“Law and order provide framework for stability and development”
–Lee Kuan Yew
“When the government gives you a black goat, say it was a white cow”
–NDC propaganda message
There is a worrying trend which is taking its roots in the country. This is scant regard for law and order in every aspect of our national life. Naked corruption, legalised corruption, grand and petty corruption, gross impunity on the part of persons in entrusted positions towards state property are steadily becoming part of our national life. Skewed, shameless and unintelligent discussions on our media platform with the sole objective of scoring political points with scant regard for the truth and the effect on the security of the nation is a common occurrence. Uncontrolled street trading, selling on pedestrian walkways and bus stops and reckless disregard for traffic rules on the part of both pedestrians and drivers all result in numerous senseless and unnecessary deaths. Deliberate filth creation and littering of the environment, construction of buildings on waterways and inside mangroves and irrigation sites, galamsey activities which pollute our water bodies and destroy our agricultural lands provide an undignified eyesore of sore thumb to the visitor to the country.
Lack of trust of the general citizens in the ability of the security services to provide justice and security, the attack and vandalisation of police stations, unruly mob besieging law courts to intimidate judges, unprofessional practices in the recruitment of security personnel leading to criminals finding their way into the security services and many more such wanton, unpatriotic and undignified behaviour in both public and private life are destroying the country and leading the country back to the stone age at geometric progression at a time when other nations are moving towards the stars in arithmetic progression. In 1969, the Americans landed on the moon. Today after almost fifty years, we as a nation cannot even feed ourselves without handouts from our colonial masters, people we voluntarily threw out because we felt we could manage our affairs better.
Ghana started life ahead of both Singapore and Malaysia. Today, both Singapore and Malaysia are first world countries with zero poverty and zero unemployment with residential accommodation available even for the unborn citizen. Today, Ghana is wallowing among the league of despicable poor third world countries, a country which can neither feed her citizens nor collect the garbage she produces from uncouth lifestyle of her citizens, a country where expensive national assets like imported agricultural machineries and uncompleted and abandoned buildings meant to house members of the security services are abandoned in the thick forest where reptiles of the earth and birds of the air spend their honeymoons, a country where office holders spend more time fighting turf wars than serving the public. Singapore and Malaysia are where they are principally because they imbued the idea of the Singaporean patriot Lee Kuan Yew that: “law and order provide framework for stability and development”.
The destruction of the public service, especially the security services through its politicisation and unconventional way of appointing persons into positions of authority has rendered otherwise dedicated public servants lame horses, henpecked husband waiting for crumbles from the dinner tables of their masters. It is a sad reflection on the psyche of the nation that persons who have provided dedicated service to the nation in one state department and are transferred to another state department are summarily dismissed rather than posting them back to their mother departments or retiring them honourably if their loyalties cannot be guaranteed. It also shows that many public servants have lost touch and instead of serving the state, they prefer to serve the government of the day, a sad reflection on the immaturity and lack of growth of our political dispensation, despite 60 years of independence. Was Kwame Nkrumah right when he proclaimed that the blackman is capable of managing his own affairs? I doubt it.
When along the life of the nation, a lean and hungry looking misguided individual with features of a Somali refugee appeared on the scene to spot a lot of patriotic flavor but misguided ideology took hold of the political landscape and forcefully fostered himself and his marauding band of equally misguided bootleggers on people and insanely proclaimed that: “we no go sit down make them cheat we everyday” and declared “positive defiance” as national ideology and “holy war” with an unidentified enemy, this country has never been the same again. Law and order has been on the benson burner ever since. Today unemployed youth who constitute potential suicide bombers openly indulge in acts of illegality like smoking marijuana in public places, committing street crimes, riding on unregistered motorcycles, house breaking and car snatching. They have created an independent republic for themselves and they have re-written the criminal code. Once one member of their clan is touched, the next course of action is to stage an attack on and the burning of police stations.
When we were fighting for independence from our colonial masters, they felt we were not adequately prepared for independence. One of the litmus tests they used to judge us was our tolerance towards our political opponents. They allowed the two political parties, the CPP and UP to form vigilante troops now referred to as foot soldiers. The colonial masters allowed the constituted security forces standby while the vigilant troops of the two political parties fought street battles which resulted in mayhem, destruction and death of unimaginable proportion. Ghana was on the path of progress when some faceless armed robbers with a lot of cowardice in their blood waited for the midnight hour to stuck and seized the opportunity offered by darkness to overthrew the “Third Republic” and instituted lawlessness and caused the breakdown of law and order and constituted authority. Today illegal vigilant troops have become part of our political landscape.
E-mail” macgyasi@gmail.com
By Kwame Gyasi