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This kind of rogue politics by the
NPP MPs won’t fly
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Folks, I know that the NPP’s kind of anachronistic politics
is best practised with a huge dose of roguery and useless
book-long. And you know it too. It is the kind of politics
that thrives on feelings of some stinking superiority,
obtuse self-righteousness, absolute disregard for
dissension, physical acts of intimidation, misguided
ethnocentricism, and verbal attacks on just anybody
perceived as a threat to their kind of political
grandstanding and bombast.
What we see happening now to destroy their foundation is the
boomerang effect of such tendencies. And they seem not to be
satisfied with the extent to which they are shooting
themselves in the foot and are adding more to their plate of
woes. No day passes by without their doing and saying things
to deepen their internal crisis. Yet, they claim to be “interrectuals”.
Yes, “interrectuals” they may be; but productive politicians
they are not.
We see them criss-crossing the political landscape, making
all kinds of annoying utterances and frightening the
citizens with their blood-letting instincts. Why can’t they
do genuine politics without preaching violence if their
demands are not met? Why can’t they descend from their high
horses of self-importance to do politics in a more congenial
manner than always seeking to put their parochial interests
(“We want power” as wailed by J.H. Mensah) above all others
for the good of Ghana?
The other day, it was their street demonstrations;
yesterday, it was their troubles at their party’s national
headquarters; today, it is their MPs who are refusing to act
responsibly in Parliament; tomorrow, it will be another
street demonstration to protest at whatever they dream of as
inimical to their quest for political power!! Why are these
NPP people so wrapped up in themselves?
In view of what their MPs have chosen to do, I want to take
them on; and I will do so without any fear of anything or
anybody. Once I know them for what they are, I am prepared
for them. Here we go, then.
No sane politician will do what these NPP neophyte
politicians are using their presence in Parliament to do in
the vain hope of undermining the Presidency or appealing to
anybody's conscience to make the country ungovernable for
President Mahama's administration.
Every sane Ghanaian will expect MPs to act responsibly and
contribute their quota toward nation-building. MPs are where
they are because our democracy enjoins the electorate to put
them there to do specific assignments.
We have over the years condemned our MPs for various
reasons, especially their not performing well yet seeking
the best slice of the national cake to enjoy. Some of them
have even gone out of their way to do criminal acts that
dented Parliament's image; but they haven't been punished
because of the weaknesses in our system.
We know why our Parliament is the weakest link in our
democracy. In revealing one aspect of that weakness,
President Mahama recently pinpointed taunts by the NPP MPs
and leaders about his government's contracting loans,
querying him as to how the loans came about and how they
were spent.
President Mahama wondered why they would go that way,
especially when all the loan requests made by his government
were laid before Parliament, deliberated on by MPs and
approved with their conviction that everything necessary had
been done to warrant the loans. He questioned why the NPP
MPs would turn round to behave as if they had no hand in the
matter. Thus, he returned their taunts, asking them if they
were sleeping during the proceedings leading to the approval
of the loan requests. Nothing wrong about that wisecrack,
one may say.
Not so for the NPP MPs who have been spoiling all this while
for a fight with President Mahama. As if looking for a spark
of that sort to cry "Fire!! Fire on the mountain!!", the NPP
MPs have gone "mad" and are fuming, frothing at the mouth,
and flexing muscles needlessly. They have already written a
letter of complaint to the Speaker of Parliament, alleging
that President Mahama had insulted them. Without even
waiting for the Speaker to act on their cry-baby antics,
they have chosen to do things to confirm their notoriety.
They seem to have graduated from boycotts to something
weird. This time, they have chosen to abstain from
proceedings in Parliament, thinking that it will be a good
move to frustrate President Mahama's administration. They
think they are paying him back in their own kind of coin.
Hoodoo!!
The news reports make it clear what they have up their
sleeves: "Minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of
Parliament (MPs) have begun withdrawing cooperation from the
Majority in Parliament as a protest to President John
Mahama’s comments that they are sleeping on the job." (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/…/Minority-paying-Mahama-back-over-…)
They absented themselves from Parliament when the
government's budget statement was to be debated.
This kind of childishness won't add any political capital to
the NPP. It will rather annoy the electorate and prepare
them for Election 2016 to teach them a bitter lesson. After
all, these NPP MPs were not elected to serve the Presidency
or to lock horns with it but to cooperate in all ways
possible to improve governance and ensure that the citizens'
needs are met.
If abstention from important national assignments on the
slim and porous beef of being insulted by the President is
their political weapon, they are plainly stupid. What is the
connection between their being insulted and their refusing
to do the national assignments for which they were placed in
Parliament? Are they in Parliament because of President
Mahama? How do these NPP MPs think at all?
I wish it would be possible to punish them. If it is
possible for their salaries and allowances to be withheld or
curtailed for the period that they refuse to do assignments,
the government must go ahead to do so. President Mahama must
not bow to their kind of pressure; he shouldn’t apologize to
them either because they have said worse things about him
than he has done to them. If they have a light skin and
cannot take insults, they should learn not to hurl insults
at others, especially the President, the Number One Citizen
of Ghana. What makes them think that they can insult at will
and not be insulted in turn if need be? As Peter Tosh puts
it, if you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones; and if
you can’t take blows, don’t throw blows!!
By choosing to intensify their rogue politics this way, they
come across as petty, ill-tempered, uncultivated, and
misguided. They don't deserve anybody's respect. By this
unconscionable conduct alone, they are preparing the grounds
for their own doom, especially when the citizens decide to
act—and they will act appropriately. The clock is ticking
for such idle-hands and trouble makers masquerading as MPs
to be taken on. Useless people!!
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
to continue the conversation.
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