Sunday,
October 19, 2014
Folks, the news report yesterday
about what happened to the United States President, Barack Obama, at a
restaurant came as a huge surprise to some of us; but it threw more light on
why the kind of democracy being practised by the United States is relevant to
that country's development agenda.
If you missed that news report,
here it is in full (as carried by the BBC) under the headline "Barack
Obama's credit card 'declined':
"President Barack Obama's
credit card was declined at a restaurant in New York City last month, he said.
"It turned out I guess I don't use it enough," Mr. Obama said.
"They thought there was some fraud going on."
Fortunately, he said, First Lady
Michelle Obama had a credit card on hand and paid for the meal.
Mr. Obama told the story at the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as he announced new protections for debit
cards used to deliver federal benefits. An estimated 100 million Americans have
been affected by identity theft in the past year, including high-profile
security breaches at retailers like Target and Home Depot.
“I was trying to explain to the
waitress, you know, I really think that I've been paying my bills,” Mr. Obama
said. “Even I'm affected by this.”
The US president is paid $400,000
(£250,000) per year, as well as given a non-taxable $50,000 expense account.
(Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29664831).
MY COMMENTS
The nub is really not about the
credit card's being declined, clearly because it is nothing strange for one's
credit card to be so treated either for a technical glitch or for security
reasons. But in this case, it involved the US President, which might give it
the intriguing twist. However, when one gets to know that in the US, the law is
no respecter of persons, the reality registers a clear impression. No more
surprises, huh?
The real issue is about
transparency. Here is a whole President of the US buying food at his own
expense and being exposed to what the ordinary people face. In our case, do our
leaders (starting with the President and ending with the lowest government
official on the bureaucratic ladder) eat at their own expense or everything
supporting their lifestyle is borne by the ordinary tax-payer? When was the
last time anybody ever bothered to know how much our Presidents (in and out of
office) have been taking from the tax-payer to sustain their lives just because
of their status(es)?
We don't really know the exact
quantum of end-of-service benefits that the two ex-Presidents (Rawlings and
Kufuor) are enjoying and why they have found adroit means to hang on to
official designations, relishing all kinds of largesse, including foreign
travels at the expense of the tax-payer. And they have devised means to rope in
their children---and who knows what has been put aside for hangers-on singing
their praise?
A more crucial aspect of the
Obama experience is the disclosure of his earnings as a President. It is there
in plain sight for everybody to see. He earns $400,000.00 and pays a huge tax
on it. He files his tax returns every year, which is put in the public domain
for everybody to know. That is the United States for you!
Turn the table around to focus on
Ghana. What do we have? A democracy that is designed to keep everything about
officialdom in the darkest part of the alley. How much is our President paid a
month and how much tax does he pay? How about the Vice President and other
government officials being supported by the ordinary tax-payer?
Information about such issues is
regarded as top secret!! Why should it be so? Just because it is not what our
democracy is designed to help the people know so they can appreciate governance
as responsible citizens. The lid is kept tight on such issues because nobody in
authority wants the citizens to be well-informed so as to do critical
assessment of issues. Keeping them in the dark is good for those who profit
from this kind of democracy. That is why passing the Right to Information bill
into law is dragging on.
As I have kept saying all this
while, no democracy can endure without public funds; and those who have access
to such funds are required to account for their stewardship so the citizens
whose sweat, blood, and tears feed the national coffers can monitor how public
funds are spent. Anything short of that will demoralize the citizens and spawn
rebellion.
Why is it that nothing is told
the citizens about how much money is being spent on all the foreign engagements
of the President and high-ranking government officials? Of course, they don’t
bear the cost. It is the citizens who do so. Thus, why not tell them how much
money goes where at which time so they can become informed to act responsibly?
Nobody in authority will do so because much water has to pass under the bridge
for them to live their lives in comfort. That is what our kind of democracy
offers them.
And this kind of democracy being
practised in Ghana cannot help us develop our country. It will only provide a
safe haven for self-seekers to be cushioned while the millions of citizens
killing themselves to sustain the democracy sink further down into narrow
circumstances. Pathetic.
That is why they are not bothered
about the weakening of our institutions of state because they profit from such
inadequacies. If they didn’t, they would gear up to retool those institutions
for them to perform their legitimate functions to keep them on their toes. They
know how to keep those institutions on their leash for personal comfort. That
is why despite being practised for 22 years now, our democracy is still
wobbling and hobbling.
Let nobody tell me that there is
stability and that general elections have been conducted for governments to be
changed. This kind of ritual is sterile and dangerous because it misrepresents
reality. The citizens are compelled to exercise their franchise because they
are still not sure whether abandoning this democracy will be a better solution
to the country’s problems of under-development. They won’t certainly welcome
the military toads; thus, why not stick to the devil that they know and damn
the angel lurking at the fringes? But this situation itself is dangerous.
When the citizens seek only the
political kingdom and nothing is added to it, they become disaffected for the
devil to give jobs to. Such jobs include anti-social activities such as
selective sabotage, plain criminal activities like armed robbery, murder, and
what-have-you? Is that what we are nurturing our democracy to produce?
Can our leaders ever learn to do
the right thing so we can all work together to grow our democracy for it to
serve our collective purposes? I wonder; I really wonder!
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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