Ethnic engineering is normal - Antwi Danso

Reported attempts by leadership of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to engineer the outcome of the election of national executives on purely ethnic considerations is a normal practice in politics, meant to consolidate the position of the party.

"What the NPP is doing is to put the correct people in these offices of trust, establish correct structures and to solidify the party for 2004. There is no democracy in the world where some kind of manipulation is not done in the interest of the party", Dr. Vladmir Antwi-Danso, lecturer of Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA), has stated.

Dr. Antwi-Danso who spoke to the Chronicle at the conference grounds last Saturday made a stout and spirited defence of the so-called plan, which worked to near perfection, arguing that USA and UK are glowing examples of countries where this phenomenon has evolved over the years.

The conference was held to elect officers to form the national executive council of the party. The media including this paper had published the names of all except Lord Oblitey Commey as those who will emerge as leaders of the party.

The contention was that they had been "chosen" by the party hierarchy.

Liberal democracy, Antwi-Danso contended, doesn't preclude a party from moving in a particular direction to correct apertures.

Examples that would suffice for purposes of this interview, he intimated, is the ouster of former British Prime Minister Mrs. Margaret Thatcher by the Conservative Party. "She was fighting back, she wanted to be in there. They said no, you couldn't do it. The party had its way. They manipulated it in such a way that she couldn't come back - all in the interest of the party".

"People are saying the President has done this and is putting his men there to ensure his re-nomination. It is the party's interest vis-?-vis it's programme for the future, which should be paramount in all considerations", adding that it would be na?ve to think about liberal democratic principles and leave your house to disintegrate.

"After all they are thinking of how to make the party work in the future.

Liberal democracy doesn't mean you cannot move things to correct apertures. Liberal democracy doesn't mean you cannot lobby. I don't see what is wrong with that. In politics you get what is feasible and what is ideal", he stressed.

He described media reports on the issue as mere speculations and attempts to make headlines.

While admitting that the ideal situation was for the NPP to have allowed people to vie for positions of their choice, he personally was of the opinion that the party should also be able to channel its energies and resources into such openings to make for easy choices.

This, he agued, would work to the solidification and consolidation of the party for the future.

"The media is out to speculate and make headlines. The ideal situation is for everyone to vie left, right, centre, but if the NPP is able to channel its energy and resources into that opening so that choices are on unanimity and on peaceful means I don't se anything wrong with that", adding that what is going on right now is for consolidation and not necessarily to please any liberal democratic principles.

Even though he agreed with this reporter that the President's role in the party is primarily to offer advice to the party, he said: "What he (President) did was not an imposition. After all he is leading the party now and in a sense his stewardship will show whether the party can go forward.

"I am in full support of what is going on. It shows how solid the party has been. It has been meticulous in its bid to get to power and it has gotten power and they are being more meticulous in their efforts to consolidate what they have".