Enemies of Rawlings are equally enemies of President Mills

: The Propagandists will surely fail

As the 2012 election draws near the propagandist and their associates have started gathering momentum, but this time they are trying to escalate tensions in the NDC daily by constantly knocking together the heads of the followers and supporters of the NDC. If you really love the NDC and want the party to win the 2012 elections then you must pause and begin to ask important questions.

The current package being sold to unsuspecting NDC members and supporters is that the party can win election without the founder, Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings, and that he must be ignored. All marketing and advertising strategies have been developed to achieve this goal. I have no evidence to suggest that the party can or cannot win the 2012 elections with or without the founder but there is always a better option in all circumstances. But the one that I will not prescribe to my fellow Akatamasonians is the one currently thrown at them by Radio Gold. The tape of the allege recorded voice of Mr. Kofi Adams was not about Jerry Rawlings but calls, text messages and the so-called analysis are fired at Jerry Rawlings but not at the person whose voice is alleged on the tape. Fellow NDC members, how sure are we that those who call, texts and make all these analysis are members or sympathizers of the NDC and that they are doing this in the utmost interest of the party? We must all openly question Radio Gold’s intention in this direction.

On 20th March 2012, Radio Gold aired a voice recording alleged to be the voice of Mr. Kofi Adams, deputy secretary general of the NDC (now on suspension), and also aid to former president Rawlings. Every day the recording is played and the public invited to comment in various form, text messages to analysts and from Alhaji Bature to Ben Ephson but the analysis is not about Kofi Adams and the voices on the tape but about the founder, Jerry Rawlings. According Ben Epson, NDC can win the 2012 elections without Rawlings but that the NDC must work extra harder to achieve this. Will the NDC prefer to do away with Jerry Rawlings and follow the advice by Ben Ephson? Ben Ephson did not tell us what he meant by ‘working extra harder’ if the party is to push aside its founder. Ben Ephson also stated in his analysis that president Mills lost the election in 2000 because former president Rawlings campaigned for him and that it was as the result from the fact that Rawlings would control Mills if he won the election then. This argument does not hold water, in fact it is too simplistic and it is a fallacy of hasty generalization because this line of reasoning does not support the available facts why NDC did not win the election in 2000.

What some members of the party are not aware of is that, those who are bent on destroying former president Rawlings and distancing him from the party, are not too sure if the party can win the 2012 elections with or without him on board. As a result they are coming up with another strategy. In today’s (28th March, 2012) Enquirer News Paper, it was reported that Nana Akufo Addo would prosecute former president Rawlings in The Hague if he, Nana Akufo Addo becomes president. This could be tricky if you choose to engage yourself in an argument over it. In the first place if you choose to argue that this will not happen, you may appear to be promoting Akufo Addo’s presidency and secondly you if you choose to expose the hypocrisy and insincerity of those who are perpetuating this “animal farm” politics against the founder of the party you may end up creating more division in the party. On what premise are the propagandists basing the fact that those who sympathize with former president Jerry Rawlings might not vote for president Mills for a second term come December? Today, most NDC radio commentators even find it very difficult if not impossible, to cite the legacy of Jerry Rawlings in their presentation but find it very convenient to cite that of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the man that has been vilified in Ghanaian politics until recent times. Far away here in London, my observation is that the agenda of these anti-Rawlings elements are not only bent on destroying the image of Rawlings but President Mills and the NDC party at large. In life, we all in general, judge more by our eyes than what we can touch; for all can see the appearance, but only few can touch the reality.

Granted that our party, the NDC, does not need the founder to win the 2012 elections, what happens after we have won the elections without founder Rawlings? As a political party our strategic interest is very fundamental, not only to the survival of the party but to the country as a whole. Today the Western-style propaganda has been fiercely launched against our party and its founder, Jerry Rawlings while party leaders sit unperturbed.

Like I noted in my previous article, people believe that we the masses could not be trusted to make coherent and informed decisions on our own, and that guiding our opinion is indispensable within any democratic society and as such the media has constantly been used to drive the agenda of the privileged few who have the means to hire the media. I am not disputing the media’s ability to foster public debate and political engagement, nor am I saying the media has no ability to redistribute power and political influence, but my concern is that when this turns negative and assassinate one’s hard earned reputation, we must be concerned as a political organization.

It is refreshing and assuring however, to hear from the General Secretary, Mr. Asiedu Nketia that the role of the founder Jerry John Rawlings is vital to the party’s victory in the 2012 elections and “that ousting the founder from the party would spell doom for the National Democratic Congress and implored the leadership of the party to ensure total compliance with the party’s constitution”. But once again I urge you all, members, sympathizers, supporters and followers of the National Democratic Congress, to remain resolute and critical all the time and not allow yourselves to be manipulated through any medium by those who believe they have the power and the means to do so. Nations have failed and fallen, and lives destroyed as a result of negative propaganda and activated ignorance mostly display in politics by those who believe in that direction as a means of engagement. The NDC has achieved a lot. That is what we have to accept and propagate, not any other thing that does not inure to the welfare of the people of Ghana and the survival of our party.

Source: Alexander Bediako