Saturday,
July 6, 2013
The Supreme Court’s efforts to
clamp down on public comments detrimental to the performance of its legitimate
function in hearing the NPP’s petition regarding Election 2012 has brought into
sharp focus some fundamental peculiarities that separate the NPP from the NDC
at several levels.
A scrutiny of public reaction to
the Supreme Court’s moves suggests that the NPP is poles apart when it comes to
discipline and political maturity. Its functionaries are more invested in
undermining the integrity of the Supreme Court than warranted by the offence
for which the Court has imposed custodial sentence and “punished” the errant
commentators infringing the contempt of court clause in our legal code. They have
come to notice as the only group of people stridently critical of the Supreme Court instead of seeing
its moves as appropriate. Why is it so? And why are they leading the pack to
create disaffection for the Court?
We recognize the fact that unlike
the NPP functionaries, those in the NDC and the other political parties have
not in any way confronted the Supreme Court nor have they condemned it for
acting as it has done to instill discipline in public discourse concerning its status
and performance. The NDC functionaries have not reacted to the Court’s moves
even when two of their colleagues (Stephen Atubiga and Kwaku Boahen) were
summonsed before the Court and dealt with. Is it because they are heartless?
No!!
The NDC leaders did not make any
utterance to express pleasure or displeasure at goings-on. They displayed
political maturity and took everything in its stride, which is heart-warming.
That display of political maturity puts them streets ahead of their political
opponents in the NPP and their lackeys disguised as civil society leaders, journalists,
academics, lawyers, or political commentators wrongly shooting their mouths all
over the place. The venom that they are spitting characterizes them as
politically misguided, morally bankrupt, and legally challenged—a danger to
liberal democracy!
The jailing of Kuranchie has
really exposed their underbelly and revealed to us their inner workings. I am
not surprised that their initial condemnation of the Supreme Court for banning
Sammy Awuku would escalate into open threats and arid defiance of the norms of civility.
No moment passes by without any of them saying something odious about the Court.
That seems to be their modus operandus to undermine the integrity of the Court
in readiness for its verdict concerning their petition so that they can
implement the next phase of their hidden agenda. But Justice Atuguba’s insistence
that no one can intimidate the judges must alert them to the landmine that they
are preparing to step on.
Why is it that the NPP members
and apologists are those most vehemently criticizing the Supreme Court for
taking action to ensure that its integrity is not impugned by those loosely
commenting on its activities and denigrating Justice Atuguba and any member of
the 9-member panel deemed to be posturing or making pronouncements detrimental
to the NPP’s cause during proceedings in court?
Their misconduct raises questions
of conscience: Is it because they are keen on upholding and protecting freedom
of speech? Or because they are “liberal democrats” who believe in free speech for
accomplishing political objectives? I don’t think so.
One streak in their character is unmitigated.
If they were the “Apostles of Free Speech,” they would first prove so through
their actions and utterances in-house. They won’t act like matadors and take
fatal aim at anybody in their own midst who exercises his freedom of speech to
criticize internal happenings, as was done by Kwame Pianim and Dr. Yves Charles
Wereko Brobby only to be “eaten alive”. They won’t turn themselves into sharp
shooters sniping at the internal critics. With their poison-laced arrows, they
are worse than archers seeking to destroy their own for political
(in)expediency. That is their rub!
The charity that they are looking
for in the doings of the Supreme Court hasn’t begun at home for them. So, why are
they out to behave as if the Supreme Court is insensitive and wayward? Why all
this fuss about freedom of speech being threatened by the Supreme Court (and
Justice Atuguba particularly) when they themselves haven’t in any way tolerated
dissension in their own ranks and are resolved to stifle criticism from within?
Why waste efforts to remove the speck in the eyes of the judges and not the
beam in their own frog-eyes? Mere political frippery?
If you doubt why I am questioning
the caginess of these NPP people, just take a cursory look at the volume of
comments and threats from them over the past few days. Some examples:
1.
General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party
(NPP), Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, has said the Supreme Court judges' reaction in
respect of public comments on the proceedings in the ongoing presidential
election petition is an attempt to cow people from expressing themselves.
He charged Justice Atuguba to be careful with his actions. ( Saturday, July 6, 2013, Ghanaweb:
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=278817)
2.
Atta
Akyea, counsel for Kuranchie has
hit back at the “erring justices of the Supreme Court”, insisting that their decision was perverse and an affront
to justice. (Saturday, July 6, 2013, Ghanaweb: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=278801)
3.
Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, the former Youth
Organizer of the NPP, has stated emphatically that the imprisoning of Atubiga
and Kuranchie by the Supreme Court over
contemptuous comments will not stop criticisms of the court. (Saturday,
July 6, 2013, Ghanaweb: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=278796)
4.
The Chairman of the Volta Regional branch of
the NPP, Ken Wood Nuworsu, led a delegation of the Ho branch of the party to
visit Kuranchie at the Ho prison and gave him tilapia and “banku” (as if inmates
of the prison were not being fed by the authorities!). He said Kuranchie looked
sober, but in good spirit especially after seeing the crowd of party supporters
who had gathered outside the prison singing in support of him. Nuworsu
praised Kuranchie for his boldness and loyalty to the party and said that the
party has arranged for a team to visit him daily throughout the sentence period.
5.
Kissi Adjabeng, a lecturer
at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana, has questioned the posture of
the Supreme Court in
respect of the contempt charges it brought against some two persons. He
described the Supreme Court’s ruling on Kuranchie, Atubiga, and
the others as dangerous and said that it appeared as if the Supreme Court was looking out for an apologetic
person before handing down its judgement.
6.
Managing editor of the New Crusading Guide
Newspaper (Abdul Kweku Baako Jnr.) expressed disappointment at the sentencing
of Kuranchie and Atubiga. He said the Court’s action could harm free
speech and that people would be scared of commenting on judicial issues, and
this culture would not be in the interest of the judiciary. He called on
the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and Civil
Society Organizations (CSOs) to rise to the occasion.
Others have couched their
criticism of the Supreme Court in diplomacy. Ace Kojo Annan Ankomah, a private legal practitioner, has
advised Parliament to consider a Contempt of Court Act that defines contempt in
a way that is accepted by the generality of the population. According to
him, this will help maintain the balance between the right of free speech and
commentary on court proceedings. He advised all Ghanaians thus: “Till
Parliament steps to the plate, let your criticism of the court be measured and
tempered”.
Only one voice of reason stood
out from the NPP pack. That was Sam
Okudzeto, a private legal practitioner, who approved the Supreme Court’s action.
He said he was happy that the Court had found them guilty
of criminal contempt and that it was necessary to indicate to the public that
the dignity of a court must always be respected.
Okudzeto,
who is also a former President of the Ghana Bar Association, told Joy FM’s
Super Morning Show that clearly some media personnel had, in their commentary
on the presidential election petition being heard by the Supreme Court, “gone
beyond what we might say is fair comment.”
What
would make Okudjeto stand out of the NPP crowd this way? Yet, the party boasts
of countless lawyers in its fold!! What could Okudjeto see that they couldn’t?
Why?
The Ghana Bar Association has not
hidden its displeasure at the inability of the Supreme Court to crack the whip
and urged it to bite and not only bark at those contemning it. When Sammy Awuku
was dealt with, the GBA supported the Court’s action, describing his banning from
the Court’s sittings as “mild” but purposeful. Nene Amegatcher, GBA President, told Joy News that “Lawyers
are not supposed to run commentaries while the case is going on, with the
intention of abusing or influencing the mind of supporters of a particular
party and preparing them not to accept the results or not. It is against the
ethics of the profession and the Ghana Bar Association is worried.” A
good one there.
Rather
strangely, Stephen Atubiga—a culprit himself—saw
wisdom in the Court’s action against him. Upon his release from prison, he
said the action of the judges had prevented the country from being plunged into
post-election violence. He said his love and admiration for the bench
had increased after his incarceration, adding, “I really applaud them for
putting that iron fist on me. If I have the opportunity, I will go back to the
Supreme Court and thank the judges.”
According
to Atubiga, he was glad that the sentence would serve as a caution to
journalists, politicians and the public at large who used what he described as
“rotten language to undermine the authority of the bench… I have been used as a
sacrificial lamb, to sanitize the place. Sometimes, you pay the price to sanitize
the system”.
What
have the NPP bigwigs done so far to prove that they are indeed ready to cooperate
with the authorities to enforce discipline—and be worth recognizing as the “liberal
democrats” that they label themselves? They saw the incarceration of Kuranchie
as a political gem, which they frantically have seized to intensify their
anti-Atuguba rabble rousing. Some shameless opportunists!!
They
are all over the place, making noxious comments and daring the Supreme Court to
take them on so they can move their recklessness a notch higher to unleash
mayhem on the society. That is why they haven’t ceased condemning the Supreme
Court, the latest one coming from their General Secretary.
Regardless
of how they approach issues, their odious utterances against the Supreme Court
are misplaced and smack of political immaturity. We, however, don’t expect them
to relent soon because that is the last trump-card left for them before the
Supreme Court seals their sad fate. Then, they will fall head-over-heels in
love with anarchy and be dealt with in accordance with the extent and depth to
which they will carry their notoriety. Some “liberal democrats” that we have in
Ghana!
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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