ADDRESS BY H.E. FLT. LT. JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA TO THE PRESS CORPS AT THE WHITE HOUSE ON THURSDAY 9TH MARCH, 1995

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have been discussing with Mr. Clinton, the President of the US; the Vice President, Al Gore; as well as members of the Administration issues pertaining to peace and development, most especially as regards our continent in Africa. We touched on Liberia, the Gambia and Sierra Leone.

President Clinton impressed me as having a very deep knowledge of what is going on in my continent. He was gracious enough to listen to us and to go beyond what is perceived as the problems of our continent or if I may say, what appears to be the shallow-minded approach to some of the problems in relation to corruption and mismanagement that ends up being described as a "rat-hole" in terms of appalling alien systems.

I am leaving this place with a very healthy respect for your President and to be quite honest, and I am not here necessarily talking in favour of President Clinton as a Democrat or taking issues with the Republicans. No, not at all. I have a great deal of admiration for both of them. We have several friends on both sides of the aisle. But his understanding and his leadership of America, certainly puts the world at ease. Whether he stays on or somebody else emerges, I am saying that America finds itself in a very unique situation; a very strong and powerful country but we have all got to find ways and means of making America wake up to the fact that she has a moral responsibility, to give some value to her leadership.

I am simply saying that whatever you do in America. Whatever Congress does, whatever the public feels about its President, please take into consideration that there is a world out there that means a lot to America, a very big world out there that is suffering in terms of poverty, conflicts, etc. A world that has relied on America as well as other parts of the developing world to deal with her situation and we cannot have a situation where this world would end up being abandoned.

America has done a lot to restore the necessary stability that the globe requires and I think it is necessary to maintain the stability for the benefit of peace and development the world over.

Ghana is a free country and I know there have been allegations of human rights abuses. Somehow no one seems to give us credit that the volcanic eruptions that took place in '79 followed by our re-emergence in '82 was a reaction that was a clear result of the economic, social and political situations that preceded it, the extent and depth of corruption that led to that volcanic eruptions in '79.

There are no human right abuses in my country. To be honest a good number of those who went into exile have come home and I am hoping that those who were thrown out of America - some of whom left families here - would be allowed to visit with them.

Today, Ghana is being touted not only by America but by the developed world as a success story not only in political terms but in economic terms. What in effect does this mean? In other words, we have been vindicated by the policies that we embarked upon when the revolt of '79 took place. Today we have in place an elected government. In other words, if we had abused the issues of human rights, I do not believe that we would have been elected.

And here let me stress on point. As I stand before you as the President of my country with my colleagues, I had no intention of standing for elections, because the volcanic eruptions that we went through in the past were so exacting that none of us wanted to be members of Government any more. When the platforms was created for multiparty democracy for others who wanted to provide leadership to our community, to our nation and to our country, all kinds of false promises were being made.

In other words, people who wanted to stand on the political platform had lost sight of the fact that there was a new level of consciousness among our people. That is when I realised that I had no choice but to get back into politics. In other words, if I had not and we had the old stock back, it could have ended up with a problem on our hands. In other words, having climbed onto the political platform, Ladies and Gentlemen, I never made one sweet beautiful promise to our people, unlike those who were opposed to me.

I told our people that precisely because of the global economic situation and our own domestic situation life was going to be very hard, that life was going to be very tough. Despite that, they voted for us massively. You cannot possible as a result of this say that our people were not aware of what they were voting for.

A little too often we tend to underestimate the intelligence, the concerns of sympathies of our people. When some of us here describe Africa as a "rat-hole," or as a "basket-case" what one does not need to bother about.

No, the African situation is nothing more than a consequence of her history. What kind of history? Please take a look at the pre-independence situation of Africa. During the colonial period, when we won our independence, no other continent has been subjected to as much pounding from the Western capitalist system as well as the soviet-bloc economic philosophy as my continent. At the end of the day what do you have in Africa? You have a devastating situation in my continent where there is hardly any anchor. You have a continent of people who don't seem to have any control over their own economic or political destiny. So, I am asking for nothing more than an understanding of the African plight.

Some of the volcanic situations that we see today are a consequence of how we were governed in the past. Let's be very honest here. Those who took over from our colonial masters - who were enemies and had to be thrown out - were traitors, people who betrayed our own aspirations. So today, we have a situation where the people in our various communities and nations are rejecting the oppressive tendencies and the corruption's of the past. What you are seeing in Africa today is nothing that should rather discourage you.

To be quite honest, it's a reflection and a reaction to the actions that took place in the past and it's a passing phase. There is a very bright future ahead of us in Africa.

Thank you