May 24

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DAILY HERITAGE THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2018 11
Politics
Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about
anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for
yourself —Henry James
My party right or wrong - excessive
partisanship is killing us in Ghana
BY KOFI AMENYO
IF THIS were all just a game,
we would laugh over it. But
in our country, excessive
partisanship has become a
life and death thing for some
people. This is our idea of
democracy: you shall not see a single
good thing right with your opponents
and you shall see nothing
that can be wrong with your own
party. But all our politicians are
cut from the same cloth – the
same Ghanaian society. They have
the same ambitions and pursue
similar personal goals.
Most Ghanaians are not card
carrying members of any party.
This does not mean they do not
sympathise with one party. The
true non-partisan voter is rare. It
is just human nature to align oneself
to one party.
In Ghana, the largest force
driving many people to align
themselves one way or the other is
not ideological. It is tribal or what
a voter perceives he or she can
personally gain from supporting
one party rather than the other.
For the party hierarchy, stalwarts,
cadres and the so-called
foot soldiers the stakes are really
not about Ghana but about their
personal private gains. For many,
political office is a salvation as
they will be nothing without it in
their ordinary lives.
There are three principal reasons
anybody enters politics in
Ghana: personal financial gain,
lust for power, and the desire for
the prestige associated with power.
Of course, on the stump, they say
something else. Yes, every Ghanaian
will want to see the country
developed. But selfless service to
nation very rarely comes before
personal gains.
Those who make a lot of noise
for one party are often people
who stand to gain personally when
the party they are rooting for
comes to power. Each party has a
core group of non-flexible voters
who are unconvinced by any
propaganda from the other side.
They expect to get jobs and
money when their party comes to
power.
To be sure, the egoism of
politicians is a worldwide thing.
Even in Europe, politicians no
longer put what is right on top of
their agendas. They now think first
of what will benefit their personal
political careers. The welfare of
the people comes second. Even
the social democrats - a political
tradition built on the sweat of
labour, follow this trend.
The long period in which we
have enjoyed truly elective politics
(more than 20 years) has entrenched
the phenomenon of politics
as a career. Today, there are
many young men and women in
parliament who have done no
other work than that of politics.
They entered politics directly from
school. In the past, coups cut
down political careers. Today, it is
possible that some politicians can
be in parliament for 30 or 40 years
(like in the United States congress)
and politics will ever be the only
work they know. It is a very lucrative
profession! That is why it attracts
all sorts of unsavoury
characters.
Our bright and young who
could be doing well in business,
industry or technology if the
economy were good, now turn to
politics – or date rich married
men.
Today, we are witnessing the
politicization of everything in our
society. There are no longer professional
ambassadors. All of
them are party hacks who get appointed
as rewards for their loyalty
to the party. Yes, every country
does this but we carry it to its
most negative ends. We have built
a system driven on favours and
personal connections.
The renaming of the Flagstaff
House is a purely partisan act. The
National Democratic Congress
vows to rename it when they
come to power. Partisanship determines
many things in Ghana now
– board memberships, chairmanships,
professorships of state institutions,
etc. The civil service,
which should be above politics,
has been thoroughly politicized.
Even our history is being brazenly
re-written to reflect partisan and
tribal colours.
We have a government whose
policy actions are mainly geared at
winning the next elections. It is always
in campaign mode. The free
senior high school, a fine policy in
principle, was implemented in a
hurry mainly to win a political
point.
There are now three major polarizations
in our country: between
the two major parties, between the
rich and the poor and, unfortunately,
the one always lurking in
the background between the dominant
Akans and the larger group
of non-Akan Ghanaians.
One of the things which make
the fight so bitter is the antiquated
first past the post winner takes all
electoral system we inherited from
the British. This brings about a
win-at-all-costs mentality. Even
narrow losers of elections are left
completely without any rewards
unless they can align themselves
with the winners to benefit from
the spoils system we have created.
What shall we do? We need a
new constitution that will reduce
the powers of the president especially
in making appointments.
There should be a constitutional
limit on the size of the executive.
We need to reinforce civil service
rules to make the service completely
apolitical. Heads of parastatals
must have fixed-term
contracts that cannot be terminated
by a change of government.
Excessive executive power may
slide into presidential dictatorship
hiding under the garb of democracy.
This tendency is exacerbated
by the predisposition of our people
to give ‘fanfoo’ respect to
those in authority for personal
gains. This kind of imperial presidency
is dangerous since our institutions
are not strong enough to
check any excesses.
We should consider a one-time
presidency. Anyone who fails to
get re-elected on the trot should
not have another chance later on.
In other countries, such a practice
is followed by convention. In our
country we have to make a rule to
force people to observe it. With
such a rule in place, Mahama will
not now be scheming to be president
again. He is suffering from
that African malaise of hanging
on to power which was also exhibited
by Akufo-Addo in his persistent
quest to become president.
They tell us that the “teeming supporters”
want them to stand again.
And so what? As if there is a
shortage of people wanting to rule
us.
We should also consider an
upper age limit of 70 for political
offices including the presidency itself!
An elected office holder can
be in office beyond 70 only if he
was elected before he reached 70.
If the pension age in our country
is 60, it is unfair to have politicians
staying in power beyond 73.
The most daring reform we
can make is to introduce some
form of proportional representation
beginning with lower levels of
government. This will be difficult
for us to do but it may reduce the
power of the two major political
parties as it brings other actors
into the fray. This may stop the
emasculation of third parties. I
hope that District Chief Executive
in the next elections would be
elected and not appointed as the
president promised.
We should all realise that governance
is an intricate thing. It is
far easier to be outside and criticise
than be in the seat and take
the decisions yourself. For instance,
many economic decisions
are “leaps in the dark” with success
depending on unforeseen circumstances
in the future. Even the
best policy at the time it is started
may fail during implementation.
There is nothing partisan about
some of these things. Fortunately,
many Ghanaians know this and
will not allow themselves to be
swayed by propaganda. That is
why the efforts of those bland fanatics
trying to force a unified narrative
of the development process
on us will fail. Saying only my
party can deliver Ghana from its
woes is just crude propaganda. It
is also intellectually sterile.
In times of crises, great nations
put partisan interests aside and
form a national consensus around
the major problems of the day.
The extreme form of this is the
formation of a national government
to meet the challenge. It
seems our country is neither a
great nation nor one facing any
crisis. That is why we continue
with the same old ways and hope
to get different results.