Monday,
June 30, 2014
The distrust and
mistrust between the Legislature and the Executive seem to be growing. The
Executive has made promises to improve the lot of the MPs but not done so. The
MPs Common Fund is one touchy area. So also is the pledge to provide decent
office accommodation and staff for the MPs. So far, nothing exists to confirm
that the government is really working to support the MPs. Salaries and
allowances arte paid, even though the MPs remain the Oliver Twists of our time.
On that score, unless the government plays its cards well, it may end up
angering MPs, including its own NDC elements, who appear to be spearheading the
current show of discontent at measures now being introduced to the detriment of
the Legislature. The MPs are complaining that they don’t have offices and the
government continues to massage their feelings with promises upon promises.
The delay in the completion of the “Job 600 Complex”, to
serve as offices for MPs is a clear instance. The MPs are unhappy that even
though a loan of $25 million has already been approved by the House for its
completion, nothing is being done to serve their needs. The MPs need
offices and will fight to have them. Clearly, everything points to a bad-blood
relationship between the government and the Legislature, which the new
directive denying the MPs the protocol privileges will reinforce.
Other
problems exist. The fuel shortage is one. We
have heard about the majority of MPs not being in Parliament because they were
out searching for petrol. Business could not be done for that matter as only 60
out of the 275 members showed up
for business Thursday. Minority spokesperson on Finance, Dr. Anthony
Akoto Osei, and Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu aired their views on the
issue.
It is clear that the situation in the Ghanaian
Legislature is not the best—all happening at a time that the Speaker of Benin’s
Parliament, Professor Maturi Koffi Nago, has called for regional integration
among parliamentarians of member states in the ECOWAS sub-region. As if
these Parliamentarians are contributing anything constructive to the
development of their own countries to warrant their being recognized and called
upon to get together for the good of the entire sub-region. Who feels the
impact of any MP anywhere in West Africa?
His
claim that the Parliament of Ghana is “an efficient factor for regional co-operation
and integration” is more misplaced and ridiculous than the
recommendation that it might be thought to be. Ghana’s Parliament is the
weakest link the chain of democracy. It hasn’t done anything to improve
governance and is known for pursuing an agenda of self-interest. Challenge me
with facts to the contrary, if you have them.
So,
if we put everything together, where will we be in the near future? In other
democracies, the Legislature is the strongest link in the chain because it is
the fount of the “people’s power” and does everything to ensure that it is not
over-ridden by the Executive and the Judiciary. What is happening in our case
in Ghana? Isn’t Parliament itself culpable for anything negative happening to
it today?
Over the years, our MPs have not
done well to hook us to their cause, which is why we have oftentimes complained
and will use every opportunity to do so. A lot of them are known for being
"dumb" but enjoying the perks for as long as their status remains
intact. And they are those who delight in being referred to as
'HONOURABLE"!!
Dare you mention their names
without preceding it with that tag and you will be in hot waters (a few friends
have drawn my attention to this ridiculous happening in Ghana)!! That's how
they want to be recognized, not by their performance.
Honourable so-so-and-so!! Mere
jokers taking undue advantage of the inadequacies of a fledgling democracy.
The truth that these MPs hide
from Ghanaians is that they are of the same kind—whether NDC, NPP or whatever.
In truth, they are all occupying their positions to make it, and they do things
in concert as such.
Let me be blunt here to say that
when it comes to their own well-being, they sink their political differences
and fight tooth-and-nail to get their bread buttered (usually by arm-twisting
tactics to force the Executive to bend back).
But when it comes to petty issues
bordering on technicalities, they openly bare their teeth at each other to
create the impression that the NPP or the NDC is what the people should see in
the right light as fighting their cause.
I have good reason to fault these
MPs because they are opportunists who want to use the weaknesses of our
democracy to "make it big time".
I have analyzed issues and
scrutinized the background of these 275 MPs and can stick my neck out to say
that almost all of them have resigned themselves to fate in politics, seeing
politics in Parliament as the means to accomplish what their chosen career
paths couldn't afford them. If you doubt it, ask yourself why almost all of
them are so-called people of "careers", especially lawyers!!
If they could use their chosen
career paths to make it in life, why would they fight the Executive over issues
of financial nature? Liars, thieves, and murderers they are!!
And sadly, these MPs know the
limitations of our democracy, which they are unconscionably exploiting. The
same goes for the Executive. In all this nonsense, it is only the Judiciary
that stands paralyzed because it has no access to the public funds at the
disposal of the Executive and the Legislature.
In reality, our Judiciary is the
only “beggar" in the circumstance. That is why it is not as self-assertive
as the Executive and the Legislature are. It's all because our democracy is
fundamentally faulty (at birth and beyond). Pathetic.
We have even been told that the
1992 Constitution doesn’t secure the tenure of the Chief Justice. Can we, then,
not know why there is so much rot in the Judiciary?
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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