-Says all petitioners must be heard
-Commission?s screening process will create windows of restriction
BARELY A fortnight after the National Reconciliation Commission begun receiving complaints from the public, NDC General Secretary Dr. Josiah Aryeh has rubbished the reconciliation process as a hindrance to reconciling the nation. He also says the decision of the Commission to screen complaints filed at its Secretariat before they are heard is dangerous and open to serious abuse.
?Every case filed before the Commission should be heard publicly?, he told the National Concord in an interview this week. The interview was in reaction to radio interviews by the NRC Chairman, Justice Amua Sakyi, that the Commission would screen and hear only a number of cases out of the voluminous cases that are being filed before it.
According to Aryeh, the screening process is a checklist that can be used to skew the NRC proceedings. ?? One must certify certain things before your petitions can be heard, so that, if your petition falls beside the certifying periods, the petition goes through an ordeal checklist, where they could be screening out genuine cases?, he claimed.
According to the NDC Chief Scribe, such situations could undermine the confidence in the entire reconciliation process.
Continuing, Aryeh said the coverage of petitions should be spread to cover all and sundry, and that the idea of opening a window of opportunity for some periods and opening doors for others holds no water.
?That is seriously going to create a window of restriction?, he said, adding that the NDC views that as a failure of the reconciliation process.
?We think that it is a bar to total reconciliation, so if they are still genuinely and fully minded to ensure that we have good reconciliation, then I expect them to knock down the window and turn it into a door?.
Aryeh, who admitted that the NDC party has always had reservations about the reconciliation process, also argued that the process that led to the establishment of the Commission lacked transparency.
?First of all, we would have thought that it would be far more representative, with membership of the Commission subjected to parliamentary approval or parliamentary participation?.
Instead, he said, everything had been left in the hands of the President who chose people that he thought was appropriately right.
Asked whether he thought the ruling party was targeting the ex-President as has been alleged by some NDC sympathisers, Aryeh?s response was ?I don?t know?. Aryeh also had a problem with ?people in this country who don?t belong to any party but have hijacked the competitive political process between parties and are insulting people on a daily basis even when they have no factual knowledge on the issues (being discussed). That is dangerous?, he warned.
