'Harsh policies will cause unrest’

THE General Secretary of the EGLE Party, Mr Sam Pee Yalley, has said the implementation of government policies intended to rebuild the economy, but which are considered harsh by the broad masses of the people has the potential of sowing seeds of social unrest and agitation in the country.

He said even though pragmatic measures should be adopted by the government to breathe new life into the economy, the resort to any stringent measures which would make life more unbearable for the people is likely to spawn social forces whose activities would undermine the country’s democracy.

Mr Yalley, who was stating the position of the EGLE Party on the HIPC initiative in Accra yesterday, described the initiative as an attempt by Western countries, especially Britain, to re-colonise the country and the African continent.

According to Mr Yalley , the minds of the people, especially the electorate, were conditioned by the present government to look forward to a period of stabilisation of the prices of goods and services. He remarked that recent developments such as the increase in the prices of petroleum products and the decision of the country to join the HIPC club have completely dashed their hopes and expectations of future material prosperity.

He said the awareness created by ex-President Jerry John Rawlings during the revolutionary transformation of the country has made the vast majority of the people conscious of their right to demand accountability from those they have mandated to serve their interest and address the concerns of the nation.

The EGLE General Secretary called on the government to be responsive to the genuine demands of the people, especially on the HIPC issue, which they have stressed would not be in their supreme interest, and take immediate steps to review its position on it.

“ The government should not take lightly the general discontent of the people on pertinent issues that border on their survival and that of the nation. It respond appropriately to assuage their feellings and restore their confidence in the management of the economy,” Mr Yalley said.

He described the HIPC initiative as a ploy by some Western powers, especially Britain, to stifle the country’s forward march, stressing, “Whenever Ghana attempts to make strides in the economic, political and social spheres, our colonial masters come out with some weird economic proposition to undermine our efforts to become self-reliant.”

Mr Yalley said the external economic relations have been structured by the advanced countries in such a way to compel developing countries such as Ghana to always depend on their so-called generosity, and described the HIPC initiative as one of such strategies.

“ The depressing of prices of our export products on the world market, the adverse terms of trade, the development of substitutes , the various Structural Adjustment Programmes and the HIPC initiative are but a few of the manifold strategies employed by Britain and others to keep us in perpetual bondage,” he said.