Team Foul On Members Of Parliament

By Dr. Kofi Ellison
Washington, D.C.

Birds of the same feathers is the apt description of members of parliament in Ghana at this moment. The desire to acquire government loans to purchase cars, made the usual chattering partisanship in parliamentary debates unfashionable. The loan deal was a multi-party agreement of all the parties in parliament. The leading opposition party the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had a clear shot at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the public relations war, but goofed big time.

Rather than sending a clear message to the public by refusing the loan, under present circumstances, the NDC was front and center with the ruling party in trumpeting the need for the loan. Nor could Ghanaians expect much leadership from the other political parties on this matter. Mr. Dan Lartey, the presidential candidate and leader of the Great Consolidated People's Party was none too pleased by the negative public reaction to the loan. He defended the program, and pronounced the $20,000 amount "too small" for the type of vehicles the parliamentarians needed to make their rounds.

Such unity of purpose, provides an understanding of how ravenous for power and its presumed benefits, the political class (wether civilian or military) usually is. To this class (wether civilian or military), the law is a cake that they can slice every which way for their particular benefit.

Under the circumstances, it took president Kuffour to initiate a belated statement of official Executive branch dismay, denial, and disapproval of the loan program. "With reference to the current furore in the media about car loans for MPs, the government wishes to state that the president and the Cabinet have not taken such a decision", the presidential spokesman Elizabeth Ohene, assured the public. However, in a parliamentary system of government where the majority party controls both the Executive and the Legislative branches, the claim that the president was unaware of what his party was doing in parliament sounded rather iffy, to put it diplomatically.

Thankfully, Mr. Agyare Koi Larbi, the MP for Akropong removed any claims to presidential ignorance of the matter when he declared in a radio interview, that, "I think the Executive and everybody was aware". Indeed, if the president were truly unaware of what his party, with the agreement of his Minister Finance, ( a member of the Executive branch) had done in parliament, then we have a problem. Where is accountability, one may ask. After all, the loan had the approval of the Finance Minister as far back as September 4th, according to a letter signed by said minister. That letter is referenced in a letter sent by the Majority Chief Whip to the Clerk of Parliament dated 18th September, on the modalities of the repayment of the loan.

It helps underscoring that Mr. Agyare Koi Larbi is a member of the NPP. It is also significant to note that he is no push-over, or a mere nattering media hound seeking attention. Such aversion to pusillanimity, as shown by Koi Larbi is the finest example of the Danquah-Busia tradition of holding leaders to accountability. Leaders need people who can rise up under such circumstances and speak the truth. It bears noting that Koi Larbi's stance has not been challenged by the president's spin masters.

In case you went to Mars and do not understand what the commotion is all about, let me repeat what has transpired. While the president was in the Ivory Coast helping on the diplomatic front in trying to promote peace among feuding Ivorian political leaders; and in the absence of both the Majority and Minority leaders of parliament who were on travel outside the country, the Ghana parliament announced (previously agreed), that each of the 200 members of parliament (MPs) would be given $20,000 government loan to purchase vehicles to facilitate their discharge of duties. According to the payment arrangements, deductions of 1.2 million cedis would be made from MP's monthly salary of about 1.5 million cedis, at source (effective September, 2001). How our MP's and their families could survive on the remaining amount does not deserve belaboring. Perhaps, the MP's know something the about survival, that general public is unaware of.

The loan announcement generated such hue and cry in Ghana's vibrant FM Radio talk shows, and the president felt obliged to help defuse the public anger towards the government and the political parties by claiming an alibi. Ghanaians in the diaspora did their part in thrashing parliament on Internet discussion forums.

There is no doubt that our parliamentarians deserve reliable transportation to effectively discharge their duties to their constituents and the nation. But the parliamentarians did a bad public relations job, by under-estimating the public mood. There is a Ghanaian aphorism which advises that, whereas one may have a winnable case before a judge, that certainty, can be thwarted by poor delivery of the circumstances before the judge. Our MPs made a rather poor delivery of their case before the court of public opinion! Consequently, statements such as those being made by the Speaker and some MPs that the MPs need 4-wheel drive vehicles (which are more expensive) to manoeuver poor roads, or that the other branches of government enjoy free cars and maintenance, in defense of the loan program, they merely add to the public perception of politicians as a bunch of predators looking after their own interests in an era of national economic problems.

The MPs are quickly learning that in a democracy where the free flow of information is nearly guaranteed by the numerous media outlets, the views of the people can no longer be easily dismissed by the powers that be. Neither can MPs ride roughshod over the people they represent as was done in the past.

The government guarantee of loans, is part of what can be described as the entitlement program to which senior government officials as well as elected officials have come to expect as 'benefits' accruing from working for the state. That, and the provision of OFFICIAL cars for our political elite, both elected and career, is part of the colonial legacy and colonial relic that has survived our independence. The colonial state which served the interest of an expatriate colonial political class found it necessary to provide for the comforts of their bureaucrats in a foreign environment. Such comforts served to minimize the hardships (real or imagined), of Englishmen who would not be afforded such comforts by their own government in London. Free housing was part of the equation. Such "amenities" and government largesse were made available to the independent-era African bureaucracy with such profundity. The resources were plentiful then!

Professor Ali Mazrui, in a U.S. television program several years ago, quoted a Ghanaian minister of the era, reflecting government provision of such entitlements: "Nkrumah had killed an elephant, and all must partake in the feast"!! Well, the meat is long finished!!! And, the government can no longer afford babysitting and welfare duties for its pampered political (and military) elite. This explains the public furore over the loan program. Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia sought to end some of these perceived entitlements, resulting in his being disdained by a section of the political class. "Abrefa, Damrifa Due"!!

These policies can no longer be sustained. The cost to the state in unpaid government loans is sky high; money that could be used to help in developing the constituent needs of elected officials. There is an urgent need to rethinking some of our long-held peculiarities and received ideas regarding so-called government entitlements. The way out, in my view, is to abandon this primordial notion of the government (i.e. the state), as the provider of sundry benefits and amenities to the political (and military) class. It is not done in the rich developed world where our leaders come to ask for alms!!!

We need to cultivate this idea, that, the primary agency for the granting of loans for such purposes, are the banks and other financial institutions, not the government. It does not help that previous government loans to parliamentarians in 1993, and 1997 were not fully re-paid. Notwithstanding, all the MPs got their fat end-of-service benefits (including those re-elected, and still serving!). The notion that one enters government in order to achieve a life-style that one has only dreamed about must be discouraged once-and-for-all!.

President Kuffour will do Ghana a huge service, if he uses the occasion to reform a program that has cost the government huge sums of money from unpaid loans. Indeed, the "official car" syndrome has been abused beyond question. And, president Kuffour must seize the opportunity, by providing effective political leadership in reforming a program that can no longer be justified, let alone sustained.