I remember sitting with my Auntie Adjoa Kraah and my younger siblings during our student days when we had to define demonstration in the Akan/Twi. We settled on “Yen di, yen di.” That was the clarion call for students to rise up and challenge authority to answer for the bad food served in the dining hall.
And so it is in life, whenever the authorities served something bad to the people, they rise up in demonstrations to challenge and condemn.
The definition of demonstration comes from the Latin, “to point out, to indicate.”
And in a democratic era, with democracy as the order of the day, the word democracy comes from the Greek, “‘demos’, meaning ‘people’ and ‘kratos’ meaning, ‘rule’.” Democracy is a system of government in which state power is vested in the people or the general population of a state. By this definition, is power truly vested in the people, in this day and age, with Ghana as a case study?
The president is in his high office and discusses national matters with his cabinet where none of the people whohave the power could contribute in the discussions. As for Parliament, the MPs will only passionately discuss matters that affect the people when it will benefit them politically or socially. In both cases, the people are not directly involved in the discussions of matters that affect their daily lives.
Currently, galamsey and its devastating effects on this country has aroused the passion of the people, but this does not seem to be on the top of the agenda for the Executive and Legislative arms of government. The president had put his presidency on the line, promising to eradicate galamsey. But with reports on galamsey and how to stop it, on his table, the problem keeps escalating and getting out of hands. MPs in galamsey areas, for example, have not protested in Parliament withphotographs to show the state of devastation being caused by galamsey, maybe for fear of losing their seats. It was only recently that the House started baring its teeth against illegal mining.
Now the people who have the “power”have begun drawing the attention of government and MPs to this.
Last week, a group of demonstrators, calling itself the Democracy Hub were up in arms against authority, pressing demands that galamsey must be banned, without delay.
Demonstration by its definition is supposed to point out something. The process can be cool, civil and cultured or can be unruly, riotous and violent. There were lots of times when demonstrations in this country had been civil and one was even apolitical.
On Tuesday July 1, 2014, during the Mahama administration a peaceful demonstration against economic hardship and poor governance was organised by Occupy Flagstaff House, it decided not to have any politician on board. So, when Hon. Asamoah Boateng, who believed in the agenda, decided to join,he was pulled out of line.
There were also cases of demonstrations that went bad, with indiscipline high on the agenda. What Ghanaians saw in the Democracy Hub demonstrations was samples of indiscipline. The Police who were to supervise the demonstrations may have applied high-handedness when they felt people were becoming lawless. However, can we blame them? Rules are there,to be obeyed. With whatever good intentions Democracy Hub had, the conduct of the organizers and picketers was something else to desire.
In the very first place, the picketers took over the 37 Roundabout, and blocked all access in or out of the 37 Military Hospital, a very important and major hospital in Accra. During the three days’ siege of that area, all emergency cases could not access the hospital, and the dying could die, no one cares, with a health facility only an arm’s length away.
I will suggest that areas close to hospitals and other emergency units should be a no-go area for picketers. If Democracy Hub was bent on protecting life and nature by demanding the ban on galamsey, but turn round to stand in the way of people going to the hospital to save their lives, then the Hub’s agenda is to deceive Ghanaians.If to the Hub democracy means, to prevent people from accessing health care, then its true intentions are hidden from the people.
Indiscipline took over the demonstration which was very unfortunate. How can it be that one of the conveners, Oliver Barker Vormawor was so lawless to have entered a police vehicle and take the keys. As Prof. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, rightly asked that do members of the Democracy Hub believe they have the democratic right to do anything they want, however lawless, all in the name of democracy?
Even though I fully support activities that will make government ban illegal mining, I will not support any acts of lawlessness.
Media landscape has also been thrown into confusion as one story had it that one of the protesters who was arrested was pregnant but another disputed this. It looks as if Democracy Hub has a political agenda to make government and NPP more unpopular during this Election Year and its intention of demonstrating against galamsey was only a camouflage. After all, Ghanaians in the USA, who demonstrated in support of Democracy Hub cried out to the world that the demonstrators in Ghana were protesting for illegal mining. The qualifying article was “For,”and not “Against.”
Hon. Daniel Dugan
Editor’s note: Views expressed in this article do not represent that of The Chronicle
