THE CARPENTRY AFFAIR Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, the minority leader must have a very bad mojo. He just cannot seem to stop shooting himself in the foot. How is it possible to be in opposition and be put on the defensive? That should be the problem of the government. Blame it on his mojo or rather his inability to remain silent, either way he has an odd knack for making odd statements at odd times. Earlier in the year, he defended the perennial complaints of MPs regarding their salaries. Now this was both awkward and insensitive. The nation WAS and IS going through dire economic straits and so it was not and is still not the wisest time for a politician to ask for more money for his pocket. Politically it was an avoidable liability, one which made him no new friends but definitely decimated his admirers. This week, whichever malevolent spirits plague the Minority Leader were hard at work. In this case, it was the case of chairs for parliament which had to be imported from China. And here again, the minority leader demonstrated remarkable poor judgment in his public defence of the purchase. Whatever decision was taken must have been a collective one, why offer your head to be sacrificed? And now about China and the Chinese, the two seem unavoidable, don’t they? I am excited whenever I buy something which is NOT made in China. These days, that is something to be excited about. In the past I would be excited if I bought a product which said, Made in Ghana. But now that is a rarity, something special, a finding which puts me beyond the realm of excitement and births in me a celebratory mood. It is a sad situation, if there is not enough West African hard wood and good enough Ghanaian carpenters to produce furniture for our parliament. And it is equally sad that after the ‘Chinese’ decision had been taken and implemented, leadership of parliament did not bow their head in shame but rather mounted a rather spirited defence of such shame. We are good enough to vote them into power, but not good enough to fashion their chairs. Now, about this whole thing called democracy, at least Ghanaian democracy, I seem to have had my fill of it. Since everything mass produced is cheaper when done in China, maybe along with the Chinese chairs, we should have imported Chinese MPs who would probably do a much better Job than the poor lot we are saddled with. In September, the Indians sent a probe to Mars and this week, the Europeans had a rendezvous with a Comet and here we are fumbling with carpentry!
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 17:58:12 +0000
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