Democracy on wobbling legs

By Kofi Akordor
THE Upper East Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Peter H. Mensah, has made a serious observation which should not be ignored by serious-minded Ghanaians.
While inaugurating an inter-party dialogue committee in Bolgatanga, he said Ghana’s democracy was resting on wobbling legs, thereby making it volatile.
“Any careless or reckless infraction can easily crumble it. There is the need to recognise this fact and take collective steps to change the trend,” he stated.
This is the naked truth that should be made patently clear to all Ghanaians.
Since 1992 when the country embarked on another journey on the democratic path, every election has been faced with its own challenges. However, the progress made in the electoral process has not seen a corresponding improvement in our democratic culture.
Contrary to expectation that with time the democratic process will mature and eliminate human excesses such as insults and violent behaviour, we seem rather to be drifting more and more towards anarchy.
Last week, I listened to a playback of some previous programmes on an Accra radio station. I was surprised at the raw filth that flowed freely from the mouths of Members of Parliament (MPs), ministers of state and other top political figures in the country.
Everybody has spoken against the phenomenon but nobody seems to care to effect a change in our attitude in our political discourse.
All the political leaders have made public condemnation of insults but, strangely, none of them is on record as having condemned any party member for fouling the air with insults against an opponent. Both those in government and opposition have on several occasions displayed their penchant for dirty words and always created the impression that this country is at war with itself.
The irony of our situation is that while all parties claim they are for peace and non-violent speeches, they have all in a way created specialised communication groups whose business it is to use the media, especially radio, to launch verbal attacks on their perceived political opponents.
Whether politicians think insulting opponents will improve their fortunes or weaken those of their opponents is yet to be proved. This was made clear by Professor Kofi Agyekum, the Head of the Linguistics Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, last Thursday, when he delivered his inaugural lecture on: “Kasapa-Kasahuam ‘polite language’: Towards perfect communication, national cohesion and peaceful co-existence”.
The linguistic professor observed that the country’s political atmosphere was losing the traditional value of good and polite language, with disagreements being played out by insults. He went further to remind politicians that insults would not win them votes.
We hope this message will sink in well with our politicians. It must be admitted that one group which is playing a major role in this canker is the media. Media owners and their employees who want to be described as journalists have debased the profession and made practitioners appendages of politicians.
The 1992 Constitution guarantees media freedom and this has been seriously over-exploited and brought this country to where we are today. This is an election year and, as stated earlier, the Electoral Commission is making every effort to improve upon the electoral process. This year, for example, it is gearing up to start biometric registration which will inject more transparency in the electoral system.
All these efforts will not bring the desired results if the citizens do not educate themselves on the most civil ways of communicating their thoughts, ideas and opinions. We may have the best electoral system, but if we do not control the words of our mouths, we still risk a national tragedy, as had happened in other countries.
So far, political leaders have not proved to be allies in the crusade against foul language, insults and ethnocentric sentiments that have found place in the newspapers and on the airwaves, since they are always struggling to outdo one another in the war of words.
We are not a special people, as some may want to believe. We can only be special if we learn from the mistakes of others and do the right thing. The radio stations are our best hope if they will not present the platform for people to create turmoil with their mouths in their studios.
We came close in 2008. We may not have another chance unless we accept the fact that multi-party democracy means different ideas towards the same direction – national development – unless others have different motives for going into politics.
Mr Mensah has said it in far away Bolgatanga — we are on wobbling legs. Let no one deceive us that we are an island. What happened somewhere can happen here if the conditions are the same. With this realization, we can make a conscious effort to protect our national image, security and stability.
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