VICTORY FOR DEMOCRACY

PARLIAMENT, after an intense debate on the Ghana Telecom (GT)-Vodafone deal, finally voted by a majority decision to approve the Government’s proposal to sell 70 per cent stake in GT to Vodafone.
Reports indicate that in a debate spanning close to three hours, the Minority, in clear terms, stated the reasons for its opposition to the deal while the Majority maintained its stand and also proferred reasons why the deal was best to redeem the dwindling fortunes of GT.
As expected, there had been the usual heckling and name calling with both sides trying to state their cases.
Two days after the parliamentary approval, the nation is still in one piece and poised to move forward after scoring this crucial democratic victory. At least, both sides of the political divide can pat themselves on the back for giving the Ghanaian public the benefit of their incisive arguments and educating the public on the issues involved in the GT-Vodafone deal.
Indeed, both sides raised salient issues that enriched the discussion and helped to provide useful points for the amendment of certain portions of the agreement.
That is what Ghanaians expect from our political leaders — that when the issues get thorny, they will step up public discussion on the issue to throw as much light as possible on them to make Ghanaians better informed on the issues.
The opposition must be commended for deciding to explore the option of dialogue instead of the weapon of walk-out when faced with the likelihood of an uncompromising Majority.
This time round, our honourable parliamentarians from the opposition stayed in the House throughout the entire period of the debate to argue their case. That clearly shows that we have moved a step further and there are good prospects for the future.
The government and the Majority must also be commended for showing the willingness to subject the deal to as much public scrutiny as possible.
In the true spirit of good governance and transparency, the deal was discussed very extensively by representatives of both sides of the political divide in the media.
Now that the government’s proposal has received parliamentary approval, it is time to put the past behind us and move ahead with a united goal.
That goal should be to provide the necessary support, in our own small ways, to ensure that the new telecommunications entity would emerge as a leader in the industry.
No one needs to remind us of the intense competition in the sector, and to be able to overcome the competition, Ghanaians need to recognise that the new entity still has a national identity by virtue of the fact that the government of Ghana still has a 30-per cent stake in Ghana Telecom.
It would be counter-productive and a betrayal of our democratic process to run down GT just because the position one sought on the deal did not get the due parliamentary approval.
It is quite unfortunate that many Ghanaians, despite the fact that GT had been 100 per cent state-owned, preferred other networks to GT and it is our hope that now that there are prospects for a revitalised telecommunications entity as a result of the entry of Vodafone, many Ghanaians would discover their nationalistic fervour.
The DAILY GRAPHIC again congratulates the Speaker of Parliament and all parliamentarians on their exemplary conduct and we hope that this spirit of positive dialogue would be entrenched in our politics.