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Opinions of Sunday, 21 October 2012

Columnist: Sangaparee, Clement

Lessons From History

In 1974, what became known as the bloody Revolution in Ethiopia started as street protests by workers for better wages. The Ethiopian govt. reacted by using the Police to quell the demonstration which never stopped. Things took a different turn when the Police themselves embarked on the same strike agitating for better salaries. The military which was already at the battle with Eritea at that time joined the protest by all refusing to go to the streets to suppress the civilian demonstrations, so within a few days time, Emperor Haille Salassie’s dictatorship came to an end with thousands of innocent supporters and officials of Haille Sellassie crushed and buried in mass graves.
The Islamic Revolution of Iran started in 1978 as street protests against the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who vainly tried to use military force to quell the mass protests in that country. The national protests lasted for one full year unabated. So by Jan. 1979 the Shah himself had to flee into exile and the opposition party led by the late Ayatolla Khomeini took over and started the Islamic revolution. At the Tiananmen square in China there is a photograph of a lone man standing before a column of military tanks who was prepared to be crushed to death by the military tanks during a mass protest in 1989. The man was not crushed but the mass protests started in April 1989 and ended on June 4, 1989 with a martial law declared by the Chinese after the death of hundreds of innocent Chinese civilians, so what are some people really talking about in Ghana’s elections on 7th December 2012. It is not true that Ghanaians are not violent
The best way to ensure a peaceful election is to display maturity and civility in all the electoral process but the NPP must be warned to stop their war mongering by saying that until it goes their way- any party that wins the elections has rigged it. This is because it is their stock in trade. If Jake Obetseby Lamptey National Chairman of the NPP could say that 8 years was not enough to develop Ghana how can the NDC use only 4 years to develop the nation amidst billions of dollars, cedis and Euros judgment debts incurred by the NPP through “patapaa” and “darika” means for the NDC to be paying for the past 3 years?
Let the blue elephant remain in the bush for NPP is very good in opposition. Therefore if we can isolate such people and selfish, intentions, there will be no need to prepare for war when elections are due. These categories of people are behind the tension and every election in Ghana so in whatever we do as political executives, we must know that positions are not possessions

Democracy means equality, the sitting President of the Republic of Ghana also stated this during the IEA debate where he sent the smart thief, who is the NPP Flagbearer to the cleaners for stealing the free SHS policy enshrined in the 1992 constitution that he never participated in its preparation by the Consultative Assembly.
There are growing hatred and social venom spewed out by the NPP whose members forget that politics is driven by ideas.
There are those who will suffer personal loses when they lose elections and therefore those who will make personal game when they win elections

3. Once you set certain events in motion, the fear element is always gone and people would be prepared to pay the supreme sacrifice by dying if that would be the only way they could register their point. Preparing for national elections is not the same as preparing for war. What we need to do as a nation is to create all the necessary conditions for a free and fair elections to avoid stirring emotion that could trigger discontent and violent behavior. If we fail to do that and violence erupts, no amount of heavy weapons will scare an aggrieved population because it is a big lie that Ghanaian are peace loving people.

THE BIBLE TALKS ABOUT GREED
2ND SAMUEL 11:14. David and Bothsheba-Uriah’s wife who was very beautiful. She was bathing and David saw her on top of his roof, he sent messengers to bring her to his house and he slept with her. David wrote a letter to Joab to put Uriah where the battle front was fiercest and then withdraw from him so that he will be killed and he was actually killed in the battle while Joab ran away. David married Uriah’s wife.

2nd Samuel Chapter 12. Vrs 1-15, Nathan rebuked David with a proverb by saying that. A traveler came to a richman, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the lamb that belonged to the poor man and used it to prepare food. David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan “The man who did this deserve to die, he must pay for the lamb 4 times over because he did such a thing and had no pity. Then Nathan replied David- you are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says I anointed you King over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul etc. The lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne and he died. David then slept with Uriah’s wife and they gave birth to Solomon. Ghanaian politicians must learn lessons from the above quotations from the Holy Bible, because we have so many politicians who behave like David in the Bible. Is anybody listening? I am done “Jaanbie Iwaii” Aluta Continua”