Rawlings is history - Dan Botwe

New patriotic party General Secretary Dan Botwe says former president Jerry J Rawlings can never behave like a statesman despite his own insistence that he loves the country.

But he has also promised that as long as he remains the chief scribe of the ruling party, he will help the party to do all it can to help him stay a staeman if he submits himself to tenets of statemanship.

Mr Botwe also acnowledged the deep impressions Mr Rawlings has made on the psyche of the people of Ghana because people are remembered for all sorts of reasons and like Robin Hood, "even armed robbers have their following". And talking like a politician from the opposite camp, the party leader described Rawlings as history not as a monument but that he is irrelevant today and would forever be irrelevant except to his clique. And like the proverbial prophet that is never acceptable in his own country,a Network Herald sampling of the views of some Ghanaians across the southern belt on former president in the wake of his post June four rantings suggests, that perhaps almost all Ghanaians believe he is a monument except persons from within his own political set-up Most party members see him today as the stumbling block to attempts at wresting power from the incumbent.

These incidentally include the today's "petty buorjoisie" who made most of rheir substance during the 19 or so odd years of Jerrymannia.And this quite substantial figure does not hide its apparent displeasure at the sometimes "embarrasing position the former president puts us through." Some even suggested he is an albatros that need to be exorcised thus largely complimenting the views of Mr Botwe.

But though most people otrightly condemn Mr Rawlings' sometimes "unstateman-like rendition of national issues", many were those who without doubt saw the former president as a monument whose impact on the body politik of the country would never die-positive or negative.

According to a majority of the respondents in this category, a comparison of the political greats of Ghana can only be made between the first president who incidentally won the country its independence and Jerry Rawlings who has sradled almost twenty of the forty three or so odd years of the state, stalwarts like Paa Grant and J. B. Danquah not withstanding.

As to whether the findings of the National Reconciliation Commision may erode the stature of Mr Rawlings, the answer was simple: Jerry Rawlings is the only one who can destroy Jerry Rawlings, as in by his deeds he will be judged.