Tension in Parliament unnecessary

The legislative arm of govern­ment forms an important part of government and aims to play a crucial role in the socioeconomic development of a country. This role is undertaken to ensure that issues relating to law and order are carried out in a manner that seeks to bring about peace and orderliness in all parts of the country.

A major function of the legislative arm of government is deliberation over matters that are of public inter­est for the good of the nation. This function allows members of parlia­ment to freely discuss issues arising in any part of the state to ensure orderliness for the overall good of the citizenry.

Another major function is lawmak­ing. Without the appropriate laws, no activity can be properly regulated for the purpose of ensuring decency and the achievement of good results. This is why all the laws of the state are deliberated upon when introduced to ensure that only good laws are passed for the betterment of the country.

All Members of Parliament have been given the power to freely dis­cuss their views when certain issues come up. By allowing free ventilation of views, the MPs are encouraged to touch on every issue of importance. This also explains why all MPs enjoy legislative immunity.

The immunity is meant to protect them from attacks from the public. This protection is important, and this explains why anything said on the floor of Parliament cannot be used against any of the MPs. However, any adverse comment should be made in the House of Parliament, not outside it.

What this means is that if an MP makes adverse remarks about some­one at the Accra Sports Stadium or Babayara Sports Stadium in a manner that is unfair to anybody, the person concerned can pick up the matter and sue the MP who made the unfair remark about him or her. The MPs are very aware of this, so they are always measured in the comments they make outside Parliament.

Not long ago, the Speaker of Par­liament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, had cause to advise all MPs to be careful about comments they make outside Parliament. The Speaker explained, and he was right in doing that, re­ferring to the issue of immunity for parliamentarians. It is hoped that our MPs will take this advice seriously and refrain from defamation or charac­ter assassination outside Parliament. We thank the Speaker for this good advice.

In light of the role of Parliament, it can be seen that the MPs are playing a good role in the development of the country. In fact, nothing can move smoothly without their input.

One problem that is of major con­cern to the public, however, is the needless tension that occasionally characterises deliberations in Parlia­ment. The MPs engage in acrimonious deliberations with one another in a manner that suggests that the world will come to an end in the next five minutes. Attacks on each other may be said to be part of their parliamen­tary style, but this is still unaccept­able, seeing that a noble place like Parliament serves as a good training ground for morality for viewers and listeners of parliamentary proceed­ings.

Sometimes the real motive for this can be seen as political, where one group of people may want to score political points over members of the opposing side. Such moves are not good and must be avoided at all times.

MPs from all parts of the country are all brothers and sisters who must acknowledge and respect one another as children of God. If this principle is followed by all the MPs, disagree­ments will arise, but they will be devoid of needless tensions that are destructive to social and political development.

Not long ago, the Minority in Parlia­ment, for example, received instruc­tions from their party leadership not to approve nominations of Ministers brought to them by the President of the Republic. The purpose of this action and directive was said to be that the size of government had been bloated.

This assertion cannot be true be­cause the current number of Ministers is smaller compared with previously, as was experienced under the previ­ous government before the coming into power of President Akufo-Addo.

The deliberations in parliament were delayed and went deep into the night of March 24, 2023. For some of us, this could have been avoided without any tension in Parliament.

At the end of it all, after a hectic session, the Ministers were approved together with the Justices of the Supreme Court.

It became clear that some NDC MPs voted to approve the Ministers whose names were submitted to Parliament. There is a range of 21 to 31 MPs on the Minority side who voted to ap­prove the Ministers.

This has brought about high ten­sions in the NDC, and some of them have called those MPs traitors. There is a young man who wants to stand as MP in the Bibiani-Ahwiaso-Bekwai Constituency in the Western North Region, and this young man openly attacked his own MPs, claiming that they would fish them out and sack them from the party. If this is what this prospective MP has in mind, then he should know that he cannot succeed in his own party. People are free to make their own choices, even if they belong to political parties that expect them to behave in a certain way. However, attacking and insulting MPs as if they do not have minds of their own is not good and should not be entertained.

On March 24, 2023, the Speaker of Parliament was put in a fix. He tried to play fair to both the Majority and Minority sides. On that occasion, it became clear that the work of the Speaker is not an easy venture to undertake, for which reason we need to pray for him at all times. While praying for him, all the Members of Parliament, together with their party officials, should also take practical steps to promote unity, peace, and tolerance, as well as peaceful co-ex­istence with all political factions in Parliament, so that peace will prevail in Ghana.

The issue of bribery raised by some NDC members against their own Members of Parliament should be dropped because it will only escalate tension within the party. If this advice is accommodated in a peaceful and positive manner, it will bring about peace within the NDC.

Differences in parliamentary debates are always welcome, but they should be carried out within the framework of peace and tolerance for one another.

Email address/whatsApp number of author: Pradmat201@gmail.com (0553318911)

Majority Leader Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato

Speaker Mr Alban Bagbin