Letters
Not so fast, TUC!
I am a little uncomfortable about the way in which your correspondent (Talking Drums, February 3, 1986) appeared to be salivating over the fact that at long last, the TUC in Ghana has taken to the streets to protest the PNDC's recent whopping devaluation of the cedi. I take issue with his reportage because it is characteristic of the doom-wishing syndrome which has become our stock-in-trade from one regime to the other.While it is true that Kwesi Botchwey has not allowed for open debate on budget and resource allocation issues in the country, the record of the TUC is far from laudable. The TUC as an official wing of the CPP (The Conventional People's Party) contributed in no small way to perpetuating the nonchalant attitudes most workers have cultivated over the years with respect to "government work".
The TUC pestered Busia over the Apollo 568 (which, incidentally, pales in the face of the present retrenchments). The leadership allowed itself to be bought off by the Acheampong regime, while most of the rank and file got paid for no work done, because it had been decreed that workers could not be paid off without approval from the Castle.
In Limann's time, the TUC made trouble. Recall the late Amartei Quaye's fanaticism which ended in the murder of the retired army officer and the three judges? Indeed, organized labour in Ghana, when they start demonstrating in the streets, should not be hailed as a good omen heralding the end of regimes we do not find palatable, because, like university students in Ghana, they have proved to be very fickle. They have consistently hailed all in-coming regimes, and have been just as quick to dump them the way they received them.
If anybody thinks the situation in Ghana can be changed by some magic wand, he or she must be kidding. The PNDC officials, some of who have been forced to make drastic ideological changes, will tell you that. If the trade union has any concrete plans, let it put them forward.
To claim that social amenities abounded under Nkrumah is to ignore that Nkrumah's regime had a lot of money to spend. The British colonialists had saved more than a quarter of a billion pounds sterling in foreign exchange. With a population of barely 5 million then, it was easy to spend on social programmes. Now we must create wealth before we can spend it. There is no existing magic that I am aware of which can contradict this simple fact of economics.
I hope those who are looking up to the TUC for some national upheaval that will precipitate the demise of the PNDC will take note of the record of the TUC before they start salivating.
All over the world, organised labour is collaborating with governments, and managements to generate wealth in order to improve their quality of life. Japan's economic miracle and apparent labour peace have been attributed to such collaborative efforts. Ghana's Trade Union will have to change its organizational culture. The confrontational tradition which pits unions against governments will never solve our economic woes.
Those who mean well, particularly your correspondent and others like him, should look beyond Rawlings and the PNDC, and ask questions about the best ways in which the TUC will see itself as part of the national effort to solve our economic woes, rather than highlighting what they have historically been best at: demon- strating and shouting "aluuuuuta!" After all, weren't the TUC the first to welcome the PNDC? Your cover picture is eloquent proof.
Kwaku Kpatakpa Gyampo, Los Angeles, USA
Crisis of reason
After four years of Rawlings 'revolution' that promised a utopian political, economic and social system for Ghana, the Ghanaian workers have at last given their verdict that 'four years of the PNDC has been a political failure and sentenced Rawlings to suicide during their recent mammoth demonstrations in Tema against the PNDC military government. The verdict of the workers of Ghana reflects the escalating disenchantment with the Rawlings regime and brings home to the self-appointed rulers that enough is enough.From the outset of their 'revolution' in which hundreds of innocent Ghanaians have been killed, mature and experienced citizens and respectable elders in Ghana have been giving profuse advice to Flt-Lt Jerry Rawlings and his relatives to return the country to democracy for peace and progress without success.
Goaded by accolades from sycophants and adulated by boot-lickers for ministerial positions, the PNDC intensified its intimidation and repression to continue to rule 14 million Ghanaians without their consent by force.
A story is told that the wind, in spite of using hurricane force, failed to make a gentleman remove all his clothes, because the man kept on buttoning his coat and held his hat tightly as the wind blew. The wind lost the challenge with the sun as to who was stronger and accepted that force did not decide anything. It is patience as demonstrated by the sun who succeeded in getting the man to remove all his clothes voluntarily at mid-day after it set to shine slowly and patiently from 8am.
In the words of a sage "it is better to do the right thing slowly than the wrong thing quickly". If the Babangidas of Nigeria, Dahabs of Sudan and Musevenis of Uganda have no faith in a government based on military force, Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings has a lot to learn from the Generals.
It is hoped the workers' demonstrations have provided Jerry Rawlings and his PNDC with food for thought to leave Ghana's capricious political scene without further delay before the workers enforce their sentence with corresponding ruthlessness.
D.K. Apreku, Oslo, Norway
The death of a priest
I was greatly shocked when I read the article by Elizabeth Ohene entitled 'The mystery death of a catholic priest: another political murder in Ghana', published in the February 17, 1986 issue of this magazine.I am, in fact, tempted to agree with the Mirror which reportedly asked a lot of questions concerning the circumstances under which Father Kukah met his untimely death.
Many of us know that the police force in Ghana are capable of investigating crimes which often lead to conviction of culprits when they set their minds to it but the appallingly lackadasical and cavalier manner in which this issue has been treated leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
The government must, as a matter of urgency order the exhumation of the body for post-mortem examination to a establish the real cause of the death of the priest and thereby lay to rest the speculations which aren't doing its reputation any good.
Perhaps the greatest shock I had over this whole sordid affair was from a friend who recently returned from Accra. Asked about the rumour he shrugged and said: "So what's new? People are dropped by helicopter into the sea often." Have we come to accept violence now as part of our national lives?
Kwesi Amoako Andoh, Surrey
