Treating critics as enemies is one of the greatest flaws in modern-day politics. It is a universal phenomenon; those who speak against the system or the manner in which things run are immediately considered as being enemies or saboteurs of the system.
It does not matter that the source of the disagreement is an isolated issue. So long as you sympathise or are part of a political party, you are required to stick with whatever the party does, even if the outcome is absurd.
The silent ones are crowned as faithful. The outspoken ones are chased out for being rebellious.
Those with dissenting opinions and views – they are treated as the Biblical Jonahs who must necessarily be thrown out of the ship in order to attain some sense of stability and peace. And I am glad to say that we have carried this attitude right from independence up to this point in time.
“Of course, the colonial government and entities did the same,” some would say. But the question then remains; why did we become independent in the first place?
There is no exceptions to the rule. The conventional policy has been to slash and burn the lone voices. Where you cannot achieve that openly, then you might want to ostracise them. We see such a vindictive culture blossoming all over the continent.
How can individuals with varied experiences and perspectives on life be expected to react in the same way to similar situations? It is the first signpost to the sycophancy and foolishness that often riddles our politics.
So when Martin Amidu criticises the government, he is treated as a pariah. When Arthur Kennedy expresses his views on the state of the opposition, he is treated with contempt. It is a Ghanaian trait.
Since when did absolute obedience and compliance become a condition precedent to staying in an association?
I should not be understood as saying that individuals should be at liberty to set their own rules and place themselves over and above the institutional standards.
However the institutional standards should not be structured in such a way as to gag and obfuscate freedom of speech and expression.
It is within this context that I find the call by former President Kufuor for Ghanaians to be brutally frank with their politicians heart-warming. Belated as it may be, it is something that is hard to dispute.
He noted at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana that “It is high time, I believe, people talked brutally frank to political leaders, so they will get their bearings right.”
He further stated, “We need our technocrats to dare to speak. Speak up and let the politicians who will not appreciate do what they should.”
But as the former president may well know, some politicians expect people to fall in line absolutely in all things and not to be heard expressing a contrary view. However they get shocked and distraught when the outcome in elections turns sour. They go about on radio and television proclaiming that delegates and electorates should be feared.
Five years ago, I remember one of my first articles to The Mirror. It was after the primaries to fill the flag bearer slot of the New Patriotic Party. One of the aspirants proclaimed that the results were strange. This was against the background that he had been promised a lot of votes by a supposedly huge following.
Imagine how beautiful our politics would be if people are able to look at politicians in the eye and tell them boldly, “I am not going to vote for you”. But I don’t think much of this is going to happen any time soon.
The climate is such that people say things they don’t mean just to please politicians and government officials on whom they often rely on for their daily survival.
We join political parties. We mortgage our future, thoughts and opinions to these political parties. And when persons are elected as MPs to represent the aspirations of their people, they are choked by party politics and the strong whip systems. There is no use for an independent mind.
How can anyone convincingly make the point that all MPs agree with the positions of either the government or their party on every single issue? It is ridiculous to start with; and the fact that it persists is a sign of the hypocrisy and sycophancy that dominates and tears our body politic apart.
If ever we need people to speak their minds freely and openly, it is now. Those who dare should be encouraged.
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