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‘Demonstrations’: A testing ground for any healthy democracy?
Justifiably, many Ghanaians are expressing their frustrations over the unbearable high cost of living currently ‘afflicting’ the country.
Indisputably, prices of goods and services are skyrocketing to the amazement of many concerned Ghanaians.
Consequently, almost on daily basis, many Ghanaians are openly expressing their frustrations in many places, including homes, lorry parks, markets, schools, restaurants and on radio and television stations across the country.
It was, therefore, not surprising that a blended pressure group calling itself ‘Arise Ghana’ , took to the streets of Accra for two days (28th and 29th June, 2022), noisely protesting to Government over the excruciating hardships confronting many Ghanaians.
Reportedly, the ‘Arise Ghana’ group included civil society organisations, ‘okada’ riders, taxi and ‘trotro’ drivers, market women, some unemployed youth and many members and leaders of the Opposition political parties. Indeed, many members and leaders of the National Democratic Congress dominated the two-day Accra street protests.
The protesters, who were in their thousands, held many placards, some of which read: ‘Reduce High Fuel Prices’ , ‘ Inflation Out of Control’ , ‘Cedi Broken Jail?’ , ‘Food Prices Too High’ , ‘Cost of Living Unbearable’ , ‘ Corruption Galore !! ‘, ‘Scrap E-levy’, ‘Pay NABCO & National Service Personnel’ and ‘Ghanaians Are Suffering’.
Sadly, the first day of the ‘Arise Ghana’ protest or demonstration was punctuated by intense violence, rioting and chaos, thus, some protesters and police officers deployed to protect life and property, sustaining grave injuries on various parts of their bodies.
Really, overwhelming pieces of evidence abound that the demonstrators pelted the police with stones, injuring them and destroying their vehicles in the process. The police, in controlling the ensuing violence and rioters, fired rubber bullets and threw tear gas in attempts to calm the situation.
Indeed, police report confirmed that over 30 protesters were arrested while some of the 12 police officers who were hit by ‘missiles’ thrown at them , were hospitalised.
Security experts say, instead of the police controlling “a crowd of demonstrators” , they rather controlled rioters. But some conveners of ‘Arise Ghana’ also claimed that the police deliberately instigated the riots to derail the demonstration.
Readers, protests or demonstrations being ‘springwells’ of democratic culture, are properly embedded in the belly of our 1992 national Constitution.
Incontestably, in a democratic society, citizens have a right to gather peacefully and protest the policies of their government or actions of other groups with demonstrations, marches, petitions, boycotts, strikes etc.
Direct actions are open in a democracy, but traditionally, they have been used by the oppressed, the disadvantaged or minority groups who feel excluded from other means of influencing government policies. Such protests have always been part of democratic societies.
Today, non-violent protests, often designed to attract the attention of the news media , encompass a wide range of issues.
One special form of direct action is the right of labour unions to conduct strikes against employers with whom they have disputes that have not been resolved at the bargaining table.
Indeed, protests and demonstrations are a testing ground for any democracy. The ideals of free expression and citizen participation are easy to defend when everyone remains polite and in agreement on basic issues.
But protesters and their targets do not often agree on basic issues, and as such, disagreements may be passionate and angry.
The challenge then is balance; to defend the right of freedom of speech and assembly, while maintaining public order and countering attempts at intimidation or violence.
To suppress protests in the name of order, is to invite repression and to permit uncontrolled violent protests, is to invite anarchy. There is no magic formula for achieving this balance.
Probably, that might have been the basis for the violence, rioting and chaos that characterised the first day of the ‘Arise Ghana’ demonstration.
However, the second day of the demonstration, recorded peaceful scenes and episodes along the routes , leading to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and Parliament House, where the protesters presented a litany of demands in their petitions for redress.
Democracies make several assumptions about human nature. One is that, given the chance, people are generally capable of governing themselves in a manner that is fair and free.
Another is that, any society comprises a great diversity of interests and individuals who deserve to have their voices heard and their views respected.
As a result, one thing is true of all healthy democracies; they are noisy !!!
So, readers, is it really the case that demonstrations, protests and citizen actions are testing grounds for any healthy democracy?
Contact: email/ WhatsApp of author: asmahfrankg@gmail.com(0505556179)
By Dr. Akofa Segbefia
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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