Rawlings tells NDC youth – Let the government know the truth

Ex-President Rawlings during the meeting Former President and founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings has called on the youth of the party not to allow their sense of what is right to go waste. Speaking at youth forum organised by the Youth Wing of the party at Ho last Saturday, he lamented the failure of the NDC government to tap the adrenalin that came with the early 2009 victory leading to the increased confidence of persons who perpetuated wrongs during the New Patriotic Party regime. The founder of the NDC said there is an unfortunate disquiet within the country and the youth had to be bold and state the obvious. “If you lose your courage, we’ve had it. Be bold in saying what the reality is. “Today we are contending with some of these NPP characters misbehaving at various institutions. With the way things are going what are you going to tell the people when 2012 is approaching so they can take you seriously to retain power? He asked. The former President said nature had a way of correcting itself and will do so if the NDC failed to take the right actions. “The NPP expropriated the resources of this country. Tema Harbour was literally split down and taken. Can we not take action to redress the rot? Can we not investigate or re-investigate these wrongs? “Do not sleep; you must be thinking twenty four hours daily. The NPP does not sleep. It is easy to rule a people if you can divide them like the NPP did. It is only easy to rule a united people if you can give integrity throughout. A united nation has a sense of purpose – a sense of mission. “They cheated in 2004 and we allowed it. They tried again in 2008 but the people will not allow it. If we do not right the wrongs and economic pain sets in, our people will not be able to contain it. But if we are seen to be correcting the wrongs, doing the right thing, then when the economic pain sets in the people will be able to accommodate it,” the NDC founder said. Former President Rawlings said the NDC is a very special phenomenon that came out of the PNDC and AFRC and questioned how many of the youth of the party will report to the President on the negative happenings on the ground. “How many of you will for instance report the poor performance of District Chief Executives. Forty percent of them are under-performing. Some of them are outright incompetent. “If you the youth see things and do not say it and I say it then I become an easy target all the time. But the reality of what I say is out there and you have to voice it out,” the former President said. Former President Rawlings said the youth had a responsibility to guide government with the truth because the government is in power because of the electorate and not vice-versa. Touching on recent elections at all levels of the party, the former President said there were too many unacceptable issues with the conduct. “When the people elected do not have the heart of the people there is no way they will fight for such a person. Our party does not survive on money but on our beliefs. People have shed their blood to restore integrity back into the country - integrity that dissipated under the NPP regime. Unfortunately we have allowed the heat of the election victory to slip away.” The former President wondered why the NPP was bold enough to hold its Congress at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium while the NDC barricaded itself into an indoor venue and prevented the masses from partaking in the process. The NDC as a mass-based party, the founder noted, cannot succeed if it does not correct the dislocation within the major institutions of state. We have to submit to the will of the people or we will not make it. He lamented the failure of the government to re-investigate some of the persecution that took place within the armed forces and other agencies. He said he counselled the President to recall soldiers who had been wrongfully dismissed or retired from the forces but he was told not to do so by one of his advisors who said recalls were done only during war or state of emergency. “So I asked myself does the President not realise we have a state of emergency on our hands? I stated that it did not have to be a forced recall but a voluntary one. Nothing happened since but today some of our finest soldiers are being processed to be thrown out.” The NDC founder called on President Mills not to listen only to reports from his security apparatus but also from recognised interest groups so that he will know the realistic picture of what is happening on the ground. “Let the government know the reality on the ground. That is the responsibility I am giving you,” he charged the youth of the party. Credit:http://jjrawlings.wordpress.com