Monday,
June 30, 2014
The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken a bold step to divest Ghana’s Members of
Parliament of “state protocol privileges whilst in the United Kingdom” and the
MPs are incensed. They are extremely angry and have threatened to show the
Executive where power lies. I laugh these MPs to scorn and will urge them to be
circumspect in their haughtiness. They have a lot to lose if they act
irresolutely. One question, though. Why the UK, particularly?
The
Ministry’s action against them is appropriate and I urge that it be extended to
other countries apart from the United Kingdom. In effect, our MPs don’t deserve
any protocol privileges because there is no need for such privileges for them.
They should ask themselves what they have done to deserve such privileges and stop
whining for nothing. If they knew the extent of public anger at their
incompetence and cunning ways of exploiting the system for personal benefits,
they won’t stick their necks out to be cut for them.
The
directive from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made it clear that except the
leadership of Parliament, all others in Parliament won’t anymore be given such largesse
at the tax-payers’ expense. The parameters have now been set: henceforth, state
protocol privileges would be extended to the President and his wife, Vice
President and his wife, Ministers and the leadership of Parliament only.
(See: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=314736)
Previously
all MPs had enjoyed state protocol whenever they travelled to the UK for
official duties. Times have changed and new directives to streamline affairs
should be welcomed and not repudiated. What exactly do these so-called “official
duties” of these MPs in the UK bring to enhance our democracy? Or to improve
the lot of the ordinary tax-payer?
The
MPs may wonder why such privileges should continue to be enjoyed by the
Executive (the President, Ministers of State, and any other official so
designated as a beneficiary). I don’t see anything wrong with this redefinition
of beneficiaries and narrowing of the circumference in critical times like
these; but I see a lot wrong with the anger wrought in the MPs. So also I do
disagree with them on their threat to “show the Executive arm of government the
real ‘power’ of the Legislature”.
I
will first raise pertinent aspects of the matter before placing the MPs where I
think they belong. It is reported that the directive particularly infuriated
the Chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Emmanuel Bandua, who said
that the Executive has taken Parliament for granted for far too long and that
Parliament must also flex its muscles. He said sometimes, MPs who are
also Ministers look down upon their fellow MPs who are not ministers (That is
not my lookout because only the MPs know what relationship exists among them,
whether playing the dual role as Ministers of State or left alone as mere MPs
on the floor of Parliament).
No
one doubts the fact (as stated by an aggrieved Bandua, the NDC MP for Biakoye in
the Volta Region) that “By the principle of separation power, the Executive,
the Legislature and the Judiciary are equally important and none is above the
other in the discharge of their functions.” At least, that is what
democracy entails; but the same democracy enjoins the Legislature to be
up-and-doing. Is Ghana’s Parliament honest enough to say it is such? Why hasn’t
it passed the Right to Information Law, particularly, which is direly needed by
Ghanaians so they can probe into the activities of the three arms of
government?
I
have a lot to condemn about Mr. Bandua’s vituperation. His explanation that “if the Executive has
decided not to accord members of the Legislature any respect and recognition,
then members of the executive must be prepared to come and discuss their own
bills and pass them into laws when they present them to Parliament” is the
worst insult that an MP can throw at Ghanaians. If the Executive has to discuss
its own bills and pass them into laws, will there be any need for the Legislature
at all? Or is the work of the Legislature contingent on the quantum of
privileges that the Executive makes available to its members? Childishness at
its highest level.
Folks,
I urge you to disregard the beef of the NPP MP for Old Tafo, Dr Anthony Akoto
Osei, that Parliament must address the ill-treatment and that the letter
withdrawing the privileges was not even signed by the Minister but a Director
at the Ministry, which is a grave affront to Parliament. Where was this NPP
man when the Kufuor government stripped a former President (Jerry John
Rawlings) of all protocol privileges and later turned round to mastermind the
destructive mudslinging campaign against him and using their lackeys in the
media to ridicule him when he was spotted carrying his own travelling bag and
going through customs formalities at the Heathrow Airport in London?
Dragging
the Minister of Foreign Affairs before Parliament of its Sanhedrin (the
Privileges Committee) won’t solve change anything because there is no problem
for him to solve. The matter is simple: The country cannot continue bearing the
cost of all that the 275 MPs think they are entitled to when in the UK.
The
truth is that stripping the MPs of such privileges is no instance of disdain.
It is a clear attempt to streamline affairs and ensure that needless
expenditures and encumbrances are stemmed. What is wrong about this measure? I
don’t see anything wrong about it.
Our MPs have not
performed well to persuade the ordinary tax-payer that they are worth
supporting. The MPs have taken the tax-payers for granted and done things to
erode confidence in themselves. Have they paid back all the car loans given
them over the years? How about many others that are not disclosed?
The government
seems to be on a collision course with the Legislature but it needn’t fear
anything for as long as its actions will alert the MPs to reality. In the same
vein, though, the government itself must ensure that it performs well to
justify the retention of privileges to its functionaries. As for the President
and his Vice and their spouses, only an insane person will recommend that
privileges for them be curtailed.
The issues that
have brought our Legislature on this collision course with the government go
beyond this withdrawal of protocol privileges, and a lot has to be done to
probe into them. We know how much the tax-payer bears in sacrificing to sustain
this democracy; but if the tax-payers don’t enjoy the benefits, they will
sooner than later bare their teeth. The government must know it for a fact that
its own inability to solve problems has already set the stage for public anger
to be displayed at the least opportunity. Now that Parliament seems to be
readying itself for a confrontation, fear looms that our democracy will be
threatened.
I shall return…
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
·
Join
me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue
the conversation.
No comments:
Post a Comment