ORIGINS OF NPP'S PROPERTY-OWNING DEMOCRACY!

Listening to a young friend expressing his worries about the continued inability of the current regime to make the real economy grow at a faster rate, I realised just how clever the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been, in successfully hiding the true origins of the phrase "a property-owning democracy", from the current generation of Ghanaians - and is busy using it to gain their support. This political sleight of hand, shows the deviousness of the current ruling party's spin doctors.

A clever disenfranchising device, dreamt up by the too-clever-by-half political forebears of the NPP (the greedy quislings of the pre-independence years) during the struggle by Ghanaians to throw off the yoke of colonial bondage, has now been recycled - and having acquired a new respectability, is being used to lure and ensure the loyalty, of Ghana's young upwardly mobile middle class professional elite, to the NPP.

Today, the innocuous-sounding political slogan, an evil political creed, inspired in this context, by the elitist philosophy of the English philosopher, Edmund Burke (whose work had a profound influence on both Dr. Danquah and Dr. Busia - proud and arrogant descendants of our pre-colonial feudal ruling elite),which was deployed as a stealth weapon and instrument of control, which the descendants of the ruling elites of the pre-colonial feudal societies, sought to use to deny the sovereign masses political power permanently, upon the departure of the British colonialists from the Gold Coast, has given political respectability to a political party, which has been hijacked by a ruthless clique, made up of a few powerful and selfish oligarchs, driven by unfathomable greed, seldom seen in our political life.

What is the genesis of the phrase, you might wonder, dear reader? As part of measures designed to enable the Gold Coast move gradually towards self-government, the colonial government called for the drafting of a new constitution, which would give some responsibility for policy decisions to a new elected government. Danquah and Busia, who shared Burke's belief that society ought to be ruled by a pre-ordained elite, ensured that under the new constitution, wage and property requirements, would be the basis for suffrage - effectively disenfranchising the masses! Incidentally, the new constitution was drawn up by a selected commission of the African elite at the time - who sought, through it, to dominate the country permanently. It is instructive that those who now dominate the NPP, have succeeded in turning parliament, into a pliant instrument, to legalise their tyranny.

It was an alternative "People's Assembly", brought together by Nkrumah's party, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), and made up of the type of people Busia once contemptuously labelled collectively, as "veranda boys": CPP representatives, veterans of the second World War, trade union representatives, as well as those of youth organisations, which called for immediate self-governing status, for the Gold Coast - and universal franchise without property qualifications. Those amendments, which were made by the "People's Assembly", to the proposals of the quislings and their colonial lords and masters, known as the "Constitutional Proposals of 1949", were roundly rejected by the British colonial administration.

It was this rejection that led to Nkrumah declaring "Positive Action" - a move that led to a general strike and riots in the Gold Coast: and resulted in the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Nkrumah. So let all those middle class Ghanaians who have allowed themselves to be led up the garden path, by the the greedy masters of the universe, who now dominate and control the NPP and our country, understand the gigantic fraud, that this sophistry, is. For, it seeks to give ordinary Ghanaians the impression that it is in their interest, to ally themselves to a party controlled by a powerful few with greedy ambitions - who dominate the ruling party (and are busy "chopping Ghana small"). However, such loyalty is completely misplaced. The truth of the matter, is that the proponents of the property-owning democracy of today are no different from the quislings of yesteryear - they too seek to dominate our country and collaborate with foreigners to bleed mother Ghana dry: at the expense of ordinary people and mother Ghana. Period.


So let all those middle class Ghanaians who have allowed themselves to be led up the garden path, by the the greedy masters of the universe, who now dominate and control the NPP and our country, understand the gigantic fraud, that this sophistry, is. For, it seeks to give ordinary Ghanaians the impression that it is in their interest, to ally themselves to a party controlled by a powerful few with greedy ambitions - who dominate the ruling party (and are busy "chopping Ghana small"). However, such loyalty is completely misplaced. The truth of the matter, is that the proponents of the property-owning democracy of today are no different from the quislings of yesteryear - they too seek to dominate our country and collaborate with foreigners to bleed mother Ghana dry: at the expense of ordinary people and mother Ghana. Period.

And let them remember who those busy influence-peddling their way to vast family fortunes in Ghana, today, are. Are they not the political progeny of those same greedy and arrogant people of yesteryear, who sought to deny ordinary Ghanaians the right to vote, in the pre-independence era - because they did not own properties? So when you next hear the phrase "a property-owning democracy", dear reader, do not be fooled into thinking you will be able to fulfil your personal aspiration, of becoming a property owner, by voting for those too-clever-by-half individuals. Over the years they have been in power, they have succeeded in deploying a devious spin-machine, made up of their paid lackeys in the media (professionals supposed to be watchdogs of society, but who for mercenary reasons, have today become the guard dogs of our oppressors), to sell you a piece of fool's paradise.

In reality, they are seeking to keep you oppressed and loot Ghana freely - so beware! If they believed in their interpretation of that phrase today, dear reader, why have they not nationalised land held in trust for their people by traditional rulers: paid compensation to those blood-suckers, and distributed the land to tenant farmers in Ghana - so that they, who feed our nation and make up the bulk of our population, will also became property owners? Would that not make such farmers (and their descendants!) vote for the current ruling party, to remain in power, till kingdom come? Hmmm, Ghana. Asem ebaba debi. May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana always. Long live Ghana! Long live freedom! Kofi Thompson can be reached by email at: peakofithompson@yahoo.co.uk and by SMS text message on: 027 745 3109.