Culture of political intolerance, agye gonn

"Everyone is crying out for peace yes
None is crying out for justice
I don't want no peace
I need equal rights and justice
Got to get it
Equal rights and justice ........

Everyone is talking about crime
Tell me who are the criminals
I said everybody's talking about crime, crime
Tell me who, who are the criminals
I really don't see them
There be no crime
Equal rights and justice
There be no criminals"

(Peter Tosh - Equal Rights).

I have taken a certain position to usually not to write on partisan bickerings especially involving the two main political parties in Ghana National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) because I consider that many of the heated exchanges between them are much ado about nothing. In fact I dare say herein that in a number of instances, it is orchestrated by either of them to divert attention from serious scandals rocking their parties. I am not doing this simply because I fear to incur a considerable risk of being the object of mass political censorship. Today I have decided to write on subject dear to my heart and I believe many of my readers as well.

The uncompromising provisions of the right to freedom of speech and expression in our 1992 constitution is a clause that all of us must fearlessly cherish and defend. The right to express our opinions without fear of arrest and intimidation is however to be contained within the borders of responsible behaviour. Let me say here once that I condemn any hate speech. 

Political intolerance has typically been conceptualized as an unwillingness to extend expressive rights to disliked groups or individuals. When intolerance is conceptualize  multidimensionally, there is the need to make a distinction between generic and discriminatory intolerance. While the former stems from an unwillingness to permit the expressive act (such as holding a rally) regardless of the actor, the latter is reserved for an unwillingness to permit the act only when performed by a noxious group. One problem with this conceptualization is that, when a given percentage of individuals in a polity is found to be intolerant, it is not known if these respondents are intolerant because of the act or because of the actor.

Unfolding recent events  in Ghana give cause for concern. While it is condemnable to speak bad or even evil of the President, it is equally obnoxious to cure such mischief with disproportionate high handedness. This is tantamount to killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Ghana repealed anachronistic law Criminal Libel Law which criminalised speech and expression. With its repeal, it was envisaged that people who felt slandered or libeled by another can seek cure through the civil courts for defamation. 

Unfortunately, the police lately have sought to revive a moribund law called 'causing fear and panic.'  It all began with the arrest of Nana Baafi Danquah over his comments on the cause of the fire outbreak at ex-president Rawlings' house on Valentine Day, then High Priest, Herbert Mensah, Ernest Owusu Bempah and now Kennedy Agyapong. In all these instances, there were two basic problems. Firstly, all the culprits were of the minority and secondly no successful prosecution has taken place except to intimidate and cow those perceived to be opponents into silence. The danger to our embryonic democracy is that the unfolding drama is one of the primary causes of political repression which focus mass intolerance on a specific unpopular political minority. To the extent that intolerance becomes focused, it is capable of being mobilized. Mobilization results in demands for political repression, demands to which policymakers accede. If we are not careful, we risk the situation where the police becomes a tool in the hands of the powers that be and thus lose the public trust reposed in them. In this case, the police risk becoming incapable to maintaining law and order in Ghana. Since water will always find its own level, vigilantism will definitely fill in the vacuum which will not augur well for governance in Ghana and she stands losing her international reputation and image. This culture of political intolerance and display of complete bias by the police must end once and that time is right now or never. Things fall apart and the centre cannot hold, agye gonn!
This is the time all concerned groups must call a spade a spade and must not wait till vigilantism takes root in our system. Mob injustice has already caused so much harm to many people. I call on all religious groups and civil society groups to take the bull by the horn. Playing the ostrich will only worsen matters. They must speak the truth and stop this hypocrisy prevailing all over. The National Media Commission must let the axe fall. Taxpayers ought to hold the IGP accountable and stop this inconsistency or selective justice of the men in uniform. To the political parties, this country does not belong to you, all of us have stakes in it and under no circumstances must they be allowed to hold the good people of Ghana to ransom. This scare tactics and intolerance and repression should be nipped in the bud.