Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., the managing editor of the Insight newspaper and member of the Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG), says Members of Parliament (MPs) who recently threatened to boycott the President�s State o the Nation Address over issues concerning their emoluments do not deserve it.
He argues that in view of the heckling and the unruly behaviour put up by the MPs especially the opposition NPP, he is convinced their request must wait a little longer. According to Mr. Pratt, parliamentarians would need to conduct themselves properly both in and outside of parliament and show themselves some respect if they want to be respected or taken seriously. Sharing his views on a current affairs program last Saturday on the fallouts of the President�s State of the Nation Address, he said he was disappointed by the heckling behaivour of the MPs towards the President. The minority NPP MPs clad in black and red bandanas round their necks mourned what they called the sorry state of the nation.
They did not mourn in silence as the president delivered his message; they heckled incessantly attracting the president�s light-hearted comment that �even though I expected to be heckled, I did not expect the heckling to be so gargantuan. No sooner had the president finished his delivery, all the Minority members of the House came to their feet waving red cards and chanting �a-w-a-y, a-w-a-y, a-w-a-y.�
To this, Mr. Pratt said, �My problem is not with their black attire, my problem is with their unruly behavior, my problem is with the unreasonable heckling�even the kindergarten pupils when the teacher says �hey stop!� they comport themselves well, here you had the Speaker of Parliament shout �order after order, after order, after order� and their unruly behaviour continued. The Member of SFG indicated that the behavior is despicable, adding �indeed that kind of behaviour that finally convinces me that �Alablaka� $7,000 they are asking for is not deserved and they should not get it, why? Anybody can do what they are doing in parliament.�
The President last week averted MPs threatened boycott of the State of the Nation Address unless he determines their salaries and emoluments which he (President) yielded to a March 1st deadline for a resolution of the MPs grievance. Mr. Pratt noted that there is no way any nation can develop if it focuses only on scandals and does not pay attention to their development of other crucial sectors of the economy. Wondering why the NPP MPs wore mourning clothes to parliament, he asked �Nobody can mourn the reduction in the rate of inflation to 8.7%., nobody can be morning a growth in the economy of 14%, nobody can be mourning an increase in the minimum wage by 56%, nobody can be mourning the removal of schools under trees, the abolition of the shift system in the Greater Accra, nobody can be mourning the supply of school uniforms to people in needy communities and so on, they are the only people who knew what they were mourning.
The member of SFG stated that at a certain stage when he saw the dressing of the MPs, he was beginning to wonder whether indeed they were part of a Jaguar Jokers (Concert Party), insisting �the dressing was so funny, some of them looked so ridiculous in those things by my position is very straight � MPs have a right to decide to dress in any colours of their choice, indeed they may decide to go to Parliament in indigo, or in all yellow � I mean as long as they don�t put those clothes on us that is their headache, they are the only people who knew what they were mourning.
In his view, the opposition NPP was not interested in any other issue, apart from the Woyome judgment debt controversy.
��While the president was talking about health (NHIS) the NPP broke into the cacophony of Woyome Woyome; the president begins to talk about school feeding and they break into same cacophony, Energy the same reaction, the impression people who watched got was that as far as the opposition was (concerned) beyond Woyome there should be no other discussion,� he observed.
Source: The Enquirer
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