Rawlings Guns For ‘Killer’ Cash

…After Cold Shoulder Treat By Cuba, Libya

After an official cold-shoulder treat by Cuba and Libya in terms of financial support for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to assist it conduct its 2008 campaign, GO's diplomatic sources say ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, now de facto fund-raiser for the NDC, is still feverishly gunning for cash from other Latin America sources.

Our sources say there are now huge prospects that the NDC will soon be landing millions of hard currency from the socialist leaders of Latin America whose countries` economies are drug-and-oil-led and who, like Jerry Rawlings, equate political clout with attacks on Bush and Blair.

At least one top NDC functionary who has junketed around twice lately is assisting Jerry Rawlings in this regard as well as one of the defeated NDC flagbearer aspirants (name withheld for now), lately in the news for a `secret` meeting over funding for the NDC with Croatian business people at one of the plush La beach hotels.

One source who is well informed on the extent of the transactions between Rawlings and his benefactors, stated that Rawlings could easily land $250 million from Venezuelan and other South American sources `officially and officially` for the NDC campaign, if he markets the party effectively, because of political linkages the emerging rich socialist nations intend establishing in Africa.

When Rawlings last appealed to cash-strapped Cuba officially for assistance, he received a diplomatic `we shall discuss it` response on account of the `Cuban government`s new and encouraging relationship with the Kufuor administration. He was, however, advised to keep scouting for assistance from individual Cuban businessmen and entities.`

The same response greeted an earlier request for assistance from old pal Al-Qathafi, but moderate Libyan business sources in Ghana and GO`s sources at the Africa Desk of the Cuban government, have intimated that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has `elected to lead Rawlings by the hand to sources where he can easily land `killer cash` to prosecute his party`s 2008 political campaign.`

`Oil-rich Venezuela has political ambitions of being the gate-way to the emerging economies of Latin America which, like the Eastern Tigers, have become an economic and political force in the world. Cuba has clout but not cash; and Castro's imminent exit creates a natural vacuum Hugo wants to seize.

He and his allies in South America would therefore welcome the opportunity to invest politically in nations like Ghana, so that Hugo and his band`s influence can spread to other strategic areas around the world, especially Africa,` our Africa Desk source in Cuba stated.

The source continued thus: `Emerging South American economies, now enjoying oil boom and the flow of huge drug cash in their banks, are developing the capacity, like the typical western economies, to assist willing nations for the political long-term benefits. Hugo Chavez and Rawlings have cosied up to one another and Rawlings is considered a socialist, in spite of his opulent lifestyle and the western-style economic system he ran as Head of State.`

The weakness in the former socialist community, led by the erstwhile and now almost disintegrated USSR, was the dependence of the entire population and republics on state cash and facilities when the economy could not afford it. The huge expenditure it made on emerging independent African states and its inability to continually fund its expansionist agenda worldwide, gradually led to its fall.

The emerging new socialist communities, like Venezuela, on the contrary, have sometimes huge oil-and-cocaine cash reserves in vaults both in and outside Venezuela and booming manufacturing industries in the South American belt, `giving it the voice to stand up to the subtle bullying of the West,` our sources at the Africa Desk noted.

In the 2004 elections, cash-strapped NDC, then unsure of its chances and still blaming Democratic Freedom Party chief Obed Asamoah for their financial woes, officially managed only ¢5 million each to candidates in all 230 constituencies, with the less endowed ones depending largely on the party's rich propaganda resources to fight their electoral battles. Though Rawlings pulled some sizeable financial punches from outside to bail the party, especially in its commitments to the boys who policed the electoral system on behalf of the NDC in the 2004 elections, the opposition NDC performed `creditably`, garnering some 45 per cent of the presidential votes.

Rawlings, our sources say, believes Latin America is now in a position to assist Africa and, especially, Ghana, without any strings. There is therefore little reason to be afraid of any reprisals from the West `even if he stuck his fingers into the eyes of Bush and Blair.` He also believes fervently, `on account of Mills` performance in the 2004 elections even on a scant purse,` that the NDC can easily return to power with just a little financial push; and that is why moving into South America would not give him and his NDC any future jitters as far as international relations are concerned.