I know I have reached a point of turgidity in the debate over the newly minted ROPAL. I think many people are too. Many of us are very close to the edge of puking with one more article about it. But I hope my personal observation what the ROPAL debate or lack thereof teaches me about the Ghanaian zeitgeist will not throw you over that edge.
Ghana presently lives in an interesting time. It has always lived in interesting times. Sometimes I wonder if the likely apocryphal Chinese saying, "May you live in interesting times," has not turned out to be the curse it was intended to be for our beloved country.
The last few weeks have been particularly tough for me personally. Thinking about the state of affairs in Ghana I have been finding myself subjected to gut-wrenching heebie-jeebies. In particular I felt that the very essence of my Ghanaianness was being stripped naked before my naked eyes and probably before the naked eyes tens of thousands of other Ghanaians. It was quite depressing to observe that one group of Ghanaians, particularly a section of the media, would derogate another by describing a piece of legislation intended to restore a group?s constitutional right as a ?Burger? bill. But that pale into insignificance in comparison to the number of preachers of doom that emerged from their closets to give us all sorts of prognostics of mayhem about the passing into law of ROPA. No matter your support for the bill, you have to appreciate few of the concerns raised by the alarmists, but some of the arguments against the bill were intellectually laughable and could not stand constitutional mustard. So ROPAB has become ROBAL and I am waiting for the Atlantic Ocean to roar up and Jonahize our country. Or would the alarmists burn the Atlantic Ocean if it fails to roar up and swallow up the country? The debate and protestations about ROBAL have reinforced my perceptions about our politics, our institutions and the sort of opinions and analysis that pass for social and political commentary in Ghana.
On the lighter side, when I first watched the anti-ROPAB demonstrations, I thought that was exactly what ?the doctor ordered? for all those male participants who could not see their feet because of their pregnant stomachs. I do not have a sense of schadenfreude, but I thought that maybe the so-called Concerned Citizens of Ghana should be more concerned about the health of all those pregnant men and organize more demonstrations for that purpose.
Also listening to the debates and demonstrations about the ROPAB, I observed four class of ?opinion leaders? in Ghana: those who are humble but speak with the swagger of people who know how good they are intellectually; those who are humble but speak with the swagger of people who do not know how good they are intellectually; those who are arrogant but speak with the swagger of people who know how bad they are intellectually; and those who are arrogant but speak with the swagger of people who do not know how bad they are intellectually. Sadly, I saw more people in the last two groups than the first two and that in itself told me about the state of opinion leadership in Ghana.
On a more serious side, there seems to be an anti-Diaspora attitude among a small group of elites on both sides of the political aisle in Ghana. On the surface, this may seem puzzling, but if you think deeply about it, that is not entirely surprising. I have two explanations for this. First, I think that this anti-Diaspora elite sees the Diaspora elite as its main competition in the debate about the path of socio-economic development of the country. In short, the anti-Diaspora elites at home feel that their elite status and self-appointed role as national opinion leaders would be eroded away as more Diaspora elites become active participants in national debates. Second, I think that the anti-Diaspora elites just have a provincial perceptive view of this ever-globalizing world. Thus instead of allowing itself to have an expansive worldview, this group?s thought process is, unfortunately, limited by geography in a geography-less world. The truth, though, is that Ghana needs all of its human resources ? no matter where they live - for its development endeavors. It is up to all of us to find innovative and creative ways to fully mobilize and utilize our human capital resources, including that of the Ghanaian Diaspora.
What is more, I am becoming increasingly convinced that Parliament has become an institutional paradox of self-serving hedonism and catchpenny opportunism at its core and Puritanism (in the sense of the religiosity of its rituals) at its periphery. May be that is a true reflection of our national ethos. Maybe that is the best we can get within the parameters of our social and political constructs. Or maybe that is our destiny if you believe in fatalism. I am not sure what it is. What is not so heartwarming to me is that some members of Parliament have become parliamentarians in name only (PINOs). For some of these PINOs, sponsoring a bill has become an alien concept. I have always considered Parliament an invaluable institution in a democratic process. For me it is a marketplace for ideas where participants compete for the best ideas available and in the process learn the art of constructive engagement and coalition building. But I think our parliament has rather become an arena for absenteeism and inertia. I think that Parliament should be a symbol of hope and inspiration. Instead our Parliament is becoming a symbol of hopelessness and pessimism. An extant puzzle ? and a worrisome one to me - is that the very seat of legislative power has ironically created a legislative power vacuum by outsourcing its own power to such an extent that our chiefs and religious leaders have become the de facto final arbiters of constitutional matters in the country. The inherent danger of this is that it may pitch provincial interests against one another, and more dangerously it may sometimes bring provincial and national interests into headlong collision. So would Parliament stand up and play its expected role with the vigor and enthusiasm of a reformed sinner?
Progress and regression are a reference-dependent game. Wherever you are, there is always someone higher or lower in the pecking order. For some reason, we seem to like to play the regression game. In this game, instead of dealing with your problems with a carefully constructed strategic plan based on all your human and material assets, you wish that your problems would ebb away by auto-piloting them. In this game, success by your peers makes you less happy, because it implies you should be working harder, and it has been shown time and time again that some of our elite do not want to work harder.
There is no doubt that there are turbulent waters ahead of us as we search for the hitherto elusive socio-economic progress. We can bring all Ghanaians on board regardless of where they live, think strategically and think harder and use every sinew of our resources to build a bridge of inspiration and aspiration over the turbulent waters of our socio-economic endeavors. Or we can take an insouciant Taoist view of our national life and let fate design the course of progress for us. A word to the wise is in thinking.
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