Ghana, in 1992, decided to adopt the democratic system of government, after being ruled by the military, led by former President Rawlings, for eleven years. The reason was simple, democracy gives power back to the people, by allowing them to freely express themselves within the ambit of the law. It also allows the formation of political parties, whose leaders are chosen by their card-bearing members.
Apart from the fact that democracy has been brought to the doorsteps of the ordinary man, the people also have the right to criticise their leaders, if their performances fall below expectations.
Unfortunately, the observance of these tenets of democracy is being abused in the country of late, especially by followers of the two main political parties - the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Just recently, we criticised former President Rawlings, Founding Father of the NDC, and Alban Bagbin, Majority Leader in Parliament, for taking advantage of the right of expression conferred on them by the Constitution, to launch a blistering attack on President Mills.
We took these two personalities on, because their behaviours appear to have opened the floodgate for members of the party to launch verbal attacks on each other, with most of them directed at the President.
Just as believers of democracy try to find an antidote to this burning fire in the NDC, the same thing has started simmering in the largest opposition party, the NPP, which has the potential to blow apart the party, which was founded on the pillars of democratic principles.
Ever since the party went to congress to elect its flagbearer, and the resignation and come back of Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, a leading contender in that election, the party has not known peace.
The party has been divided along the lines of Alan Kyerematen and Nana Akufo Addo. These two fine gentlemen meet at public functions and pretend to have an excellent relationship, but down at the grassroots level, their followers are fighting to undo each other.
Last Friday, we carried a story from the Bulsa constituency in the Upper East Region, where a constituency congress, being organised to elect leaders for the party, was abruptly brought to an end, following a protest by supporters of Alan, on the premise that the regional executives of the party were favouring candidates sympathetic to the cause of Nana Addo.
As we noted earlier, the right to choose leaders is one of the principles of democracy, but the moment it is abused, it is no more democracy, but a tyranny, and this is precisely what is going on in the NPP.
The Nana Addo and Alan Kyerematen factionalism appears to have held leaders of the party hostage, because the moment one opens his mouth, or insist on doing the right thing, he or she would be accused of supporting a faction.
Surely, this is not the type of democracy Ghanaians need at this time.
We believe that if these problems going on in both NDC and NPP are not solved, and there is a split, it is democracy that would suffer in the long run. The Chronicle is therefore appealing to the Centre of Democratic Governance (CDD), and other civil society organisations, to intervene in what is going on in these two parties, and also ensure that they observe proper internal democratic principles, devoid of insults, and antagonism.
There are problems in every political party, but what we are witnessing now goes beyond bounds, and this is what The Chronicle is concerned about.
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