Encourage politics of accommodation — Dr Gyampo
A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Dr Ransford Gyampo, has called for more interaction among the different shades of political opinions as the country gears up for the polls in November this year.
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That, he said, would ensure better tolerance and accommodation, which were crucial for a peaceful and violence-free elections.
He explained that accommodation went beyond tolerance and that people could tolerate others without interacting.
“Indeed, you can tolerate without interacting and this kind of tolerance may be jaundiced, contributing to the drive towards democratic maturity and consolidation,” he stressed.
But when all political players were accommodating, he said, they could still interact and express their differences in a manner that engendered cohesion and promoted the national cause.
Speaking at a lecture to launch the Political Science Students Association (POSSAG) Week celebration at the University of Ghana, Dr Gyampoh said, “our politics must be characterised not only by tolerance but accommodation. We must be prepared to put our personal and partisan views aside and act in the national interest.”
Accommodation and tolerance
One of the great advances in human behaviour, he said, was the recognition and acceptance of pluralism, adding that pluralism implied that people within a society could hold different opinions but still live peacefully together.
However, he said that pluralism could not be easily achieved and when achieved, could not be sustained unless people developed the habit of political tolerance and accommodation.
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For accommodation of divergence and differences, he said that politicians with opposing viewpoints ought not to be friends but be prepared to act not in their selfish interest, but that of the nation.
According to Dr Gyampoh, Ghana’s experience with democracy had not been long enough to develop the attributes and conventions that underpinned tolerance and accommodation.
That, he said, had occasioned the situation where governments and the opposition had resorted to dubious means of either staying in power or winning elections at all costs.
‘Don’t see opponents as enemies’
He advocated that for tolerance and accommodation to thrive, Ghanaians ought not to see their political opponents as enemies since the quest for power was for the ultimate interest of the nation.
More so, he said politicians who consulted with members of other political groups ought not to be seen as disloyal, adding that governments should be prepared to take the views of the opposition on board.