Former President Rawlings concluded his speech to the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) delegates at the just ended National Delegates’ Congress in the following words, “Business should not be as usual after today. Some power must change hands”.
And so it came to pass that aside the retention of the General Secretary of the NDC, there was a complete change in the party’s hierarchy.
The new set of frontline executives are Mr Kofi Portuphy as National Chairman, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia as General Secretary and Mr Kofi Adams as National Organiser. Personalities such as Mrs Betty Mould Iddrissu and Ms Anita De Sosoo were elected as National Vice Presidents.
There were a number of talking points. The first of such was the decision by the party to convert its much loved and loathed propaganda unit into a communications directorate.
Obviously the party must have been concerned about the negative associations that the word “propaganda” was having on its communication efforts. It at least made it easy for their opponents to dismiss their claims as simply “propaganda,” and from that moment on nobody took them seriously.
I remember an opposition member who once remarked: “This is a party which has a propaganda outfit and they expect us to believe them”.
Try as they may to explain away the fact that the word “propaganda” is associated with the word “propagate” which simply means to spread; it is obvious the Nazi regime by the use of the word did irreparable damage to it. Not even the appeal to the use of the word by some respectable institutions and entities could help matters.
It is a good thing that the party recognised the fact that the continued maintenance of the word in their original chart and their continued defence of it was a losing strategy.
After all, the Oxford English dictionary defines “propaganda” as the dissemination of information, especially of biased and misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.
According to the respected American Judge, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jnr, a word is not crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is a skin of living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used. The same applies for the word propaganda and it is a good thing they decided to scrap it.
The major point, however, aside the surprises in terms of the choices of the delegates was the unexpected strings of attacks launched by Mr Ivor Greenstreet, the General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in the camp of the NDC.
Instead of the usual “we are here to support our brothers the NDC with whom we all drink from the same ideological well” or something to a similar effect, he stated, “Currently, nobody, I mean nobody, n-o-b-o-d-y, nobody is feeling your better Ghana, Ghanaians are not happy at all, this Bronya (Christmas) is dry, too, too dry. The most painful thing of all is that you don’t care”.
With this statement, he had achieved something the CPP for a long while has been unable to achieve-- wrestle media attention, no matter how momentary from the NDC on such a big day. The propriety or otherwise of his comments has come into sharp focus.
The President diagnosed him as being selectively myopic and some party heavy weights like Mr Alban Gbagbin have speculated that he might have been possessed by a demon at the time he made the statement. He has come out to state that he was possessed by the demon of truth.
Whichever way you choose to look at it, as I have indicated, he has done the CPP a lot of good by bringing a drowning party which does not have a recent record of its own save the oft-cited achievements of Kwame Nkrumah, the country’s first President into the media spotlight. And from the little that I have heard, his comment seems to resonate with many.
But there is a dark side as well to the manner in which he expressed his views. There is a time for everything, and indeed the one who goes to sing dirges at a wedding ceremony is certainly bound to be the least welcomed of all the guests. Even in the midst of war, there is time for cooperation.
And we must bear in mind that the various political parties would at one point in time or the other be required to cooperate with each other to serve a national interest.
By this singular act, there is bound to be a growing feeling of distrust which may not augur well for our democracy. Mr Greenstreet’s statement, if looked at from this perspective, can only be described as having been done in bad faith.
Well, former President Rawlings said it was time for power to change hands, and it happened.
On the second point, however, as to whether it is going to be business as usual, it is only time that will tell.
