In association sports, a national team is composed of the best in the sports and they will come from different clubs. All the players meet together, train together and when they go out to compete for the nation, the individual players think of the nation, first. This is the beauty of unity in diversity.
On a much larger and more important scope, the nation goes to the polls to select the best, in individual constituencies, to assemble them together, to manage national affairs, above their political parties and personal interest. This selected ladies and gentlemen are what we call parliamentarians, or MPs.
Unfortunately, instead of putting the nation first and ahead of whatever they should be doing in Parliament, we have this group of individuals who form the Second Arm of Government, the Legislative, who put their parties and personal interest over and above national interests.
His Grace Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi was heard on radio 3FM, lamenting about what is going on in Parliament. He was very bold to say things as they are, when he expressed disappointment in the conduct of our MPs. Instead of seeking to do the purpose of why we sent them there to do, they are rather fighting over who is majority and who is minority. Their responsibility to do works that will help this country, is set aside, for themto rather seek their individual desires.
When an MP is elected in his or her constituency, they represent their people and not necessary their party. But what do we see? The individual political party will be controlling their MPs behind the scene. During this Eighth Parliament, it came out clearly that the two political parties with members in Parliament, call the shots.
First, the NDC national executives removed very hard-working MPs, Haruna Iddrisu and Muntaka from the leadership position. The NDC MPs were not allowed to choose their leadership. And the NPP followed suit when it replaced the majority leader, the more experienced, Kyei Mensah-Bonsu with the energetic Afenyo-Markins.
This clearly shows that the national leadership of the parties will sit down and draw the agenda for their MPs. They both, when in opposition will always condemn anything the party in power will do, without considering the people. But will do same when in power.
When the E-levy came up, the NDC hit the roof and condemned. The E-levy was going for 1.5% on MoMo transfers of GH¢100.00 and above, and the NDC pronounced it as very wicked since it was going to make the poor poorer. Meanwhile when it was in power, the NDC implement a 17.5% VAT on financial transactions and they saw this as okay.
Interestingly enough, in NDC’s 2020 manifesto, Section 8.7c, under Financial Inclusion and Electronic Payments (Fintech), it promised that when it comes to power, it will introduce a uniform transaction fee policy to guide the electronic payments industry. If this is not another form of E-levy then what is it?
The NDC will jump to explain that it meant that it will make all service providers charge uniform rates. But certainly, this cannot be true, for unless all the service providers are state institutions, which is not the case anyway, there is no way, in this open market economy any government can introduce the command market economy’s fixed pricing system.
The Constitution is to blame for most of the conducts in Parliament. For how can it talk about separation of powers when it says at least 51% of ministers and deputies must be appointed from Parliament. And there is a Minister of Parliamentary Affairs who sits in cabinet. With MPs as ministers, they can influence other MPs with projects to be done in their constituencies, so that they always tow government lines even if it will not favour the people.
The cost of entering Parliament is so high that all the MPs think of means, honest or dishonest, legal or illegal, to pay off what they spent on the campaign and fill their war chest for the next campaign. With this the people are secondary issues for the MPs.
One other thing is that the MPs must always pay homage to the party leadership and their god parents if they hope to be re-elected. Here they must do the bidding for certain individuals or they should kiss their seats good-bye. Such biddings will certainly not be what the people are expecting.
As things stand now, the MPs seem only interested in themselves and what their party leadership will say. For all those who queue up to vote for them, they just exercised their national duty and that is where it ended.
For how come, six MPs, while in Parliament contested re-elections on different tickets, and it was no issue, but come 2020 when the dynamics can change and make one party move from majority to minority and the other from minority to majority, Art. 97 (g & h) was applied turning the House into a jamboree as MPs decided not to do government business and went playing musical chairs, while laughing, groaning, smiling and cursing.
So, what kind of Parliament do we have? How can this country progress with this our national team?We certainly have problems.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
Editor’s note: Views expressed in this article do not represent that of The Chronicle
