The UK could now be fairly described as a relic of a once strong empire. It is now by all account a pale shadow of its glorious and indomitable past, but the old empire still has a lot of enviable qualities. Aside a strong economy and one
of the countries with the best educational system, the UK still has more than fifteen countries/territories which are British colonies.
I find it unbelievably naive, for the Minority Leader in Ghana’s parliament to suggest that progress cannot be made in our fight against corruption unless the current presidential system is scrapped for the UK parliamentary system.
First of all, the UK is a constitutional monarchy; its parliamentary system has two houses, an elected house – the Commons – and an unelected house – the House of Lords. By all indication Kyei Mensah Bonsu does not believe an independent police force, a judiciary divorced from executive influence, an enlightened civil
society and freedom of information are strong enough to help us make progress in our fight against corruption. The minority leader certainly is unaware of the fact that the UK parliamentary system had been mocked in political circles across the world following the appalling revelations of how almost every member of the UK parliament, including the leaders of the House of Commons and Speaker
of the House had fleeced working families of hard earned tax contributions through fraudulent claims of expenses by MPs.
UK Members of parliament had been making claims they were not entitled to. Taxpayers were coughing up the expenses of an MP whose spouse ordered an adult movie and billed the taxpayer.
The wife wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Iris Robinson, MP, had made claims that included a luxury bed. Another MP, Barbara Follet had presented a bill of nearly £50,000 after she had made claims that included six phone lines and insurance for “fine art.”
Britain’s MPs had exploited the system of parliamentary allowance to subsidise their flashy lifestyles. And it wasn’t the hyped British political system that exposed the sleazy claims made by British members of parliament. No, not all.
But for a courageous whistle blower, and The Telegraph, the would would never have known of this fleecing of British taxpayers. Is that the system our minority leader is proud of? I could forgive Asumah Bandah, who first floated this idea. But I find it offensive that our minority leader would think of a very corrupt system as something that we should copy.
Corruption is so pervasive in British politics that. Millionaires, especially in the Conservative party, WHICH is not surprisingly the sister party of the NPP, are having their will prevail instead of the will of delegates. People like Lord Ashcroft run the Conservative party as if it were their personal property.
Britain has many enviable qualities, but blimey, it is the last country we should look up to or whose system we should copy as a module for our fight against corruption. This is a country which uses the cover of national security as justification for “scrapping” probes by their Serious Fraud Unit into bribery allegation. In 2007, the UK government blocked the SFO from probing alleged bribery of Saudi Arabian officials by BAE Systems – The arms company.
Almost every allegation of corruption by multi national companies in developing countries has the finger prints of British Companies. Ghana does not and must not be like the UK political system to fight corruption. Let us be ourselves, let us strengthen our institutions, promote judicial independence and get the Freedom of Information Act into Law. The statement by Kyei Mensah Bonsu, was poorly thought through, not research and smirks of ignorance coming from the leader of the minority in parliament.
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