Mr. Andrew Awuni, Executive Director of the Center for Freedom and Accuracy, has observed that until the state was left to function without allegiance to any political party, the country’s democracy was not complete.
“Democracy is not all about elections. It is a way of governance based on tolerance, transparency, equity and justice, and also grounded on a culture of truth and honesty.”
Mr. Awuni said this on Wednesday in Accra, at the Third Freedom Power Lecture by the centre in Accra.
The lecture was under the topic, “Assessing Ghana’s Democracy: What is Right, What is Wrong and the Future.”
He said it was laudable that “we have conducted our elections relatively well so far, without going to war as others have done.”
Mr. Awuni said it was however unfortunate that after every election, the people ended up losing the state and its support to the new party that had won political power.
“You either have to join the new conquerors to be protected by the state or stay out and suffer.”
He said it was unfortunate that the mentality of most Ghanaians and politicians was that “when a political party gets the mandate from the people, this mandate is used to control state apparatus and institutions and these institutions and apparatus are used to suppress opponents and tilt everything towards the electoral fortunes of the ruling party.”
Mr. Awuni said the threat about this situation was that if a shameless group of people, under the guise of a political party, got the mandate of the people through an election, “they could easily and shamelessly return this country to a dictatorship”.
He said besides the ability to have successful elections, there was the need to strengthen our democracy by ensuring that the state was strong enough to serve as a check on any political party that found itself in power at any time.
Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, an Energy Consultant and Chairman of the occasion, said whilst media pluralism, which was a key characteristic of the country’s thriving democracy was most pleasant to note, a good percentage of the country’s media instead of playing their watch-dog role as the fourth realm of the estate to keep politicians in power on their toes, were now rather “in bed” with these politicians.
“When the media is not acting as surrogate pugilists for the political classes, it descends into shameless prosecution of the private interests of individuals with axes to grind against others,” he said.
Dr. Wereko-Brobby said whilst there was uninterrupted media freedom in the country, the media had to be well aware of their responsibilities as well as their power to either cause chaos or promote peace and unity in the nation.
He said for the country to preserve its democracy, it was important for the role of the media to be thoroughly re-examined.
“Dr. Wereko-Brobby said the media would do a lot more good to the country if they focused on developmental issues such as human rights, health, poverty alleviation amongst others, and also served a check on those who held political power in order to ensure accountability in governance.
“There can be no deadlier danger to Ghana’s democracy than the governors, drawing the media into a voluntary subjugation into the lair of the dictatorship of a few in a seemingly tranquil sea, coated with a veneer of democracy flowing calmly on top,” he said.
Source: GhanaWeb
