Daily Heritage June 23:17

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DAILY HERITAGE FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017 11
Politics
If you steal from one author it's
plagiarism; if you steal from many it's
research – Wilson Mizner
Making the NDC more attractive
BY ANDREWS KROW
LOOKING FIRST at
the National Democratic
Congress
(NDC), its doctrine
or beliefs were - in
1991-1992- by no
means clear cut as when the party
constitution was adopted during
the formative stage.
Intra-party conflict is one of
the features of party politics. Divergence
of nature of men that
makes them adopt different approaches
and stance on issues
creates this atmosphere in our
parties. A political party is an assemblage
of men who share in
similar philosophy but expression
of divergent views within a political
organisation predispose
members to articulate divergent
views or interests which sometimes
invite intra-party conflicts
which if not managed well,
breeds factionalism as happened
to the NDC between 2001 and
2005 and within the New Patriotic
Party prior to the 2016 election.
Intra-party conflict
Conflict is common in all social
groups and inevitable but we
must always differentiate genuine
and healthy intra-party conflict
from the tendency where individuals
pursue their personal or individual
parochial interest to the
detriment of the party. Political
parties make huge electoral gains
from creating systems which support
aggregation of varying interests
of its members and go out
and articulate a united front.
Labour Party went through same
intra-party clashes between the
Bervanites and the Gaitskellites
and it was not based on individual’s
personal interests, but, on
rearmament, anti-America issues
and health policies. Like all other
pro-left political organisations,
the NDC must consider intraparty
democracy as a central
tenet of its philosophy
Sovereignty of
the party
The sovereignty of the party
is paramount and decisions by
the party must be based on that
•Ebenezer Kofi Ofori Porturphy, chairman of NDC
philosophy, the need to promote
an image of unity and efficiency
is now and must avoid the tendency
of allowing anti-NDC
media platforms to scrutinise its
internal debates
The party must have its set of
goals which represent the realities
of the time and pursuance of
these set of goals would limit the
destructive impact of internal
conflicts. Being a human organisation
with people holding divergent
views, intra-party conflict
will remain a recurrent phenomenon
and will continue to find expression
in different forms and at
different stages in the process of
making the party all want it to be.
Ideologically, I don't think the
party has departed sharply from
its philosophy, the massive infrastructure
development embarked
upon from the Rawlings era to
the time of Mahama attests to
this fact. How to reach out to its
natural base should be the party's
focus and that could be actualised
if the party factors into its
scheme of things, issues about
the current demographic picture
of the country. The public takes
stands on current issues, this affects
their voting depends on the
Conflict is common in all social groups and inevitable
but we must always differentiate genuine
and healthy intra-party conflict from the
tendency where individuals pursue their personal
or individual parochial interest to the detriment
of the party. Political parties make huge
electoral gains from creating systems which support
aggregation of varying interests of its members
and go out and articulate a united front.
depth of their feeling and the degree
to which one party is regarded.
This is the reason why the
party must quickly get out of its
internal clashes to begin serious
work on policy formulation for
the public to know which policies
the party could be identified with.
The failure of the incumbent
to deliver on its promises is not
enough to defeat it, each party
works to identify itself with popular
and its opponents with unpopular
attitudes on major issues.
Voters who are attached to one
particular party tend to accept the
view of specific issues enunciated
by that party's leaders rather than
take a stand on current problems
and then adjust their party loyalties.
That is what the party must
watch going forward. To narrow
its policies and plans around its
core base will not attract others
to their fold. This is because the
attitudes of the parties can have
different electoral implications at
different times.
Parliamentary slots
There are other issues worth
the attention of all supporters -
how candidates for its parliamentary
slots are selected and the
party's influence on the selection
process. Because the parties are
rooted in the communities, it is
important it takes serious look at
the issue to avoid the rigmaroles
witnessed during the last primaries
and their negative effects or
consequences on the overall results
of the party.
I don't see the wisdom in
someone who may not be popular
or not known in a constituency,
contesting a sitting
Member of Parliament. Such
moves have their negative psychological
effect on the core
party base, as well as the public.
True philosophy
Can the party recapture its
true philosophy to meet the
thinking of the public or electorate?
It is not about lacking intellectuals
or not utilising its
intellectual base, rather the party
at a point departed from its policy
of looking at all areas such as
its students base and others who
are supposed to strengthen the
foundation of the party when in
government or outside.
Ghanaians have a particular
mindset which is not different
from the mental chemistry of
persons in countries where
poverty is prevalent. They see
parties that share common philosophy
with their thinking and
disposition as their natural allies;
they abhor aristocratic tendencies
and other bourgeoisie tendencies.
We have many professionals and
people within the middle class
zone who believe in egalitarianism
who are against acquisition
of primitive wealth.
How to identify these persons
and bring them on board is the
issue. People are no more interested
in the old revolutionary
ways and the philosophy of social
democracy doesn't support
political radicalism with its revolutionary
tendencies. We have
many in the legal fraternity, the
academia and other professional
bodies who share in the values of
the NDC.
The failure of the incumbent
to deliver on
its promises is not
enough to defeat it,
each party works to
identify itself with popular
and its opponents
with unpopular attitudes
on major issues.
Voters who are attached
to one particular
party tend to
accept the view of specific
issues enunciated
by that party's leaders
rather than take a
stand on current problems
and then adjust
their party loyalties.
That is what the party
must watch going forward.