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 | Interview with
the Honorable Justice D.F. Annan,
the Speaker of Parliament
July 16th 1999
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You have been Speaker of Parliament since 1992, could you tell us what your greatest challenges have been?
The greatest challenge really has been to make democracy work and to sustain it given the history of politics in this country. You will understand that before 1992 we had had a number of attempts at institutionalizing democratic practice in Ghana and we had failed time and again. And in fact it was becoming a rhythm that a democratic experiment would collapse after 2 years or so. So the biggest challenge I faced was to ensure the proper conduct of affairs in the house so that we would break that jinx and I was very happy that we were able to break that jinx and for the first time in the democratic history of this country the first parliament was succeeded by the second without any break at all.
So how did you go about making sure that that democracy followed up?
There had to be a good transition and that transition was carefully planned by the previous government in which I served, the government under chairman Rawlings, even though it was not democratically elected. Our vision was for a sustainable process of democracy and we worked towards that. What we did was first of all to ensure that we would have a constitution that would stand the strain and stresses of a newly developing society. And this we did very effectively and this has resulted in the current constitution. The other thing was to ensure that there would be a political framework within which the constitution could operate and this meant a choice for the multi-party system of democracy, that also we did. Parties were encouraged, several parties were formed. Then of course the third important matter was to have a free and fair election. Now elections in our part of the world are not easy to put together but we went to a lot of trouble to ensure a reasonable degree of fairness and equity in the electoral process and even though everybody was not happy about it I think basically the elections of 1992 were free and fair. That was testified to by all the important international monitoring agencies who came to observe it. Then of course the actual business of running parliament has to be carefully put together. Here I would like to say that the second parliament in which all parties are operating has set a very high standard of democratic tolerance and experience based on the good foundation of the experience of the first parliament, buttressed by the experience of the second parliament and this I believe will usher us into the new millennium with a safe strong hold of democracy in the country.
There is no doubt in the eyes of the international community that Ghana has established itself as a true democracy, however inside the country there have been claims that the democracy can be a little bit too autocratic. How do you respond to that?
My response is simply to look at the facts of the matter. Now when you talk about autocracy you are talking about a head of state or a government that is intolerant of criticism for instance, or incapable of coping with opposition or which has no room for the emergence of divergent views. And all these three classes cannot fall within the present system because we have freedom of expression, we have a large number of private and independent newspapers and any cursory glance at them will tell you that they are free to say what they like. Of course within the context of the laws of libel, and that is where you may have the question mark. But certainly the papers are free to publish and they do publish with considerable freedom. Parliament is proceeding in a very independent manner, the opposition is very active in parliament, and there are very good and useful debates in parliament. So by all the indexes that you would like to use the democracy is really well established in this country. It is going to get better.
Can you just tell our readers exactly how many parties there are in Ghana and how much representation do they have?
The latest party was the Reform Party which emerged out of a disagreement within the governing party, the N.D.C. Some of the young men in the N.D.C. felt that the N.D.C. was not being conducted properly and they opted out. They were free to do so and they have registered their party and issued statements. So this is an example of democracy at work. Now of course the main parties are the N.D.C. the government party, its allies the Eagle Party and the Democratic Peoples Party. The three parties together form the Progressive Alliance. They are in the majority in government, and the majority in parliament. Then of course you have the biggest minority group, that is the National Patriotic Party (N.P.P.) and they command roughly one third of support in parliament and the Progressive Alliance commands about two thirds of the support in parliament. In addition to these two giants we have the smaller parties. Those in parliament are the Convention Party (C.P.) which has 5 members in parliament, and the P.N.C. which has 1 member. Then of course outside parliament you have the U.G.M. of Charles Wereko-Brobbey and the C.P.P. and of course the Reformed Party; but they do not have any representation. The important thing is that under the constitution and the laws any Ghanaian is free to form or join the political party of his or her choice and that is democracy. I do not believe in the proliferation of parties. There are some countries in Africa where you have forty to sixty parties. That can happen here but I hope it does not.
How has partisanship influenced the base and how has it affected major political and economic decisions in the house?
There are areas where the various parties come together in the interest of the country. I will give you an example in the case of financial arrangements. Loans, credits and similar financial arrangements you will find a lot of partnership in the house. There have been few occasions where parties have disagreed in mainly matters of policy or management but generally the sense of partnership in the house is very real.
And how would you compare the democracy of Ghana with other African democracies?
We have been referred to as the political gateway and we are rather proud of that. We think that we have established a certain standard which should be of interest to other countries in Africa. We really do want to go beyond that.
| What is the future role of the legislature in helping to cope concretize the democracy of the country?
The legislature will have to demonstrate to the people at large what democracy is all about by conducting quality debates in the house, by partnership in the national interest wherever necessary and by criticizing objectively government policies and by keeping the government generally on its toes so that we can get a practical demonstration of what democracy is all about. There has been some anxiety about what is called rubber stamping especially in the first parliament and to some extent also in this parliament in the sense that where a government coalition commands a very substantial majority in parliament we tend to use that majority to ride roughshod over all criticisms and objections. I do not subscribe to that as a reality in our parliament. It is a possibility of course when you have a large majority. But in my own experience I think debates have been very objectively conducted and I do not subscribe to the theory that the majority in Ghana’s parliament has been used to rubber stamp government policies.
With regards to the future there is going to be an election in a year and a half’s time. Where do you see the Democratic regime in the next few years? Where would you like to be?
Free and fair elections have come to stay and certainly parliament will support and actively promote all measures that are designed both in terms of the law and procedures and financing that are designed to ensure that there will continue to be fair and free elections. That will be the basis for continued democracy in this country. And we should continue to ensure that the press remains free and that there is freedom of expression, we should ensure that we revise the laws that limit freedom of speech from time to time. For instance there is a cry for a freedom of information act that parliament should look at. There is also a need to revise the political parties and there is a draft before parliament to that effect so by constant monitoring of the democratic process we should ensure that democracy stays alive. In Ghana also, every year parliament reports to the people at a public forum. And I as speaker present a report of the previous years performance in parliament. When the floor is opened and questions come at you from all over the house it is a very interesting experience which has been commended by other African parliaments. In addition to the annual public forum we also host an annual governance forum where we look at the broad area of good governance and we determine to what extent we have been able to live up to the ideals of governance. For instance in terms of transparency, accountability, in terms of the roles of civil society, freedom and independence of the press, support for the political parties; financial, legal and other support so that they can operate freely and in so many other ways. We do this every year at the governance forum, the speaker also has a breakfast forum where we bring together various experiences to debate on issues of the day. So in all these various ways, parliament is helping to ensure that democracy stays alive and on course in Ghana.
Do you believe that there is a danger in making democracy too liberal?
That is an interesting question. Democracy to be democratic has to be liberal. Whether it is too liberal or not depends on several factors. There is the perception that sometimes benevolent dictatorship is good for an emerging society. I do not subscribe to that. I think that things should be done reasonably and within limits. But what constitutes liberal or too liberal I am in no position to say it.
As a final question, could you tell us what has been your greatest achievement since you have been speaker of parliament? What you are most proud of?
Making sure that we have peace and freedom in the house. We have not descended to the levels which other parliaments have descended to.
Discipline is good?
Discipline is okay. The quality of debate is good. The biggest problem that has militated against our achieving our full potential is largely financial. Because of the absence of a parliamentary institution for ten years and more, the budget has not yet accommodated the demands of parliament and we are starting from a very low point. Budgetary provisions are totally inadequate. Even though we finalize budgets ourselves, the provisions are inadequate so we need to have funding from sources other than the budget and this is what we are working on now. For instance as a young parliament we need to have certain basic services like an information and research center with internet facilities where you can source news very quickly from all over the world. Also committee rooms where our committees can work effectively, so also offices for the members of parliament to share if necessary and like administrative and political assistance for members. All these are needs that we have at his point in time and which identify the fact that we are a young parliament but we need to move quickly to provide these services. The budget for some time will not be able to accommodate these services and therefore we are sourcing for funds outside the budget. For instance with the World Bank and with a number of friendly governments.
How much longer do you hope to be Speaker?
Exactly to the beginning of the next parliament. I do not think I will be available after that. I will be 72 by then and that I think is long enough. I would have been in government, in the broad context for about 17 years by then, continuous years and that has been long enough. At 72 I deserve a bit of rest.
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© World INvestment NEws, 1999.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Ghana published in Forbes
December 13th 1999 Issue.
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