of months ago, some people are in great shock and they inquire to know if whether Ghana is still a democratic country. This is because, why should religious sects engage in a fight which is highly inimical to good governance. One can easily recall to the recent conflict among the Moslems and some natives of Hohoe in the Volta Region. No country specifically a democratic country in this world can achieve its optimum development in the midst of a conflict.

Also, our politicians must stop practising any aspect of the democracy that is confrontational and unfriendly to good governance, such as the politically motivated “Pull-Him-Down” party politics (PHD), which is widely used in developed countries like America and Britain by parties to undermine their political opponents, though they do so under “strict cover” in those advance countries. Such practise can easily leave our country with nothing than a state of violent disturbance and disorder thus if care is not taken. No country can achieve the highest form of democracy without her practising the rule of law.

The rule of law basically, it's a state of order in which events conform to the law of the nation. Hence, nations without the rule of law, such nations are like books perusing in the extreme darkness. The rule of law is one of the ethical codes of democracy. And apparently enough, this code of ethics are not strictly practise here in Ghana. However, most of the electorates perpetrate the laws of the land or do things which are not in conformity with the laws of the country and they are left to go scot free. Is this what we term as democracy? Besides, democracy, “liberalism”, “civil liberty”, “human right” etc. have not been pushed too far to be able to support the very pillars and foundation of civilization that they purport to create and which has taken humankind several thousand of years to build.

If these very pillars are well supported by our political leaders, I strongly believe our democracy would go back to its natural state. Adding to the civilization problem is also the issue of recognition of the right to information. Recognising the right to information and implementing effective access to information is a simple but extremely useful first step towards attainment of good governance. Therefore, any democratic country enhancing the right to information to its citizens is more or less devoid of political violence since the electorates are given the mandate to air their grievances.

The Aristocratic Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville said: “The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens”. Ghana is a very small democratic country in the world hence let us uphold the good name of our dear nation. Peace! Is what we all need. LONG LIVE GHANA!!!

The Writer is a Student-Journalist at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. Writer's email:[email protected]