We know them in Germany and some other countries. They are usually left of centre of the political ideological divide. They prefer collecting as much tax money as possible from as many compatriots as possible for the collective development of a motherland and her people. Some will say they implement more social intervention programmes than their capitalist conservative counterparts.
Congress of the motherland, egregiously claims to be social democratic. Strangely, they simultaneously claim succession to socialist CPP which never ran away from the socialist (not social democratic) idea and ideology. Anti-CPP in action, congress has consistently practiced capitalist reverse of the CPP’s state ownership of the means of production of goods and services. At international gatherings, they have falsely presented their illegitimate selves as the CPP.
In economic programmes, how congresspeople have implemented democratic socialism is laughable and has been injurious to the motherland’s wellbeing and progress. In divestiture of state owned enterprises, a key programme in their forever implemented structural adjustment, they shared the state enterprises among themselves, sometimes re-selling for profit in questionable public-private enterprise arrangements.
You search through their structural adjustment façade for social intervention programmes and all you see is state extortion of monies (diverted into their private pockets) from citizens. Dubious schemes are created for the purpose. Those schemes have included cost-sharing of education expenses and income-generation by service providers.
Higher educational institutions charge fees in Academic Facilities User Fees (AFUF) and Residential Facilities User Fees (RFUF). For health service, a compatriot has to pay cash or die in a congress service delivery scheme vilely called ‘cash-and-carry.’
A congressperson just spilled the beans, publicly stating the group in their gatherings always avoid intellectual interrogation of ideas. Rather, they occupy themselves with creating, looting and sharing national resources.
I would have liked to ask him how he could have expected any intellectualism turning right, left and centre at those surrounding him at those gatherings. They preached accountability and probity while they went hiding everything from the public view, strictly enforcing a culture of silence.
He, who was entrusted with managing the motherland money and economics ended up intellectually famished having had to live and operate within the intellectually bankrupt milieu of a congress fold. He yearned for intellectual nourishment and would rush for it as soon as he had forced himself out to free himself from the ‘financial whizkid.’ The latter would later land himself in jail for causing financial loss to the state by spending money meant for looking for oil on things unrelated to oil find.
Another, a former member of UTAG escaped from campus intellectual rigour, to join onaapo to become his used car salesman, in the create, loot and share schemes at the presidency. He sold cars, as he watched those he left behind on campus have their conditions of service reduced to the barest minimum. Imagine he is now shamelessly mouthing public statements about an UTAG strike.
I hope those in UTAG who know him as a member of the onaapo team that actively degraded UTAG conditions of service and thereby pauperized the dons, would tell him to take his mouth somewhere else. His contribution to academia was to go bogously litigating over trivia issues for attention from the onaapoanti-motherland development camp. He should be told to shut up and stop nose-poking into UTAG affairs.
President Kufuor had boldly restored university education which congress had subsumed under a suspicious priority for the Bretton Woods obsessed FCUBE. Onaapo and his gang’s contribution to university education was to squander the massive gains of the Kufuor administration.
One day, the former used car salesman at the Castle would want to return to campus to enjoy the gains of the UTAG struggle after he has collected as much MP ex gratia as would have improved UTAG conditions of service. There’s no mechanism to track his assets raid, and no one would ask him to account for the motherland cars, used and new, entrusted to his care during all those years.
Obama said we should build strong institutions. Strange he didn’t add that it’s people who are supposed to build the institutions. Even after the institutions have been built, it is individuals who check the bad others from mishandling a motherland’s resources. It is individuals of truth, honesty, humility, moderation and commitment to do good for a motherland, who matter.
That is why Obama predecessor Kennedy emphasized what one can do for one’s motherland as the key to all competence in governance. Individuals build institutions and not ‘paper tigers’ of constitutions. I am sure today Mr Obama is reeling over one man tearing their democracy into shreds. We don’t have strong institutions because elements of congress have had so much opportunity to not make that happen. If only they would continue to be voted out of governance, the motherland may see some progress in building durable functional development-oriented institutions.
My compatriots, fear congress; because in whatever form they would present themselves, they are liars who steal others ideas and show them as their own. They know nothing and have nothing to contribute to the motherland’s advancement but distraction and disruption. Congress as social democrats, indeed!
By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh