The mace must glitter

A young Member of Parliament and a fresher had found himself in the midst of other dignitaries under glittering lights spawn around tall poles erected to form a canopy for his first cocktail evening at the forecourt of the State House.

He admired the walkways dotted with waist-high lamp holders and expansive lawns culling around old faithful fountains that had just been reactivated.

With a newfound courage, he reassessed his political fortunes and potentials, taking a long trip back to his electoral campaign and victory, which he had earned through sheer determination and organisational prowess.

The night had travelled far and grown deeper. As guest population began thinning, a storm suddenly seized the skies spewing forth volumes of water and as he dashed for shelter, his colleague, who had just been appointed as a Deputy Minister, had an umbrella opened for her by a smartly dressed bodyguard, literally walking her into a waiting four-wheel-drive vehicle.

He watched the raindrops and thought about his new home located at the outskirts of the town accessible by an unfriendly long road and an insolent "trotro" driver, who facilitates his commuting. He had just been ushered into the real business of politics in Ghana where an entry into the realm of the Presidency remains the ultimate.

Interruptions in Parliamentary Democracy

Parliamentary business has unfortunately become the after-thought in the realms of governance due to unjustified disturbances in Burma Camp. Anytime a soldier seizes power, he sacrifices the peoples' Assembly, holds on to the Presidency and demands loyalty from the Judiciary that under most cases submits.

Parliament in independent Ghana has had interruptions in 1966,1972, 1979 and 1981 only to resurface in 1992. Justice Daniel Francis Annan, retired Appeal Court Judge and distinguished jurist, is favoured by history to be the only one to have presided over a post-independent Ghana Parliament that did not see an interruption.

His eight years as Speaker saw the re-laying of the foundation of the parliamentary practice that has always been the first casualty of military interventions. The last interruption that lasted almost a decade scattered most administrators and officers of the Parliamentary Service into many areas that "we had to look all around us for them to help us set up," Speaker Annan told the Ghana News Agency.

The legislature is now gazing at the prospect of witnessing an uninterruptible period that is needed to build its confidence and attitude. The institutional memory that should exist in the four corners of Parliament is scanty, literally reduced to folklore and portraits.

Certain vital records that are supposed to hold the memory of the Legislature hardly existed. To add to its problems, constitutional arrangements have rendered the House more as a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

Drafters of the 1992 Constitution had envisioned a fused Executive system made up of an Executive President and Prime Minister, who would be a leader of the Majority in Parliament and Head of Government, but the Consultative Assembly, dropped the idea.

Whether by commission or omission, it allowed a Cabinet, the Majority of whose membership must come from Parliament under a strong President. This has not just sapped the House of aggressive debate and the promotion of a career Legislature, but also created a class system within the Majority party.

It is an open secret that most MPs nurse ambitions of becoming Ministers since that would enhance their political fortunes.

When a Minister coughs, the media rush to seek interpretations but an MP's cry goes largely unnoticed. The "unlucky" MP is the one, who was once a Minister. His countenance gives him up on his first day in Parliament after he or she had been dropped after an announcement of a reshuffle. It is normally a terrible date with the Minority.

But it must be placed on record that in the Executive realm, apart from the President, whose appeal overshadows the MP due to obvious reasons, all his Ministers are either on the same footing with the MP or had not won an election before. Having a political base is arguably the best barometer for measuring influence and power.

Contemporary electoral history of Ghana would reveal that running mates, who end up as Vice Presidents add very little to the fortunes of candidates, who become Presidents.

But the Office could be spared the whip since it is quite logical that a person, who had made the run with the victor, deserves the second citizen slot. He is certainly the most fortunate personality in the Executive realm. Year in and year out, the President brings his budget to Parliament and it is hurriedly approved but ironically, Parliament has to literally beg the Minister of Finance for releases.

Ordinarily, that should not have bothered the Member of Parliament if he really appreciated his constitutional powers and duties, particularly the power over the purse.

A Minister is sure to have all incentives including vehicles, offices, resources and more importantly, the ear of the President. It would be the exception rather than the norm for a Minister who needs the approval of Parliament to build an office building to be frustrated by the House.

The State House Tower Block (Job 600) that was cut and opened up for renovations to serve as office block for Members of Parliament continue to bruise the Accra skyline with its ghostly emptiness.

The Member of Parliament has the misfortune of being below the Deputy Minister on the protocol list or on the Public Service scale as it were. This could seriously affect the relationship between the Minister and the legislator because an unassertive member could be intimidated even before he pleads with the Minister to consider his constituency in the allocation of projects.

The Minister should be subordinate to the MP so that the desire to be a Minister, especially by legislators within the ranks of the ruling party, would not continue to push members into buying whatever the Presidency brings to the House. Whatever reason advanced for the Minister's superiority over the Member of Parliament is a little bit shy of the concept of representative democracy.

The Ghanaian legislator is indisputably the most popular and most accepted person in his or her constituency. This is based on the simple assumption that he had won an election properly conducted and accepted by all parties involved.

The mere fact that he ably convinced the majority of his people to place their hopes and aspirations in his hands affords him the virtues of trustworthiness, a person believed to be capable and responsible. The legislator is in a world of his own. Despite the set up in Parliament where they are sometimes subjected to influences from the leadership, he has the real responsibility to follow his conscience owing allegiance to his people first and others later.

Election of the Speaker

The leadership of the legislature should reflect that phenomenon so that whoever chairs the assembly would be in tune with the realities on the political landscape. It would be most appreciated if the Speaker was always elected from within the House since the third most powerful person in the people's assembly should feel what the people feel, visiting his own constituents and getting first hand information on issues.

For the avoidance of doubt, political parties should court highly knowledgeable persons to stand on their tickets during elections so that the "calibre" would not be an excuse for "outsiders" to lead them. Ghana has rare opportunity of building a democracy in which the people would relate to government by giving the legislature the needed resources for it to function as it should.

The nation is now an island of peace and tranquillity because the people have opted for representative democracy. Any attempt to downplay the relevance of Parliament would mean a betrayal of the people and mortal men might not be able to fathom what would follow.