EDITORIAL: Tagging security officers, others with party colours dangerous

All over the world, security personnel of the armed forces, customs and immigration, the police, fire service and the like, are employed to see to the security and safety of a country and the jurisdiction in which they operate.

The security officials, by the nature of their work, are expected to be unbiased and amenable to all sections of society, as they exist to see to the well-being of all, devoid of any selective tendencies.

It is the reason the military, especially, recruits men and women that cut across all gender and regions of a country, because the armed forces exist to protect all and their mandate is to ensure the territorial integrity of the land.

In the same category with the security officials are civil or public servants and teachers, all of whom exist for the public good and not for a particular section of society.

Unfortunately, although the security personnel, by their vocation, are supposed to be neutral they may have their own preferences for which some have been tagged as belonging to particular parties.

Teachers and public servants, who are mandated to serve the public have also been classified as belonging to some parties when they have reacted to issues concerning their vocations.

These tendencies divide a people and a nation and deal a blow to national cohesion.

The Daily Graphic is worried that the Ghanaian, who is known to be tolerant of all and values the essence of community and family, now treads the path of politicising everything national.

This has the tendency to breed suspicion and the lack of trust in the national fabric and that does not augur well for fellow feeling and national cohesion.

It is in the light of this that we welcome the call by the Deputy Majority Leader of Parliament and MP for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, on Ghanaians to be mindful of tagging security officers, teachers and public servants with party colours. (see page 18 of Friday, February 2, 2024 edition)
Tagging them with those colours means they are working for a selected few Ghanaians who belong to specific political parties.

We risk endangering our fledgling democracy and the peace we enjoy, if we continue to see anything and everything with political lenses.

When teacher organisations fight for their constitutional rights, they are tagged as belonging to an opposing political party, hence their action.

When security heads have acted professionally and a section of society see that it is not in their favour, they have asked that those heads be axed.

Anytime the head of the country’s Electoral Commission has taken any decision, no matter what political party is in opposition, the Electoral Commission has been accused of belonging to or working to favour the party in power.

If we do not agree with any decision taken by teacher unions, public servants or security capos who have been employed to serve everyone, nothing prevents us from attacking the issues rather than the personalities who are involved.

We must learn to criticise dispassionately rather than draping everything in political colours or else we would lose out on constructive criticisms that would let us arrive at the best decision as a country.

The Daily Graphic urges all Ghanaians to desist from looking at issues through political lenses so we can develop our country and take the economy to the level we would all be proud of.

By all means let us talk politics when it is about politics and governance but when the issues are about national interests, let us learn to tackle them as such without diluting them with politics.

We must all know that Ghana comes first and without the country, we all cease to exist as Ghanaians.

It is dangerous, particularly, to politicise our armed forces and other security agencies, since that can easily compromise and, worse still, collapse our security.

In the event we allow that to happen it can lead to our borders being infiltrated by destabilising agents, all because we are not united.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Let us, therefore, in the national interest, do away with the unnecessary politicisation of purely national issues.