Ghana; a misplaced ideological spectrum

The ideological scale shows anarchist at both extreme ends of the scale, they wish for no governments as such no laws-chaos and conflict prevailing once again as a reminder of the possibility of the state of nature. However the stand of the anarchist should not be that threatening because deep down they want a sort of voluntary cooperation among people to ensure stability and peace hence averting the occurrence of the state of nature.

The ideological stand that should be critically considered is the RADICAL. The radicals do not just come up. They are people who have been troubled all along because of the inconsistencies of the operating government system that seem to worsen the plight, woes, life and future as well as their past. They cannot do more but rise and take their rightful position ’’government of the people by the people and for the people’’ by overthrowing the current system and replacing it with a complete opposite one to bring a fresh start.

I do not know exactly the kind of political outlook that determines the course of action of the various political parties we have in Ghana WHICH THEY BELIEVE IN AND PRACTICE FOR GHANA. But there is one thing I know for sure no particular country can boast of a particular political, economic and social outlook, the Chinese are becoming more capitalist and America and Europe are also turning socialists. The question therefore is are the political parties in Ghana ideologically motivated?

From the party platforms made known to the public before elections we can rationally deduce that indeed the ideological motivation is there. The New Patriotic Party (N.P.P) can be called capitalist because of their strong believe in ‘’property owing democracy’’ the National Democratic Congress (N.D.C) socialist because of their belief in income redistribution, the Convention People’s Party (C.P.P) are socialist as well but believe in ‘’NKRUMAISM’’ more than the actual tenets of socialism. It is however an open secret that the N.P.P claiming to be capitalist are socialist to a greater extent, the N.D.C are also more capitalist than socialist. N.D.C the incumbent party which is a’’ socialist turn to capitalist somehow’’ is my worry now. Beginning with the late President J.E.A Mills’ tenure which saw the redistribution of Ghana’s income without careful considerations in the form of SINGLE SPINE SALARY STRUCTURE (S.S.S.S), Which most Ghanaians smiled of and clapped for and still are, this country has never been the same. After the income redistribution (socialism) which was to be the country’s capital for investment for the country, they then turned to practice capitalism without capital.

Capitalism is an economic system as such it can work in every system even dictatorship. Because it is an economic system you cannot compete with other capitalist country’s without capital. Then N.D.C 2 came without the former vice president John Mahama now president as its leader. The governments action has proven that ’’we have had our cake and eaten it’’ as he rightfully said ‘’we have chew the meat to the bone.’’ And we are still eating it now cracking the bone.

My concern is the dark periods associated with this gross immense of mismanagement, uncoordination negligence and irresponsibility on behalf of government officials. As Karl Max predicted the current system i.e capitalism contains its own seed of destruction- making money at the expense of the masses, unsatisfaction on the part of the masses, recession, high inflation then depression. This is when the radicals

Profit making which is known as surplus value is now the ultimate aim of government officials. The profit is made by government officials parasiting on the labour value of the working class. If people work and they are not given what is due them or they are not paid on time as it is happening in the National Youth Employment Programme, this is exactly the parasitic nature of government officials making money (profit) at the expense of others. These guys further employ dubious means such as forgery, over draft, under draft , impersonation (ghost names) etc. to make profit not forgetting the almighty corruption that seem to have crippled the whole network of the government machinery and even the police which serves as avenue for making huge sums of money.

The ministries and government agencies are overspending. Government appointees become millionaires just overnight. How they make their money-corruption. Dissatisfaction among the masses has also shown through the series of strikes that most working classes have embarked on, called off and about to embark on. This is really sad, verily I say that if pragmatic steps are not taken to stop this thing, students who always suffer because their lecturers and teachers go on strike, will also go on strike, their parents will support them because they will also be fed up with the strikes, then the whole nation will follow suit. Ghanaians will for once show that they are not afraid of blood but they only tolerate others actions even if it is a nuisance. Their dissatisfaction with the government will be seen on the streets, even here conservatives (except reactionaries) will sit in their homes and clap to support the rest of the people.

Recession need not to be talked about. Industries are collapsing , unemployment is high , government corporations cannot even operate effectively and efficiently. Inflation is the usual thing; we are all aware of the usual single digit inflation and how it shoots up the prices of goods. With the recent increase in petrol, everything has become expensive, from a ball of kenkey to a bag of rice.

Depression is what we are yet to experience fully, but with almost every worker’s union threatening strike, this is not far off. It is just sitting in the corner watching the minister of finance, economic management committee and the president to do something to prevent it (depression) from taking over. Then the revolution, Ghana have been through this period before where soldiers ceased power in the name of economic retrogression as it is happening now. I do not pray for this but I fear it can happen-its human nature. Greed and selfishness has taken over a lot of Ghanaians (each for himself and family forgetting the rest) from sports to politics this is at play. The radicals can take over because now our poorly constructed ideological stands has shown all the self-destruct indicator of capitalism under a socialist oriented incumbent government.

Mr President! Mr President!! Mr President!!! The ball is in your court now serve it well to save and aid the country to progress or serve it wrongly to send the country back. But bear in mind that THE RADICALS ARE WATCHING. Asamoa Yeboah Kumasi.