A Stroll in the Park on Republic Day!

Way back in 1991, as the United States got ready to wage the first Iraq War to dislodge Saddam Hussein’s army from Kuwait, millions of Americans in several cities across the country organised and participated in several anti-war demonstrations. The major complaint of the demonstrators was that the coming war would serve only the interests of the big oil companies.  

An observer of these demonstrations remarked that since the enthusiastic demonstrators trooped to their convergence points in cars, buses and by rail, and these ran on fuel made from oil, the demonstrators were themselves complicit in the war about to be fought to preserve a unique feature of the American Way of Life, that is, a car for every family. 

This particular incident came to mind when I took time off to listen to the justifications and rationalisations for the demonstration organised on Republic Day, three days ago, against the government. 

Indeed, for me, the highest point of these explanations was the profoundly scary answer to the obvious question of the low numbers of those who took part in the demonstration. According to the demonstrators, it was all about the quality, that is, the background of the demonstrators, and not the numbers.

The complete assurance in which this uppity and self-centred answer was passed from one demonstrator to another defines the basically intolerant nature of the Republic Day stroll in  Esi Sutherland Childrens’ Park. 

This country is a democratic one, and all qualified citizens have one vote, and one vote only, irrespective of your background or your life’s achievements in education, business, politics, or any other marker of distinction from the poor, the lazy, the unlettered, and the physically disadvantaged, who are also equally citizens of this country.

If our self-acknowledged intelligent and highly educated people can describe themselves as having rights as a derivative of their backgrounds, and not our common humanity, then they have completely missed the point of the type of government we are practising and for which some of them fought. Or just maybe they believe they are entitled to govern because of this false and mistaken self-belief? 

I was led along this path of reminiscence by the after-effects of this wonderful example of a public display of disaffection put on by precisely the type of people who benefit hugely from inequality in society.  

To proudly describe yourself as middle class implies that a class-laden society is a just one, and that your privileges must be protected at all cost. This is not the belief system of conscientious and committed democrats who must appreciate that effective and effectual action in society requires mass mobilisation and popular approval at the polls. 

Another marked feature was the extremely high level of intolerance that was exhibited by the demonstrators and their online supporters towards those who disagreed with them. The utterly harmless and very truthful descriptive tweet of the Foreign Minister was subjected to a level of verbal savagery that probably sought to conceal the personal insecurities of her critics. What exactly was offensive about this statement; “their social media campaign was much more effective than the actual turnout?’’

In their fury at this observation, some readily gave false American examples of the participation of government officials in party matters, as if an example from America must guide or direct political affairs in Ghana, or anywhere else. I was not much surprised though. 

Most of the protesters have children in private schools paying fees in dollars, and are ready to ship them out to foreign schools to become taxpaying citizens of other countries, as they look down upon our public schools, and condemn the very system which has made them what they are today. Such people cannot love a country they do not want their children to live in.

As I indicated last week, I was certain our negative performance at the ongoing World Cup competition would ignite deeper fissures in our political landscape, and this is exactly what has happened. Indeed and in fact, I believe our performance in Brazil was the immediate cause for this Republic Day demonstration, and the organisers got a further boost when the fuel shortage crisis impended.

Unfortunately for the organisers, the fuel problem was well in hand, so the two incendiary prompts had petered out by Republic Day. Of course, they were not a non-partisan crowd, especially since former Minister, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng was driven out.  

His ouster by organisers linked directly to his main rival in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate politics, is proof of the partisan background of the organisers, because other well-known operatives linked to their favourite were neither muzzled nor driven out.

It is abundantly clear that the aim of the organisers was to continuously talk down the economy, society and politics of Ghana, and strangely expect an improvement. They seek psychic pleasure and political fulfillment in bashing the country, the government, the President, ministers of state, Parliament, judges, and indeed everyone and anyone who does not share their views, whether accurate or not. They have assumed the inalienable right to find everything wrong with our government, and everything right with what they say. This posture alienates rather than persuades.

It is an alarming level of intolerance which neither improves matters, or display for emulation by the poor, unlettered and disadvantaged, their suspicious democratic credentials. Not a single one of their complaints is new, or worse, separate from the valid criticisms of established political activists and groupings, and they turn around to claim non-partisanship. How is this Orwellian belief possible?

Preaching hopelessness in everybody and every institution except themselves is not the way to advance valid causes in a democracy. You can’t condemn the effects of political instability on governance, business, peace and general prosperity and contentment, and expect that an intolerant and unconstitutional, self-centred disruption will benefit you.