OUR HYPOCRISY IS KILLING US (PART 3)
The saddest tragedy that can happen to a nation is when its inhabitants (citizens and aliens alike) refuse to recognize that their commissions and omissions are among the contributory factors to the plight of their beloved country. More worrying is when such residents incessantly blame others for their conditions and circumstances but ignore to evaluate their negative actions, the consequences of which are more disastrous.
INTRODUCTION
In the first two editions of this article, we indubitably established through anecdotal and empirical evaluation that hypocrisy is the bane to our development. As were published in the Chronicle, the Enquirer, the Ghanaweb as well as other media, we incontestably illustrated that acts of insincerity and pretense (hypocrisy) in this country is the number one hurdle to our advancement. We behave and talk as if we are saints but we turn to be doing the opposite of what we preach. We critically examined the police service, the justice system, the political system and our leaders, the attitude of the citizenry, the Ghanaian media, our teachers, lecturers and account clerks as well as our health officials to establish the above exigent issue. In this edition, we are going to evaluate our employees and employers.
OUR EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES
One of the most important stakeholders and service providers in this country is employers in both the private and public sectors. Employment creation is one of the avowed goal of every responsible government and the expectation of the members of the public, especially the youth. Therefore, any legitimate activity of any individual or group of persons that directly or indirectly generate employment is commendable. The advantages of employment creation are manifold. Wealth creation, revenue for the government, income for the members of the public, development in all sectors of every economy and industrializations are boosted through employment creation. More importantly, it has the propensity of increasing the purchasing power of the public as well as reducing crime rate, since the devil finds work for the idle hand. However, some deeds of some employers including the government make the above advantages fiasco.
To begin with, most employers, especially those in the private sector, continue to underpay their employees. The so-called government minimum wage is still a mirage to majority of workers in this country. Some employers continue to sap and squeeze the skills, talents and energy of their employees to their advantage. Besides, lawful working hours are not only abused but also some employers refuse to pay their workers (especially the illiterates) overtime allowances. I know of two brothers who work in one of the most patronized filling stations in Techiman B/A who reports for work by 5:30am and close from work by 9:30pm or beyond, yet they receive GH¢30 only a month, without any other incentive or allowances whatsoever. This indeed is very hypocritical since these actions negate the proper purpose of employment creation for the members of the public.
Besides, it is a very sad commentary that majority of employees or workers in this country are not only paid their due (fair wage or salary) but also receive such meager remuneration at a very later time. It is not unusual in this country to notice that most workers most of the times receive their measly salary several months or sometimes years after such payments have fallen due. Meanwhile, they are made to work for the benefit of their employers during such periods. They continue to bear extra burden since they almost incur daily expenses on transportation, food and so forth, without any assistance from their employers. What therefore happens is that pilfering, bribery and corruption, poor attitude towards work et cetera become the order of the day. Bribery and corruption, embezzlement and all the other forms of white colour crimes, though cannot be justified, are sought by some of these depressed workers as survival strategies. It therefore becomes very hypocritical when we lament over the high ascendency of dishonesty among the populace while refusing to recognize that our commissions and omissions are compelling them to act in that manner. How do we expect a worker who has not been paid several months or years or has received unfair pay from us to comply with the ethics of the job while we continue to enjoy from the huge profits that come with such works? Interestingly, most employers in complaining about some of the above negative attitudes behave as ostrich which hides its head in the sand, thinking that all is well. It is high time we took a critical look into the way we treat employees or workers in this country rather than only condemn them for not sometimes living up to expectation.
We will also be very hypocritical if we ignore to make some legitimate comments about some workers in this country. It is an undeniable fact that majority of the workers, especially those in the public sectors, have very intimidating (bad) attitudes towards work. More disturbing is when those who are relatively well treated by their employers continue to exhibit unpardonable attitude towards work. It is an irrefutable fact that some civil and public servants are only interested in receiving their monthly salaries without doing what is expected of them as workers. We report lately for work, lazy about and close from work very early expecting our work places to generate income at the end of the month.
Grippingly, we exhibit the entire positive attitudes towards work that we know when it comes to our own enterprises. It therefore becomes apparent pretence if we are always complaining of unfair treatment by our employers while refusing to acknowledge that we are not doing anything to raise the requisite income target in our places of employment. How on earth should we expect decent conditions of service when at the same time we are refusing to contribute to what can bring about these string benefits? You see, we can only reap only where we have sown. The law that we reap what we sow has never been repealed! We become hypocrites when we agitate for fair treatment in terms of better conditions of employment while our poor attitudes toward such employments tend to collapse such firms or industries. Let us remove the plank in our eyes before we criticize others.
CONCLUSION
Hypocrisy is indeed consuming the entire Ghanaian society. Blame game has now become the cherished sport that even children in our society can skillfully play. We are indeed very skillful to blame others for our woes and unpleasant circumstances. We are very harsh when it comes to criticizing others for their misdemeanor which may directly or indirectly affect us. Regrettably, we act very differently when we are caught in the same ?soup?. We often do more harmful things than those that we purport to criticize. Hypocritically, we paint the picture that we are saints while all our actions and inactions portray that we are the devil's incarnates. We should have in mind that we can only deceive ourselves and those who allow themselves to be deceived. Preaching virtues and practicing vices only harms us, our loved ones and those who are very close to us. Let?s therefore remove the lath from our eyes before we legitimately criticize others.
Join me next time to evaluate students and their leaders and of course, our religious bodies and their cliques.
Obeng Mensah Richard. Faculty of Law, KNUST. brncapy@yahoo.com. Centre for Human Rights and Advanced Legal Research (CHRALER), Kumasi.
