Kwesi Atta-Krufi Hayford

There is an apparent growth of discomfort and uneasiness within the ruling NDC over many things about the way the Mills’ government is running, where there appears to be the tendency within the government and party for people to shoot themselves on the foot. This disquiet is being expressed overtly and covertly within the party and it is beginning to douse confidence in the party over the way their government is performing. The high profile outburst from the party leader and founder Jerry Rawlings, with the tacit support of the party’s Nation Executive Committee, and the contents of a memo said to have been written by the Chairman of the government transition team, P.V. Obeng are the latest of the overtures that send the signal that all is not well.

However the problems within the NDC are their household issues and their passing of a vote of no confidence in their own government is nothing for me as an outsider to worry about. That is their own internal democracy. It happens in any party or government. As to whether they will be able to survive it is a matter for their good selves but it is good news for democracy. What actually worries me sick is the content of parts of the PV Obeng memo which mentions the overwhelming effects of “the enemy media”. The memo titled, “Regaining the Media Ground from the Enemy”, reveals the bare-faced fear in National Democratic Congress (NDC) circles due to their ineffectiveness of their propaganda machinery now that they are in power.

My fear comes from the use of the expression “enemy” to describe our media and how his so-called situation report intends to deal with them. Our media is the last bastion of our very polarized and heavily party-politicized democracy. On 20th of June 2006, I posted an article on the Ghanaweb in which I stated that “Although press freedom is a cherished right of the people, freedom of the press is different from other liberties of the people in that it is both individual and institutional. It applies not just to a single person's right to publish ideas, but also to the right of print and broadcast media to express political views and to cover and publish news. A free press in Ghana as it is everywhere in the world is, therefore, one of the foundations of a democratic society”. Walter Lippmann, an American columnist once wrote, "A free press is not a privilege, but an organic necessity in a great society," and Ghana is no exception to this.

Therefore, for a senior member of the present administration to start to describe the media as “the enemy” should begin to worry all democracy loving Ghanaians. All the major political parties in Ghana have fought bitter media wars in the past and I do not intend to re-open them here but which ever side the parties stand in the war depends on whether they are in government or in opposition.

The NPP in opposition in the 1990s somehow innocuously believed that the press was on their side. They therefore sang their praises and promised them heaven, including their commitment to the repeal of the Criminal Libel Act. The NDC in government in the 1990s had been somewhat horrible to the press and its doctrine of press freedom. The NDC government clipped the wings of the press by passing the notorious Criminal Libel Act. When the NPP won in 2001 they argued that we must use our democracy for the good in our people. When the debate for its repeal came up in Parliament we were told by the NDC that the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law would bring chaos and anarchy and would not be good for democracy. The NPP took a different view. They felt that the freer the individual to express himself the better would be his contribution to the growth and development of the society. The Criminal Libel Law was repealed. Those who cried anarchy and chaos, the NDC, became the best beneficiaries of it. The likes of Fiifi Kwetey, Okudzeto Ablakwa and Kobby Acheampong, who are all now Ministers of State constantly used the free media as platform to preach their Beatitude of Lies against the NPP and its functionaries, only to use the Vetting Committee as the confessionary for the absolution of their “sins”. The Deputy Minister designate for Water Resources Works and Housing, Kobby Acheampong apologized to former president Kufuor for lying about lavish furnishings at his residence. Somewhere last year, Mr. Acheampong claimed on Joy FM’s Current Affairs Programme, Newsfile, that Mr. Kufuor’s house was furnished at the cost of about $4 million. According to him, some of the luxury items fitted in the then president’s house included large imported Alsatian dogs, Jacuzzis, and expensive remote control doors. Deputy Information Minister designate, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has apologized for using foul language in describing the ex-gratia award for retiring government officials.

Back in government again the NDC are worried the old sins will be revisited on them but Is it a case of the chicken coming home to roost? If PV is scared that the NDC is losing out in the media war and would have to quickly seek a counter response, there is no need for him to begin to use the words “enemy media”. In any case, what has PV got to worry about? During the campaign, and throughout NPP administration, the NDC used the likes of Radio Gold, New Democrat; New National Democrat, The Enquirer, Metro TV; TV3; The Lens; The Crystal Clear Lens; The Palaver and many more as their propaganda launch pads. For a country of barely 25 million people and only 4 million politically active population, the NDC have their share of the “friendly media” and need not worry about gagging the enemy press.

My advice for the NDC is that they must use their newly found power to create opportunities for our people and generations after us in the areas of freedom and deepening of democracy. We have a choice in Ghana, the choice of change, the politics of renewal, of transformation and of opportunity shared by the good people of Ghana against the politics that breed division, conflict and cynicism represented sometimes by parties that find themselves in government. Let us say no to more of the same and yes to a brighter future for Ghana.

Kwesi Atta-Krufi, Hayford.