<<<"Therefore, it is wrong to ask a person or group of persons to stay off
the politics of his or her country. Asking a person to stay off politics
amounts to asking him or her to cease to be a citizen of a particular
country and this is nothing else but deprivation of one's citizenship.">>>
*******

AS IS THE CASE IN UGANDA!!

**

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Mensah" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 8:05 PM
Subject: [unioNews] Fwd: Let's engage in National Politics


Thursday, January 15, 2004
<H3>Let's Engage In National Politics</H3>
<B><i>POLITICS comes from the Greek word politicos or polites which
means "a citizen". It should therefore understood that politics has
to do with citizenship; so in a sense any citizen of a nation is a
political being or a politician.</i></B>

Therefore, it is wrong to ask a person or group of persons to stay
off the politics of his or her country. Asking a person to stay off
politics amounts to asking him or her to cease to be a citizen of a
particular country and this is nothing else but deprivation of one's
citizenship.

If a citizen directly or indirectly exercises a say in the way and
manner the affairs of his or her country are run, that person is
doing politics, therefore every voter is a politician.

We are, therefore, to understand that doing politics is nothing else
but exercising one's civic right as a citizen of a nation. Politics
can therefore be described as the management of the affairs of a
nation. A citizen can directly or indirectly engage in the management
of the affairs of his or her nation. It can be adduced from this that
politics by its very nature is not evil, and as such, nobody should
be asked to stay off it.

It is only when we give politics a partisan twist instead of a
national twist that it becomes very divisive and leads to all kinds
of unnecessary troubles.

The divisive nature of partisan politics in Ghana scares many
prominent and genuine people who feel reluctant to engage in the
country's struggle for political and economic emancipation.

Partisan politics can be described as a big business venture that
helps a minority of the citizens of a nation to enrich themselves to
the detriment of majority of the citizens. Africans should therefore
rise up and reject partisan politics because it is doing more harm
than good to majority of our people.

Let us eliminate partisan politics and engage in national politics
which l believe, will help us to achieve the peace and unity that we
need for the spiritual, social, political and economic development of
our continent, Africa. Partisan politics is not working well in
Africa because it is not homegrown and it does not reflect the
African culture and socio-economic background of the continent.

In fact, partisan politics is now breeding too much evil in Africa
and it is doing a great damage to the continent. It is doing more
harm to majority of our people.

Partisan politics in Africa, breeds politically motivated violence,
character assassination, blood-shed, votes rigging and malicious lies
with the sole aim of making a political opponent unpopular in the
eyes of the electorates.

It creates unnecessary atmosphere of fear, panic, alarm, chaos,
rancour, lawlessness and destructive conflicts.

The history of partisan politics in Ghana and Africa as a whole has a
tale of acrimony and hatred that has indeed marred the relationship
between the leadership and supporters of a ruling government and the
opposition parties.

During political campaigns, a lot of rumours and wicked lies go
around and because circumstances have not helped many of us to
develop analytical minds, people tend to believe the lies and rumours
and, therefore, cast their votes, devoid of the valuable and genuine
information that could have helped them to make an informed choice.
It is true that elections, because they deal with choice, naturally
engender conflicts but conflicts need not be disruptive or
destructive.

However, because some politicians have financial difficulties, the
situation forces them to use destructive and dirty means to handle
the conflicts, the mentality being that by destroying the opponent or
making the opponent unpopular in the eyes of the electorates, one has
a better chance of winning the votes of the electorates as well as
the seat of power.

Indeed, Africa's effort at adopting a multi-party system of
government can be likened to a very poor beggar trying to build the
same expensive castle that a fabulously rich person has put up. In
such a situation, there is every likelihood that the beggar would be
servicing debts for the rest of his life. Now, some citizens of Ghana
are calling for funding for political parties. I am not against this,
but, the result would be that partisan politics would become more
expensive.

What is the wisdom in spending ¢213 billion to enable the electorates
to cast their votes through the ballot box when at the end of the
voting, majority of them cannot make ends meet and that they simply
would have no access to the basic necessities of life. Having gone
thus far, it should be expected that some people would push for
partisan politics to be given a chance to develop in Africa. The
question is: For how long should we allow partisan politics to divide
us, and make us, fight with guns.

<B>Africa is of age, if indeed, it is true that partisan politics is
doing more harm than good to us, as a people, then, let us not sit
down and wait for someone to tell us what to do. Let us take our own
destiny into our hands by developing our own African democracy, a
homegrown system of democracy that takes account of the African
system of governance, her cultural values and socio-economic
background, a democracy free from the appendages of partisan
politics.</B>

If choosing a leader through the ballot box, a practice handed down
to us by our foreign partners, is causing Africans, a great deal of
hell, let us do well to find a new way of getting leaders to lead us,
because choosing a leader through the ballot box, is not more
important than God's gift of life to us, it is not more important
than having access to the basic necessities of life a pre-requisite
for our survival as human beings.

<B>May God lead us in our search for an African democracy that will
unite us and give us peace to develop our great continent to manifest
His own glory.</B>


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