Bogus intellectual activity!

So rather than serve readers with my reaction to Dr Asamoah, I have decided today to analyse from my unique perspective, the publication of the poll  for my column.

Let me say a few things about Dr Asamoah’s book. It is a massive tome of over 700 pages, and covers every imaginable facet of Ghanaian politics in the time frame in the title; written of course from his own perspective. He pulls no punches, and his deadpan, wry style of writing would exasperate his political adversaries, but serve to invest his opinions with the wisdom of experience. I daresay that this work will definitely serve as a sourcebook for our foreign policy students from after the overthrow of Dr Nkrumah in 1966 to the present, as it captures all the details on a broad and catholic canvas. Dr Asamoah’s work would, therefore, be the perfect companion to the earlier work on our foreign policy in the Nkrumah era by Scott Thompson, who had access to our material on Nkrumah after the 1966 coup.

I would definitely return to the book, in the New Year, to share my reaction to this fine work, but not without congratulating the author right away for also putting on paper, for us and coming generations, his experiences for us to consult as we build a society with a memory accessible in this form.

Now to the just released opinion poll by Afrobarometer a few days ago on the very pompous title, “Trust and Corruption in Public Institutions: Ghanaian Opinion”. According to news reports, this latest poll is the sixth conducted by Afrobarometer, which describes itself as an African-led non-partisan research network, in collaboration with the Centre for Democratic Development [CDD].

Questions

The title of the latest poll set me thinking; has there been any poll in this country since the advent of the Fourth Republic that does not seek to actively question and erode confidence in public institutions which are the bedrock of the system of democratic government we are enjoying? From President Rawlings to President Kufuor to the late President Mills, to the current President Mahama, it is the custom to have polls of this nature from these quarters, like assiduous, irresistible termites gnawing hungrily at the foundations of an edifice and, doubt everything that those we have freely put in authority do, are trying to do, or plan to do.

In this column, I intend to turn their own questions on them, but not in the order of the published report. I do not intend to be trapped by their special narrative. The entire idea that such exercises are necessary must be confronted as an effort to undermine us as viable African countries using the much abused word of underdevelopment. Who made them the guardians of our democracy? Who do they report to? Where do they get the inspiration to always seek to throw bogus intellectual wrenches into our efforts to seek the good and happy life?

Take one example which has run through all such supposedly objective polling; corruption in the police. I am certain as day follows night that the same Ghanaians who were polled on this tiresome matter would object vehemently to being policed by the heavily armed, murderous terrorists in uniform who are wantonly killing our racial brothers in America in the hallowed name of law and order. The Ghana Police is doing a far better job of keeping us alive and safe than their professional colleagues in the United States of America.

If you doubt the competence and honesty of the police, political parties, the judiciary, Parliament, and the Presidency, you directly imply there is a standard somewhere that all of us agree on without demur, and that we, or a substantial majority believe, is worth struggling to meet. No such standard has ever been forthcoming from these querulous intellectual quarters, because no such standard exists. A case in point here is the lumping of all opposition parties together as having more trust imposed in them than the ruling party. There is no party in this republic called opposition parties that voters will ever be asked to vote for. So what is supposed to be the point of the question which elicited this answer?

Explosive question

The most outrageous answer published, and which rightly has evoked the most negative reaction, is the one implying that a military government is better than civilian, constitutional rule. This is the kind of question that immediately provokes what I alluded to earlier; who do the Afrobarometer people report to? In whose interest is the answer to this explosive question being sought? What is intellectually and academically stimulating about this question?

In later interviews on Accra radio stations I listened to, representatives of Afrobarometer made strenuous claims that in spite of the underlying suppositions behind this elevation of the military above all other state institutions, the respondents by huge majorities, objected to the idea of preferring one-party rule, military dictatorship, et cetera for this country. So what exactly was the insight being sought here?

This kind of intellectual narcissism may tickle the cynical among us who have alienated themselves from a political system others in Africa want to emulate, because it has given us the peace and stability necessary to pursue our development. I am persuaded to this view by a weird polling result in the report. It says 50 per cent have little or no trust in the opposition parties while 61 per cent have little or no trust in the ruling party. Simply put, the meaning of this beats me.

Let us use our considerable talents to uphold our institutions and defend them publicly. A think tank is neither a repository of usable knowledge and experience if its workers continually denigrate the systems and the freedoms that validate their existence.