JAK VS JAM: Who's got the inside track?

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?I am not an old experienced hand at politics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.?- Adlai Stevenson.

?Power is a drug on which the politicians are hooked. They buy it from the voters using the voters? own money.?- Richard J. Needham

Dirksen? Three Laws of Politics:
1. Get elected
2. Get re-elected
3. Don?t get mad, get even.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ghana?s largest opposition party appears to be under no illusion in terms of how it perceives the election strategy of its chiefest rival on the other side of the political spectrum in the November elections.

At least the NDC flag bearer, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills seems to know that. He knows that the major plank of the NPP strategy for this year?s election is to define him as a man without a backbone and one beholden to former President Rawlings. He is well aware they are going to tie him to the former President and all he represents, and also hang the economic mess associated with the 8 year rule of the NDC on him, among others.

Because this strategy worked to perfection and culminated in his defeat in the 2000 elections, Professor Atta-Mills knows he has to define himself, his political agenda, what he represents and stands for before the Kufuor Administration and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) do that for him.

And in making a very impressive entr?e for the 2004 Atta-Mills for President Campaign with the media encounter he hosted last week, the leader of the only party that poses the greatest electoral threat to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP)in this year?s Presidential race strode onto the political amphitheater and stole the thunder from his opponents.

DEFINING A CANDIDATE

Defining a political rival and what he/she represents is a very common occurrence in politics. It is a rule of thumb for aspiring politicians to define themselves before their rivals do. The corollary of leaving this all important job to a political rival is disaster waiting to happen.

It is such a sacrosanct and also a fundamental rule that most politicians disregard only to regret it later. This rule has both historical and contemporaneous value to the extent that it affords political aspirants the unique opportunity to present themselves and their unsullied message to the electorate.

Voters who connect with the message later turn to the media for information about the character and persona of the aspiring candidate and make their own decision. Like Horace Mann says ?character is what God and the angels know of us; reputation is what men and women think of us.? The need to define yourself and what you represent is so important to be left to your political rival. And the truth is most political pundits affirm that.

MILLS THROWS DOWN GAUNTLET

The former Vice President threw the gauntlet at the spin surgeons in the Kufuor administration when he addressed them to shift their focus from the former President to him in his capacity as the Presidential Candidate of the NDC.

After the abysmal failure of his 2000 campaign in which he lost the election as an incumbent to the current incumbent, the former Veep took the fight to the NPP even before they could butt an eyelid. ?These spin-doctors have sought to create the impression that former President Rawlings is the one challenging President Kufuor for the Presidency by focusing all attention on him. President Kufuor, as the records show, served under the PNDC Government, described as a military Government.

I, on the other hand, served in the NDC Government, a constitutional Government. Both of us had one boss, in his dual incarnations as ex-Chairman Rawlings and ex-President Rawlings. Both of us paid our dues to the nation in different capacities and at different times of the country?s development. The current race for the Presidency is between Kufuor and Atta-Mills and not between Kufuor and Rawlings. So it is about time the spin doctors directed their issues to me instead.?

True to form the Kufuor administration waded into the issue, validating my point exactly.

In their reaction to the Atta-Mills conference, Information Minister, Hon. Nana Akomea stuck exactly to the script describing President Rawlings as the candy eye of the NDC and painting Atta-Mills basically as a side show in the NDC?s scheme of things.

This is how the Daily Guide captured his comments;

?This is because, according to Nana Akomea, if former President Rawlings, who is the NDC founder, had showed up at the Atta-Mills ?State of the Nation? forum at the National Theatre that day, Rawlings would most certainly have taken centre-stage, with his own party people flocking to him, instead of Atta-Mills who is the Party?s Presidential Candidate for this year?s elections.

He observed: ?The former president is said to be the founder of NDC. The NDC claims Rawlings was a successful president, so why is Prof Atta-Mills not keen that there is focus on former President Jerry John Rawlings??

The Information Minister stated that NDC itself does not focus on Prof Mills. According to him NDC is excited with former President Rawlings. This is very apparent anytime the two appear together at NDC functions?, the Information Minister further observed.

Continuing, Nana Akomea stressed that Prof Mills should count himself lucky that former President Rawlings was not present at the forum, adding that, if former President Rawlings had been present or walked in at the forum, Prof Mills would have found himself ignored by the very NDC crowd he was meeting.? (Credit-The Daily Guide and Ghanaweb)

As to be expected the Atta-Mills campaign reacted with lightening speed. In a statement signed by Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, Campaign Manager, the campaign repulsed attempts by the NPP to characterize their candidate saying the election would be a referendum on the performance of the Kufuor administration.

?The reaction takes us back to the Administration of the PNDC and the NDC as if the 2004 elections will be a referendum on those administrations. But in 1992, 1996 and 2000, the electorate delivered their verdicts on those administrations. The forthcoming elections of December 2004 will be referendum on the performance of the Kufuor administration.

In his address at the Public Forum, Professor Mills raised a number of the issues that should be of concern to the electorate in the forthcoming elections. They included the loss of trust of the people in the Government arising out of its failure to deliver the numerous promises it made both before and after the 2000 elections. Other concerns were the severe economic hardships facing the people and the Government?s violation of civil liberties and human rights.

The frequent references in the NPP Government?s response to the performance of the NDC ?under the Vice Presidency of Prof. Atta-Mills? suggests that in the Kufuor administration, Vice President Aliu Mahama may be running the Government. Our understanding of the Presidency, such as operates in Ghana today, is that final executive responsibility rests with the President.?

This year?s election as you have realized and as pointed out would be determined by how the two leading political parties win the ?defining? game. What is clear is that the campaign of the former Vice President is gaining traction. They seem to have learnt some lessons from the last general election when it sat back and allowed the NPP to win the game.

The NPP on the other hand would want to press its advantage and keep its momentum from the last election going. At the end when the hurly-burly is done it would all boil down to the financial muscle of the respective parties.

We keenly wait to see how a cash-strapped party would fare against a popular rival (that is going by the 2000 elections) which also enjoys the advantage of incumbency.