The Head of Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr Kwesi Aning, has described politicians as hypocrites who speak in four tongues.
First is the sweet tongue with the appropriate phrases to woo development partners that: “to a certain small sense appeals to the populace because it sounds nice”. The second, he said, is what they say behind closed doors to party hawks; and third, the grand standing on political platforms with the fourth and most dangerous being the unspoken language which says “none of our manifestoes support violence and abusive language, but please go along, we will never excommunicate you from the party”.
In a conversation with Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobbey on Tarzan’s Take on Multi TV about the recent Supreme Court verdict on the eight-month election petition, Dr Aning said the palpable tensions in this country dissipated when the Supreme Court demonstrated that it had teeth by convicting four persons for contemptuous comments on the case.
He advised that all institutions in this country must use the powers vested in them to turn the country around.
He attributed the peaceful atmosphere in Ghana after the verdict to the fact that “we are building a Ghanaian community of shared values and norms”, adding that the ordinary Ghanaian does not trust politicians anymore.
In Dr. Aning’s analysis, the court case will make election 2016 different, in that, the electorate will demand from politicians, what they are about, and how that would benefit the wellbeing of the electorate.
He was disgusted at the ugly, stinky, abusive and inciting language emanating from people in cabinet, parliament and the wide political spectrum during the hearing and even after the ruling of the Supreme Court.
Dr Aning minced no words in saying that what politicians say in public is not what they say behind closed doors, and that “pledging peace is just a stunt for the International community”.
The KAIPTC Research Director reminded Ghanaians of the importance of building a network of civil society organizations with an interest in good governance, a supreme interest that binds them above parochial political interests.
He debunked the assertion that peace is a humanitarian engagement, but rather that it should be seen as a business which should be packaged as a product to be sold through the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) to the citizenry and International community.
He observed that politics in Ghana is not about the public good but rather of patronage by the followers, which leads to hatred and violence, and advised Ghanaians to go back to the cross-cutting stakeholder groups that galvanised and set the agenda for proper behavioural conduct before the verdict, and not to get complacent in assuming that all is well.
Source: GhanaWeb
