“The insults coming from MPs from both sides of Parliament give the impression that Parliament is more hysterical about its reputation being brought into disrepute through the exposure of dishonourable conduct by its members than maintaining the honour and dignity of the institution of Parliament through a transparent, fair and credible constitutional process of dealing with members who bring the reputation of the institution into disrepute. But no institutional reputation can be achieved by covering up or insulting or citing or threatening to cite whistle blowers or potential whistle blowers for contempt or abuse”
Martin Kaiser Alamisi Amidu, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice
One factor which runs through speeches by the leaders of the advanced western democracies is the importance of preserving their values and democracy. No single leader of the advanced western democratic world would address his or her people after major crisis like terrorists attack without stressing the need to preserve societal values and the democracy they have given to themselves. The values and democratic practices include the preservation of law and order, the freedom by the citizens to act within the law, public demonstrations, tolerance to other people’s views and above all honesty brought to bear in public life among others. The law in the advanced western democracies is no respecter of person. Witness the trial and in many cases the jailing of many current and former leaders including heads of states for infringements of the laws including corruption as it happened to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
The law in the advanced western democracies enjoins the government to display tolerance towards citizens’ right to demonstrate. Indeed during the recent G20 summit in Germany, there was a massive demonstration against the event and in particular against some of the leaders who attended the summit by citizens of many countries who converged on Germany for that singular act to express their right to free demonstration. . During the period of the summit, the government anticipated the situation and therefore deployed policemen to maintain law and order. In the process, over 200 of the policemen sustained injuries, some of them very serious. After the event, the Chancellor of Germany came out to express sorrow at the injury suffered by the law enforcement officers but also made the point that the people were allowed to express their fundamental freedom through demonstration even though this was done unfortunately at a cost of injury to the peace officers detailed to maintain law and order.
In Ghana, our adoption of western education, democracy and religion appears to have done mortal damage to our values and traditional democratic practice. The level of dishonesty, greed, corruption, incompetence, selfishness, intolerance and indiscipline have all reached such zenith levels despite the claim that the country possesses some of the best educated people on the continent and that 70% of the citizens profess to be Christians while virtually the entire population lay claim to be religious and express the hope of going to heaven. Today, values in public life such as time consciousness have sunk so low to the extent that when a president starts a function at the stipulated time of 12.30 pm, something which should be the normal order of public and private life, it becomes the subject of discussion on the airwaves and attract commendation from panelists. .
Today partisan politics have paralyzed us into inaction to prosecute criminals in society and also take rational decisions which can move the nation forward. to the extent that the state cannot use the normal order of prosecution to bring hardened criminals at the Ghana Standards Board, the National Communication Authority, the Medial Central Stores at Tema, the secret agents who criminally plant listening devices in public building and official cars and other more serious crimes to book until the Office of Independent Prosecutor is established. Who ever thought of a prosecutor who is independent? It is a misnomer. It is the duty of the prosecutor to see to the successful conviction of the alleged criminal he is called upon to prosecute and the alleged criminal to get an astute lawyer to defend him. The critical ingredient is an independent judge to ensure that justice is done. The government cannot hide under its democratic pedigree to delay further the prosecution of persons deemed to have robbed the nation of its wealth which could have been used to ameliorate the suffering of the citizens. The general public is getting restless.
Every independent observer of the national scene must be expressing amazement at the willingness, the ability, the competence, the alacrity, the viciousness of the people of the NDC in opposition to do mortal damage to the nation through unwarranted and unnecessary criticism of the current NPP government. The NDC in opposition appears to have adopted one axiom: “let us forget our dirty evil and satanic past and close all our eyes and ears to all sound arguments coming from the NPP government and throw in the dirty linen to disrupt and derail the actions of the NPP government as that appears to be the only way we can regain power”. As usual, on the other hand the people in the NPP also lap up every decision and act from the State House like honey because the government can do no wrong.
So while people of the opposition NDC are opposing everything for opposition sake, the people of the ruling NPP are defending everything for defence sake. The result is that dishonesty has taken centre stage in our body politics and the truth has been sacrificed on the altar of greed, selfishness, and sycophancy. The result is that our politicians have succeeded to give themselves bad names and our quest to move forward in nation building is being threatened. How can we ever get to the promise land in this state where honesty is an endangered species and the truth is always sacrificed?
E-mail: macgyasi@gmail.com
By Kwame Gyasi