HARD CHOICES AWAIT US

A WORD to the wise, they say, is enough. But for public opinion to be effective, it has to be reinforced time and again.
With Election 2008 fast approaching, everybody is concerned about the conduct of the polls to ensure stability, peace and unity in the country. For this reason, members of the clergy, traditional rulers, civil society groups and, indeed, politicians themselves miss no opportunity to talk about the crucial nature of the elections.
The tense nature of the competition sometimes creates the impression that the December 7 elections are a do-or-die affair.
In our issue of yesterday, the Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Oti Boateng, and a former National Security Co-ordinator, Mr Bentum Quantson, urged politicians and the electorate to avoid utterances that were likely to inflame passions and destabilise the country during and after the general election.
Speaking during a courtesy call on him by Queen Sheba III, Daasebre Boateng admonished politicians to conduct their campaigns on issues of national interest, devoid of personal attacks and insults.
Elections are contests for power and control over the resources of the country. The electorate, thus, surrender their mandate to politicians to hold in trust for a period, for which reason the decisions that the majority of the people make on December 7 must be informed by the desire to expand the frontiers of the country’s development process.
It is in this vein that we endorse Daasebre’s advice to Ghanaians not to allow themselves to be influenced by politicians with money and material things, explaining that “if we do so, they only succeed in buying our conscience and our vote”.
The decision must be based purely on our desire to progress and those who demonstrate their readiness to offer selfless leadership must be voted for.
Election 2008 offers us the opportunity to decide the next direction of our economic endeavours.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, advises the electorate not to be swayed by emotions and empty rhetoric but examine the promises that are being made by politicians before casting their ballot on December 7.
We have no doubt at all that all the politicians mean well, but we should be careful not to swallow everything they tell us hook, line and sinker just because they have promised to do certain things for us.
We should scrutinise the manifestos of the parties and the visions of the aspirants to determine those that will offer pragmatic solutions to the problems plaguing the country.
It is not just enough for politicians to tell us that they have the antidote to fix the problems of the country, without suggesting in concrete terms how the resources will be mobilised to pay for those programmes.
We need to look critically before we leap because the country needs to make harsh choices at Election 2008 in order to attain a middle-income status by 2015.