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The
dishonourable character of our honourable members of
parliament
By Abdul Salam Sule, Ghanadot
Accra, March 13, 2009 - Parliamentarians are elected by
eligible voters in the country to represent them in
Parliament to make laws for the state.
With manifold political parties in the country, the house of
parliament is divided into majority and minority groups
representing their political parties and constituencies.
In parliament, it is conventional for the members of the
divided house to interject whenever a president or any other
state official is invited to the august house to deliver a
statement or for questioning.
The minority normally 'booed' and the majority would
'cheers.'
But there seem to be some changes in their interjections
which has become a source of worry to many Ghanaians and has
raised a cause for complaint among segments of the public.
It has become evident to many members of the public that
members of parliament have now moved from their usual
interjections to issues on the floor to constant heckling.
The first casualty of the heckling by the parliamentarians
this year was the President, Prof John Evans Atta Mills.
On Thursday February 19th this year, the President visited
the august house to deliver his maiden state of the nation
address and he was heckled by some members of the house by
way of what should have been the normal interjections.
Some have attributed the heckling to the many error in
pronunciation of some words by the president in the course
of his delivery of the state of the nation address.
Some members of the public have expressed their displeasure
at the way the parliamentarians comported themselves before
the President.
On Thursday March 5th this year, when the Finance Minister,
Mr Kwabena Duffour visited parliament to read the government
budget statement to the house, it was nothing but heckling
from some of the members of the house.
At a point in time, one could hardly hear the Finance
Minister as the heckling went on.
All attempts made by the Speaker of Parliament Hon. Bamford
Addo to allow sanity in the house proved futile and the
visiting Finance Minister had no choice but to continue
reading the budget statement even though the heckling was
going on.
The question on the lips of many Ghanaians after the
infamous attitude of some of our parliamentarians was what
Ghana would benefit from the heckling?
Some members have began to wonder when this sort of poor
beahiour began in the house. But, unfortunately,
answers to the query have become as partisan as the
behaviour of some of our members of parliament.
Some see the correction of the poor behavious as the job of
the speaker of parliament.
The same patern of bad behaviour has spilled over into the
vetting of would be deputy ministers in the various
committees responsible for their appointments.
It
has become obvious to many Ghanaians that some members of
these committees are using the occasion to settle some old
scores during the vetting process.
And soon, some say, if thsi behaviuors by members of our
honorable parliament is not stopped it would destroy the
whole purpose of their being there; that is, members
of the appointment committee is that, it is to help the
country advance to a more civilized state.
Ghanadot
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