It probably says a lot about the diffusion of news these days that former President Rawlings' press conference last Tuesday, took me by surprise although I learnt later that it had been trailed for days in parts of the media. I stumbled upon it by mistake and only heard part of it, which means I did not have the essential thread that perhaps held its many themes together but it was a riveting performance, even on radio. Three things came to my mind as I listened. The first was about where this press conference sat in the grand scheme of the NDC's campaign strategy. I had heard from private conversations and public discussions that the NDC planned to stay on the "issues" because it judged that it could pin down the NPP on the issues especially security, welfare, infrastructure and corruption. A corollary to that strategy would be to keep Mr. Rawlings relatively quiet; definitely not to turn himself into a campaign issue. I realised on Tuesday that if this is indeed an NDC strategy they would have a hard time sticking to it. Former President Rawlings, also known as Jack in some quarters, is a difficult one to keep in a box. He will not only spring up but do so with the loudest shout. This may not be bad for the NDC, because no one can tickle the collective belly of the NDC core supporters like Rawlings does, but it is debatable whether his looming presence will draw in the neutrals that his party would need to take power. The second thing that struck me was that I was struggling to stay with what the former President was saying. I admit that I did not listen from the beginning and as at writing this, I have not had the benefit of reading the transcript but even so I listened enough to have gotten the big picture if not the detail of his presentation. There were too many interesting speculations dressed as serious facts and there were some allegations that would draw the attention of the police in some countries. But overall, one could not escape the sense of being lost in a mass of incoherence. However, it is the third observation that I want to dwell on a bit. I listened enough to hear President Rawlings, say that President Kufuor's government "is intimidating the people of this country". I don't know if the former President is referring to some clandestine process that we ordinary mortals are unaware of, but if he meant "intimidation" as we all understand it in the ordinary sense then I don't see how he can sustain that allegation. It is self-evidently clear that the government of Ghana is either unable or unwilling to intimidate anyone, least of all the opposition. Even the instances that can be cited as government intimidation have rather pointed to, dismal failures and self-inflicted defeat for the government. Let us look at the evidence within the public sphere: there is an apparently thriving opposition press in this country, one that is bold, brash and irreverent to the point of insolence. Political parties, community groups, civil society organisations and all manner of associations operate and even thrive in this country. Of course, there are the injunctions that the police routinely take out against CJA demonstrations which some of us feel are unnecessary. Even in those instances, the police act within the letter, if not the spirit, of the law. If these police antics amount to government intimidation, they have not helped the government as they give more oxygen to the CJA's case as well as provide publicity and sympathy for the demonstrators' cause. The Kufuor government can be faulted on many grounds but only a resident of a parallel planet would argue that it has created an atmosphere of intimidation. The atmosphere is rather one of noisy politicking including the former President's own frequent rancorous contribution to that climate. I would rather have that any day instead of the culture of silence that once prevailed. The former President gave his press conference on Ghana's Republic Day and I think it is against the backdrop of what it means to be a sovereign people that Mr Rawlings' intervention must be judged. No matter what anyone says about this country's development the reality is more complex than the one dimensional picture that politicians feel compelled to paint. The report card after fifty-eight years must read "Can Do Better", maybe even "much better", and the adult thing would be for this country to have an intelligent conversation about where we are coming from, where we are today and where we are going. We have been through every imaginable process to which a people can be subjected: colonialism, slavery, dictatorships, coups d'etat, even pseudo-revolutions. We have arrived at a point that however flawed, allows more of our people to speak within the public space. It would be naive to consider that we are anywhere near a perfect system. We are governed by opaque systems and institutions with little transparency about what governments do and how they do them, but this is the same as was the case in Mr Rawlings' time. Furthermore, as in the Rawlings years, the big people of this country ride roughshod over the masses and they have nowhere to turn as opposition politicians only declaim with synthetic fury about justice and human rights There are many things Mr Rawlings, if he wished to be a unifying elder statesman, could advocate on our behalf: our parliament, which must represent our popular will is grossly under-resourced; the executive arm of government, under him as under his successor, is too powerful; there are no serious institutions defending ordinary people as consumers of both public and private services and we need a strong voice to lead on this. Mr Rawlings' press conference was held also on the final day of the African Union summit in Sharm el Sheik in Egypt which was dominated by Mr Mugabe's usurpation of power in Zimbabwe. We have problems in this country but compared to what is happening in Zimbabwe this must be paradise. I find it sadly ironic that the former President is not claiming his undeniable role in instituting democracy in Ghana. Despite the deep division that appears to exist between the NPP and NDC I have been at several functions at which one could not tell the MPs from one party from the other on the basis of who they interacted with. The last such event was at Koforidua where the Cultural Initiatives Support Programme (my day job) hosted the Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth, Culture and Sports. The MPs were very friendly towards one another and bantered like students on a day away trip. They all mixed together whether we were working, chatting or having a meal. I don't think you would have an atmosphere in a climate of fear and intimidation such as you would find in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, in Egypt, African leaders as expected staged a diplomatic fudge on Zimbabwe and were not able to provide leadership for the unfortunate people of Zimbabwe who had looked to them for salvation. It is not surprising. Many of the leaders, including the host, Mubarak of Egypt have been in power for more than 20 years and plan to go on in defiance of their people's will. Robert Mugabe is now an illegitimate president but like the emperor without clothes few in his entourage can tell him the truth. The sad thing about Mr Mugabe is that despite his admirers' claims that he is the subject of a British and American conspiracy; he is largely the victim of his own self-righteous belief that only he is right all the time and that anyone who opposes him has to be wrong. He will assert this in a press conference any day now. Sounds familiar? Credit: The Mirror/Kwasi Gyan Apenteng [e-mail: gapenteng@hotmail.com]