JJ�s Cadres Return Fire

The Obuasi branch of the United Cadres Front has said that Mr. Jerry John Rawlings� recent outburst to the effect that some people in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were �greedy bastards� was �too bad and too harsh� Clement Sangaparee, Municipal Organiser of the union, in a statement, said Mr. Rawlings uttered those words at a time he was extremely angry. According to Sangapare, Mr. Rawlings should have used the word �destructive infiltrators,� instead of �greedy bastards.� He said it was very unfortunate, because in Ghana a bastard is somebody who was born out of wedlock, and therefore has no father, and in some cases, his mother could not remember his real father, because she slept with so many men before getting pregnant to deliver him. �To use such insults on some destructive infiltrators who wormed their way to hijack the NDC, is too bad and too harsh,� the senior cadre said. They however, attributed the situation to the fact that the NDC, as a party, does not have any mechanisms to discuss matters about party and government relationship, hence concerned members are compelled to go public, when they cannot have issues addressed internally. The cadres said Mr. Rawlings was not against President Mills, and that his outburst was not President, claiming, �he means well.� It was explained that Mr. Rawlings was out to correct certain lapses in the government, and if he was not allowed to do that, he would have to correct the lapses in the party, of which he is the Founder, in order to encourage the responsible conduct of government appointees and elected officials. The cadres indicated that former President Rawlings was the right person to advice President Mills, but it must be based on respect, and not insults, no matter how angry he might be. They said, however, that it would be beneficial to him (Mills) and the NDC party, as well as Ghanaians, if the President heeds the advice of Rawlings. They called on Ghanaians to support President Atta Mills to complete his eight-year term and deliver, reminding critics of the Atta Mills administration that Ghanaians gave the President a four-year man date, and not 11 months, or a year�s mandate to rule. �We must know that President Mills is a professional lawyer and not a soldier like Rawlings, so he can never ever behave like Rawlings at all,� hence the need to allow him to use his political knowledge, as a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute at Winneba, to rule Ghanaians. According to the cadres, most party executives, including some Constituency Chairman and district chief executives (DCEs), constantly find faults with the Mills administration, yet they do nothing at all to correct them. Some DCE�s and constituency chairmen have also been accused of teaming up to ensure that some executive members in the party are appointed National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) co-ordinators and NFED co-ordinators, mostly newcomers who pretend that they are loyal and faithful to the NDC, to replace them. Mr. Sangaparee indicated that those people attacking Rawlings � the Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, and Moses Asaga � are rather some of the destructive infiltrators within the NDC, as well as the No. 1 enemies of President Mills� government. The cadres have therefore called on the President to stop being too angelic, by allowing New Patriotic Party (NPP) appointees to remain at post for whole year, whilst cadres still roam the streets jobless, against the fact that the NPP cleared all NDC appointees on assumption of power in 2001.