What exactly does ‘Let My Vote Count’ mean in our politics?
I have been wondering of late the exact point being sought to be made by the Let My Vote Count [LMVC] people in our current politics. To agitate for a new voters register using the most blatant in-your-face methods available, and in the process, demonise the Ghana Police as not only anti-libertarian, but quite erroneously to paint the men in uniform as pro-government. This seems to me, the current thrust of the politics of this inchoate group.
Advertisement
Let me give you a personal, astonishing example to disprove the patently unreasonable belief in some quarters that our police support the government of the day. In late 1992, my brother and I, with scores of NPP members giving moral support, attended court hearings of the case in which our friend Dr John Spencer Mensah Bilson, of the erstwhile Third Force in both the Second and Third republics, had taken the then chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council, later President Jerry Rawlings, to court that he was not a citizen of
Demonising the police
On the very first day of the case, the police, presumably on the side of the defendant, Chairman Rawlings as Head of State and Government of the day, the PNDC, had an extremely hectic time keeping at bay the scores of very violent pro-government protestors who were bent on disrupting proceedings. The point of the protest was clear; the efforts of the plaintiff and his supporters like me and my brother were completely misconceived and a blatant act of mischief to block the legitimate right of a sitting head of state to contest election.
The protests continued for the entire one week or so that we spent in Justice Essilfie-Bondzie’s trial increasingly threateningly. But the police were also on hand in force to make sure no harm came to us. But the physical protection the police offered us in court was not the only thing the police did for our safety.
In the evening of the first day, they located some of us, the plaintiff and his friends, in our offices and failing that at home, to warn us not to attend court hearings on the case again with our cars because they had picked up intelligence that the hoodlums and vandals, as we saw them, had threatened to destroy and burn our vehicles in subsequent days. How they were able to locate our homes and offices remains a mystery to me up to day. So on subsequent days, we parked in the yard of my father’s former office, the Methodist Church Headquarters opposite Total House, and took a taxi to and from court.
Responsibility
The police showed similar responsibility during the Kume Preko demonstration on May 11, 1995. Some of us (supporters), were carrying stones, I think it was near Kingsway, to throw at who, was unknown at the time when the police confronted us and disarmed us on the way. I remember clearly that incident because the cops who disarmed us were in an armoured car with helmets covering their faces. Their commander removed his helmet to advise us not to carry any weapons on a peaceful demonstration. He was my own Akuafo Hall mate and History coursemate at Legon, Daniel Opare, and then a staff officer in the police!
On both occasions that I have recounted, the actions of the police were certainly not pro-government. Demonising them to appear as mindless automatons is deeply offensive to some of them. They are fellow citizens. Worse, I do not know of any police force in the democratic world which has not been accused of anti-libertarian tendencies, and accused of the most heinous human rights abuses. It is almost a trite event in the ensuing discourse when the people clash with the police in any demonstration anywhere in the world.
What I find fascinating is the belief that the police, as an institution of state, have no right to defend themselves from accusations. Worse, some of us conveniently forget that the police force is also endowed with the rational and intellectual resources to present its side of any case or issue, and also to take the initiative to maintain and defend its legal mandate.
So exactly what is LMVC complaining about? To force the Electoral Commission to accept the NPP view of the register? This cannot be democratic politics, but plain — faced thuggery led by political condottieres without a shred of the spirit of compromise which is the coin of democracy. Non-negotiability is the mantra of undemocratic, military regimes, at least in this country. Whose vote has not been counted in the Fourth Republic? This is actually a curious, roundabout way to practice ethnic politics because it implies the support bases of the LMVC are being shortchanged in this country by some mysterious genie which strangely enough, inhabits only the offices of the Electoral Commission.
Some of us have participated in demonstrations of all stripes in this country, and we are not impressed by this infantile, yet dangerously violent attempt to, of all things, compel us to see things their way. It is not victory that the LMVC want, but ashes and sackcloth.