IT IS TIME TO SAVE OUR FRAGILE, DYSFUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY…

It was almost 2am and I was still awake on my bed. In a few hour’s time, the governing New Patriotic Party was going to hold its parliamentary primaries in constituencies where the party had sitting MPs. I followed the process keenly and saying I was left dismayed would be an understatement. The whole charade of parliamentary primaries in Ghana has always gotten me wondering how we keep doing the same wrong things in every electoral cycle and yet expect different results.

One aspirant from Tema East confessed that he gave each of the 767 delegates 550 Cedis. That will come up to 421850.00 cedis Can someone remind me of how much MPs make in four years? Can we say, for the love of country, these people are willing to spend their fortune to just represent us exceptionally well in parliament?  Or they do intend to do what any rational economic agent will do? Recover cost! If so, where will they be getting the monies?

Another aspirant from Anyaa Sowutuom was candid enough to confess that he spent 584500.00 cedis paying the 835 delegates 700 cedis each, in addition to other operational costs. He estimates that he spent over a million cedis just in the primaries.

So instead of lamenting or quietly taking the largesse they are doling out, why don’t you call them out on their vote-buying scheme? Instead of becoming desensitized about the issue, why don’t you ask them of their views on campaign financing? Do you think it is not an issue?  Well, cast your mind back to the calculation we did above. In order to recoup their investment, do you think they will diligently scrutinize bills involving multinational companies who are willing to circumvent the process? You will bear me out that we have had our share of bad deals with multinational companies passed by various parliaments under the fourth republic.

It was the French political philosopher of the enlightenment era, Baron de Montesquieu, who in his treatise ‘The Spirit of the Laws’,published in 1748 who first intellectualized the concept of ‘distribution of powers’.This idea gave birth to what became known as the concept of separation of powers. Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the three branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial) are assigned distinct functions and powers to serve as a system of checks and balances on each other.

Sadly, however, a cursory glance at the campaigning message of some of the aspirants I followed on social media left me feeling very hopeless about our situation. I must add also that, this situation isn’t peculiar to the New Patriotic Party. It was virtually the same during the primaries of their cousins in the National Democratic Congress.

Most of the messages focused on how they were going to make the lives of delegates better, infrastructure development, job placement for supporters etc. I saw at least two incumbents posing in a picture with a group of young men and women they had ostensibly facilitated their recruitment into the security services of Ghana. Indeed, I read of two separate incidents in the media, where an officer of the BNI and a policeman were prevented from voting as delegates. I applaud those who prevented the two security officers from voting. Is it not strange, or even dangerous, that officials of our security set-up who are expected to be politically neutral are engaging in open politicking? Why are we not calling out aspirants seeking to enter the house of law-making for breaking the law?

The other day I got a colleague telling me that my idea of what should constitute the issues driving legislative elections in Ghana are idealistic and out of touch with the Ghanaian reality. I was told by this colleague that Ghanaians care more about jobs and development and not bills or any of those stuff. Do you also think bills are not developmental? One of the issues driving political patronage in our system is unemployment. The politicians know it and are prepared to use the spoils of public office to hoodwink their supporters and voters alike in a symbiotic relationship. You support me and I circumvent the process in one way or another for you. If you are voter and concerned about unemployment generally or police recruitment for instance, shouldn’t you rather be calling on your Member of Parliament to haul the relevant ministers for questioning instead of seeking to benefit from the unethical dealings?

This system of open bribery and corruption must be stopped. The increasing monetization and commercialization of our politics must worry every decent member of our society. This system of ‘forcing’ candidates to bribe voters even in national elections must be condemned in no uncertain terms. We cannot hope to win the fight against corruption when the gatekeepers at the public square are tainted with the malaise. I’d plead with you to question your MP or those seeking to replace him/her on their views on campaign financing and what they plan to do about it if they get to go to parliament. Are they prepared to introduce private member bills to deal with the issue?

To the sitting MPs who lost in their bid to stand on their party’s ticket again, I have little to no sympathies. They had the chance to reform the system and decided to leave the structures as they are, hoping to benefit from it.

At a point in time, I was at that stage too and had to rely on a politician. I wasn’t looking for a favour particularly. I was looking for an opportunity. But that episode has shaped my views on the subject greatly. The one question I keep asking myself every night is, will I want my children to grow up in such a Ghana? My answer to that is obvious and that is primarily my reason for calling on voters to stop helping these politicians in building a dysfunctional society. No matter where you are in society today, there is one thing I can assure you of, we are all better off with a society that is built on a foundation of strong ethical values and meritocracy than one built on patronage.

Rousseau in his authoritative work, ‘The Social Contract’posited; “the life-principle of the body-politic lies in the sovereign authority. The legislative power is the heart of the state, the executive power is its brain, which causes the movement of all the parts. The brain may become paralysed and the individual still live. A man may lose his ability to think rationally and live, but as soon as the heart ceases to perform its functions, the man is dead.”

It is needless to repeat that it is in our own interest to get the legislature to live up to its true constitutional creed. Chapter 10 of the 1992 constitution is dedicated to the legislative branch of government. Article 93(2) states; “subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the legislative power of Ghana shall be vested in Parliament and shall be exercised in accordance with this constitution.”

This means law-making (i.e. passing of bills, scrutinizing statutory instruments etc.)  is the most important function of any Member of Parliament. This, however, is not the only role expected of MPs. There are other functions which are incidental to the core function of law-making.

The Constitution in Chapter 13 grants the power of the public purse to parliament. This vests the control of all public funds in parliament. Parliament as an embodiment of the sovereign will of the people of Ghana also exercises oversight of the Executive branch. Parliament exercises this power through the scrutiny of policy initiatives of the executive and executive conduct through its committees, questions to ministers, motions among others. This function also encompasses the approval or otherwise of a certain category of presidential nominees for appointment.

Parliament also serves as the supreme forum for the ventilation of grievances aimed at seeking redress. The Member of Parliament is supposed to serve as the communication link between his constituents and government. MPs are expected to utilize parliamentary mechanisms such as Question Time, Statements, Motions, debate on policy/bills to draw attention to developments in the constituency and explore avenues for socio-economic development of the constituency.

Parliament using tools such as statements, motions, questions, and ceremonial speeches also undertake deliberative functions in the house. The deliberative function of parliament also enables debates on a wide arrays of policy issues and help foster a sense of consensus, compromise and reconciliation in society.

The question that remains now is obvious. Is your MP or the aspiring candidate for the position talking to you about things in relation to these functions? How has your MP performed in relation to these four cardinal functions?

It is quite disheartening to listen to aspirants vying to enter our legislative house. It is intriguing to listen to incumbent MPs complain about how ‘thankless their job is’, how poorly they are remunerated; only to see them fighting vehemently to return to that same ‘thankless’ jobs. One would think a great desire to serve the public is the driving force behind such ‘irrational’ adventures. You would be naïve to think so.

I have made it a personal mission to call on all friends to re-orientate the conversation about how we elect MPs. It is strange to see politicians leaving very influential public policy positions in the executive branch to fight for elections to the legislature without any commitment to any definable cause. Why won’t they stay in their executive positions and focus on the issues where they have a better chance of influencing policy direction?

Until we begin to force our politicians seeking our mandate to enter the house of parliament to focus on their core responsibility, very little will change. Our legislative election as it is now is a recipe for a dysfunctional democracy.

If we want our democracy to work efficiently and effectively, if we want our democracy to deliver development and change the lives of our citizens for the better, then we must pause and think about the basis upon which we elect our lawmakers. We must elect parliamentarians who are committed to creating a system that minimises corruption, reward meritocracy and hard work and geared towards the building of a law-based society. It is for good reason we have three distinct branches of government to ensure effective checks and balances in a democracy. Once any of the branches starts wobbling, it portends disaster for the whole system.

We cannot continue to elect MPs the way we do and expect a different outcome. The change we need won’t come from the house of parliament automatically. Change will only come when we stand on our principles to demand that the right things be done.

You cannot pretend to be blind to the system today because it is favouring you personally and expect it to change tomorrow when it starts suffocating you. Conscience and values aren’t traits that can be traded on the altar of expediency. The problem isn’t entirely the weak parliament we are saddled with or even the dysfunctional constitution of this fourth republic. The problem is when we pretend to lack integrity and become content with the way things are now. We, the people, must lead a charge to remedy the flaws.

Ask yourself, do you really think the people seeking to enter parliament today care about you? Can you trust any of these aspirants fixing problems in the community with ‘their own money’ to come to power and fix systemic issues? You would be fascinated with the answers you would get from aspirants if you ask them basic questions on their legislative philosophy or even the basic reason for wanting to enter parliament.

New beginnings offer new opportunities and election 2020 offers us another chance for a new beginning. We must not outsource our responsibility of building of building a proper law-based society and a proper governance framework fit for purpose for the new social media age to the next generation. That would be the highest form of irresponsibility and dereliction of duty to the national cause.

In politics, there are hardly any absolutes but when a particular framework isn’t working, then it calls for serious rethinking. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” is a jaded cliché now but I am sad to say we haven’t learnt anything from history.

We must realise that we can only reap what we sow. We can’t continue with the current way of accessing and electing parliamentarians and yet expect the legislative branch to live up to its true constitutional creed.

As the saying of Albert Einstein goes; “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” We have been insane for so long and it is time to end it now!