Talking Drums

The West African News Magazine

"You've all changed, I'm the same..."

On March 6th Ghana celebrated the 27th anniversary of her independence. To mark the occasion, Flt-Lt. J.J. Rawlings addressed the nation in a radio and television broadcast which was moved from its traditional "dawn broadcast" slot to a dusk broadcast so that the "broadcast takes place when all households have power" according to a PNDC proclamation.

The broadcast, when it came, was along the same lines that Ghanaians have endured for the past two years from their self appointed messiah. He railed at them, ranted and puffed, and threatened... Below are excerpts from the speech.
Fellow countrymen and women, 27 years ago, when we won our independence from colonial rule, the people' of this country stood on the threshold of a new era - new beginning, free from the political, social and economic inequalities and contradictions of the past after a just and popular struggle. They were poised for the realization of a new order, where freedom and justice would be the pillars of a new social, political and economic order.

It was a day of joy in the pride of the will of the people over the forces of exploitation and domination, and a day of hope in the future of achievement and abundance for all. Our. national pride was very high and no one could take away from us our justly won credit for that indomitable strength and unity of purpose - an action which has brought about other victories.

The hard and bitter truth is that in several years of national effort, the governments and people of our country have failed to work together to implement policies and programmes necessary for the achievement of reasonable standards in our living conditions. Basic needs for food, health, transport, shelter and recreation remain largely unfulfilled and out of reach of the majority of our people. There is evidence of mounting despair, deepening apathy, and growing withdrawal and rejection of national responsibility on the part of the ordinary people. All this is very wrong.

Our Government believes this is the time to start formulating and discussing the basic outlines of the new political system that we aim to build. Such a system must derive its solidarity and strength from our own historical sources, the realities of our situation, and the intelluation foundations of our own traditions and cultural heritage, for it is only in this way that the constitutional, political, economic and social order correctly reflect the will of our people and demonstrate the power, the power of the people which guarantees its validity and provides an indestructible bulwark against its very own subversion.

We believe a system of government can claim to be fully democratic only if the organs of government and state power are constituted by the general representatives of the people. We would like once again to affirm our commitment to government. In our view, this principle could be fulfilled by a national assembly. It is our intention to work towards the emergence of a representative national assembly which will be the source of government.

The membership of the national establishment of the new system of assembly will be so composed as to make it truly representative and democratic with respect to the interest of the ordinary people of this country. Furth- ermore, in its functions and relation- ships with the people, the assembly will have to be accountable and responsible to the people.

In the search for a democratic sys- tem of government, much has been made of Western parliamentary instit- utions. Our experience in this country provides enough evidence to show that in their actual working, these institu- tions are dominated by the interest of the rich and influential members of the society. The vast majority of the popu- lation of the ordinary citizens, on the other hand, have always been left without any control over their so-called representatives.

SHAM

Members of parliament and ministers used their positions, not to serve those who voted them into office, but to promote their own and the interest of shortly. those who financed their interest into high office. This is why the people, in their practical wisdom, have rejected this sham democracy.

Fellow countrymen and women, the establishment of the new system of popular power and government that we foresee will not be an easy task. In fact, it will be a complicated and difficult task, for or because the old centres of power and vested interests will continue at every point to infiltrate and place obstacles in our path, always with the aim of subverting our efforts, and very often succeeding through our very own ignorance. Our only weapon against these hostile characters lies in the unity, organization, awareness and constant vigilance of the citizens of this country who are committed to social justice.

What we need to do now is to take further steps towards these goals, and one such step is to strengthen and en- large the membership of the PNDC. This reorganization will improve the co-ordination of the main institution of the state and at the same time im- prove the channels of communications between all of us, and thereby broad- ening the social base of our pursuit for social justice. The details of this reorganization and the necessary legal amendments will be announced very

Let me talk about Africa, including Ghana. For Africa as a whole, foreign exchange earnings and import capacity fell from 72.5 billion dollars in 1982 to 63.6 billion dollars in 1983, and I hope that means something to all of you.

Given the fact that most of Africa's manufacturing industries depend so heavily on imports, they have been the most effective areas with respect to the earnings of our foreign exchange. These acute shortages become very widespread throughout Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa - that means including Ghana. What is worse, in 1983 Africa was faced with the worst food crisis since 1973-1974 when hundreds of thousands of people perished from starvation and malnutrition. Last year for instance, as a result of exceptionally bad weather and the inability of African countries to import adequate stocks of food, as many as 22 African countries - all black African sub-Saharan countries required emergency food aid.

As you can see, all Africa is thus engulfed in a deep and fundamental crisis, a very serious crisis. Back to Ghana, and that holds for these African countries too.

At the same time, our production of almost all commodities- food, minerals, timber, export and crop manufactures have, as we all know, been declining for several years and our efforts in the last two years have been checked by drought, alongside it with the growth of the national population. In these circumstances, there is a real danger that discussions about a meaningful increase in the living wage will be influenced more by blind emotion than by science and intelligent analysis, some of what we have already seen, such as the tion of 300 cedis per day. Absolute rubbish Dish the outcome of ignorant ls. Are such people enemies?

When you talk about 300 cedis per day there is no way we can get that money unless we close certain state institutions and say: You go home, and we’ll use your pay to pay others. The other way is to go back to the same man who will tell us he wants foreign exchange, gold or Cocoa for money, to whom we will say: Some of these ignorant people are asking for 300 cedis per day, could you therefore print us some more cedis?

There are enemies and criminals in midst who are in touch with some of those old criminal politicians, and cause of the suffering situation in country, some of these people in leadership of the Trades Union Congress not all of them, we know that some of them think the best of staying in their seats is to go on inventing confrontational issues, such the nonsense I described earlier on. And for those of us who do not understand, the mention of 300 cedis stuck in our minds and we think this is it, and have no idea that they are asking for your downfall.

That does not mean that we do not recognize the problem. Yes, we do. As the saying goes, you cannot build Rome in a day. What truth. It is very easy to destroy, but not so easy to construct.

My brothers and sisters, we have a problem. Yes, we no doubt do, but it is in the light of this that we should not forget that today the national expenditure has reached such an alarming height as against the resources available that the wise people of this country will not - and I support them should not, we should not, permit foolish activities.

AWARENESS

This sad state of affairs has developed and we inherited it today through elereckless planning, reckless use of resources, the creation of services and facilities with little awareness of their long-term detrimental effects. And now we are faced with the problems of adequately equipping all our educational institutions right from the first cycle to the university level. Our hospitals, clinics, health posts so on have been built - it might interest you to know throughout the country, and here we are faced today with the difficult problem of having to provide them with the necessary drugs. And to make matters worse, the little that can be provided are stolen by some of our very own workers and sold to vampires, if we are not selling them ourselves.

And we do not think this situation creates more problems for us? It is about time we started facing the truth. When I talk, you do not want to hear it. The man is always talking about moral fibre, morality.

Are we not making matters worse when we continue this way? It is about time we stopped blaming others. We know them, we know the thieves, we are dealing with them. We have dealt with a sizeable proportion of them.

Fellow countrymen, our first year has been spent clearing the overgrowth and making a pathway. Our second year has been seen as clearing sizeable space for serious constructional work. But that is not all. The past two years have brought to light a whole lot of suppressed situations, have brought to light so many feelings that so many of us have controlled, and in the process of airing them, they no doubt affected productivity. Some of us have seen the exercise of freedom by having to disobey authority.

The third year has to see a different situation. The third year-our year will have to be very constructive and very profitable. There will be no middle road. As I said, we will compliment you, the nation will, for doing what is right, but we will hit hard when you do wrong. We must, therefore, all endeavour to create, achieve and consolidate the task ahead. After all, if you and I as ordinary people, like some of our known nationalists - who are not ordinary, no doubt - have had to bear this suffering, this burden for so long, I mean we are just about nearing the point of having to give birth to what we have always been longing for. But it calls for a little more positive action, better organization, a little more dedication, and as these efforts of ours begin to bear the necessary fruits, do not make the stupid mistake of handing over your freedom to some criminals again.

OBJECTIVE

My fellow countrymen, not too long after 31st December, a few months afterwards, I was hearing from all kinds of quarters, from you, your quarter, mine, that the man has changed, the man is not like he was in 1979. I could put it down and analyse it for you. It is not me, it is not I who have changed - it is you. I have always fought for a dedicated cause, I have always fought for justice; you are the one who have changed.

When the People's National Party (PNP) moved in, and I told you how they did it, when they introduced shops for your worksites, a little commodity from your factories, you did not understand what they were doing to you - they were breaking your moral fibre. I told you that I knew they had succeeded- one day under that very PNP regime when a manager was to be dismissed from the State Transport Corporation for attempting to do some kalabule (profiteering) with the tickets. When the workers stood up to go on strike in defence of that thieving manager, I knew the PNP had achieved their objective.

When 30, 40 or 50 of you can join a public - I will not even talk about a tro-tro-when you enter a state bus and all of you are being cheated by one driver and one mate and you cannot stand up in a state transport and insist and ensure the correct price or even arrest that driver and that mate, you expect Mr Peprah, the Alhaji or Jerry Rawlings to come and fight that cause for you? Then you are not ready for the revolution. What is wrong? Twenty seven years of this is not enough?





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