We cannot pretend that Rawlings had no bad side - Patriots Ghana

Executive Director of Patriot Ghana, a pro-New Patriotic Party group, Kofi Korang has described the passing of former President Jerry John Rawlings as painful and a sad moment for Ghana.

Ghanaians he noted have been taken by surprise following the death of Ghana’s president of the fourth republic.

He was however not in support of those claiming that when people die, we should only think and talk about the good deeds of the person.

He believes Ghanaians have to talk about both the good and bad sides of people especially our leaders so the new generation coming would learn from them.

Using the notorious armed robber Ataa Ayi as an example, he said the story of Ataa Ayi cannot be that good because he was a notorious robber who killed and robbed people.

He opined the late Rawlings had good sides, also had a bad side adding, the late Rawlings staged a coup to unseat democratically elected leaders.

He argued the stories behind Rawlings’ coup have been misconstrued because the justification for the coup staged by Rawlings against Liman is not true.

Mr. Korang wants Ghanaians not to forget these bad sides for the late President said, "if we forget the bad sides of p[people, we will continue to see people committing evil and not change. If we keep reminding ourselves of how bad people were, others would also stay away from being evil because they know when they die, these evil deeds would pop up.”

"We need time to discuss all these things. We need to discuss how women were maltreated and how the former Rawlings staged a coup to oust a government. He used 20 years to kill people because they were businessmen, he killed because of alleged corruption. What was corruption like after he left office? We need to discuss all these things and stop being hypocrites. If our leaders would be honest, all the troubles we confronted were due to the late Rawlings.”

He admitted Rawlings contributed immensely to Ghana’s democracy and development but he stepped on a lot of toes and that "is something we should not forget”.