Rawlings, Justice Annan and people's democracy
Kodwo Mbir Bullard
A constitution is as good as the people who work it... it is not so much our constitutions that have failed as our irrepressible and irresponsible soldiers and politicians who think they know better than the rest of the population.For a while it looked like Ghanaians had accepted Rawlings' government as inevitable judging from the absence of coup attempts and rumours of coup plots during most part of 1984. But with the recent attempts in Kumasi to overthrow the government of the PNDC, one cannot casually assume a general acceptance any more. Coup attempts are usually a sign that things are not going well and also that the prospects for peaceful and orderly change of government are either dim or simply non-existent.
I think it needs to be stressed that although the coups attempts may be the work of few disgruntled a individuals like Rawlings' own coup in 1981, Ghanaians now would very gladly welcome any change that would rid them of a government that has been the most ruthless and has imposed the greatest hardships on them ever. I am sure that if Rawlings would be honest with himself, he would admit that Ghanaians are no better off today than they were nearly four years ago when he seized power from Limann.
In the meantime amidst the frustrations of most Ghanaians, Rawlings and recently Justice D. F. Annan continue to talk about people's democracy, i.e. a system that truly reflects the aspirations of the people. It is very difficult to convince oneself that Rawlings and Justice Annan know what they are talking about. They are divorcing themselves from present day concrete realities in which they are very actively involved and indulging in what some have called futuristic idealistic clap-trap.
I will give a few examples. The PNDC fears to entrust its own citizens with information on events around them, viz the recent coup attempt and the subsequent bombing of a house in Kumasi by government security agencies. The PNDC Government has been perpetuating wanton brutalities on some sections of the populations, viz the treatment meted out to market women during the early days of the so- called revolution, and the recent arrest, detention and the physical abuse of the editor and the news editor of the PIONEER.
The PNDC government fears to allow public debate of national economic policy, policy that affects the mass of the citizenry in many obnoxious ways. The Government has been incarcerating citizens indefinitely without any charges being preferred against them or the victims being allowed to defend themselves, viz the case of Dr John Nabilla and Riley Poku, etc. etc.
When a government does all of the above and more, it just does not make sense for that same government or leading members of it to be talking about trying to bring about a government that does not only reflect people's ASPIRATIONS but also involves everybody in the decision- making process! It rings very hollow.
J.J. Rawlings
Judging from the reactions of the PNDC to criticism and suggestions on national issues and how the country is being run, it appears that by people's democracy, the PNDC simply means a government under which only Rawlings, Kwesi Botchway, Justice D. F. Annan and a few hangers-on know what is best for the country and therefore only they can dictate policy. People's democracy, to them, is a condition under which everybody who does not think like Rawlings is a reactionary or a saboteur.
From what Justice D. F. Annan has been saying, it does not look like his inclusion in the PNDC, apart from giving the PNDC government the international respectability that it badly needs, is going to provide any illumination or guidance on domestic policies. For example when asked about what kind of government he was envisaging for the country, in his capacity as Chairman of the Commission for Democracy, he is reported to have dismissed the previous constitutions that Ghana has had on the grounds that they were alien. He went on to re-echo hackneyed and therefore very boring themes that we should evolve a system that reflects our past etc.
I think this is all sheer rhetoric and a waste of everybody's time and the country's resources. Acheampong played the same game with Ghanaians, and when his credibility among Ghanaians started to dip, he found it necessary to invoke Divine approval of Unigov through the infamous Clare Prophet. I hope that Chairman Rawlings and Justice Annan do not sink that low.
A constitution is as good as the people who work it. As it has been pointed out time and again in the pages of Talking Drums, it is not so much our constitutions that have failed us as our irrepressible or irresponsible soldiers and politicians who think they know better than the rest of the population. I would suggest to Justice Annan that he resurrects the 1979 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana and use that as a point of departure for a discussion for a future constitution for the country.
If according to Justice Annan, there is a lot of feeling now against the re-emergence of political parties (I wonder where he got this view from), my gut feeling is that military dictatorships, like the one we presently have, are more repugnant to most Ghanaians. It is a choice between what may be a mere dislike and something eminently repugnant. The citizens of Ghana must not be denied their inalienable RIGHT to make their OWN CHOICES. They know what they want and they are capable of deciding for themselves how they want to be ruled
