From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:GHANA: RAWLINGS' RULE -- CHANGE OR CNTINUITY
Date: 7 Nov 92 03:07:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: ddsw1.BxBsp5.EJB
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Opecna Morning Transmission
Title: GHANA: RAWLINGS' RULE -- CHANGE OR CNTINUITY


accra, oct 30 (ips) -- in 1981 flt lt jerry rawlings, then a
skinny gangling chain-smoking young airforce pilot, promised
ghanaians ''nothing less than a revolution'' following his
military coup against the democratically-elected government of
hilla limann.

but rawlings' socialist revolution ended two years after he
came to power with the signing of an agreement with the
international monetary fund (imf).

his rule has been characterised by a hectoring
authoritarianism and avowed distaste for traditional party
politics and politicians.

ghana's 8.9 million electorate is now being asked to choose
between rawlings' paternalism and continuity, or the allure of
the message of change the opposition offers.

rawlings will be judged by the progress of the structural
adjustment programme which, although recording impressive annual
growth rate of between five and six percent, ranks ghana among
the lowest in wage rates in the world, and his human rights
record.

when rawlings made his recent apology to the families of
people executed in the early years of the ''revolution'', he
qualified it by saying he was not sorry for the deaths of
persons who had practised corruption and ''deserved it''.

but observers say despite the years of hardship and
repression -- and unlike other african dictators -- rawlings
commands real support from a sizeable number of people in this
west african nation.

son of a scottish father and a ghanaian mother, rawlings was
20-years-old at independence. he won a scholarship to one of the
best schools in ghana, achimota college, and then opted to
become an airforce cadet.

from the barracks he surveyed the swamp of corruption and
mismanagement that ghana slid into under successive military
and civilian governments following the overthrow of its first
president, kwame nkrumah, in 1966.

his chief rival in the nov. 3 election is prof adu-boahin,
60-year-old leader of the national patriotic party, the heirs of
the pre-independence, conservative and anti-nkruhmaist united
gold coast convention.

rawlings and a group of military young turks were plotting an
end to the blatant corruption of the government of gen kutu
acheampong and a senior officer corps which seized power in
1972. (more/ips)


ghana: rawlings' (2)

by the late 1970s, the country was hit by a wave of strikes
and demonstrations. ghana was close to economic bankruptcy, and
politically in crisis.

adu-boahin was among the leaders of the people's movement for
freedom and justice, a coalition which called for a return to
multiparty politics and opposed the military government's plans
to entrench its hold on power indefinitely.

rawlings led a botched coup attempt may 15, 1979 and was
caught and arrested. at his court martial, rawlings' defence
lawyer read a statement by the accused (rawlings) which
electrified the nation.

his statement condemning the military government's
graft and incompetence had struck a popular chord. he was sprung
out of jail by colleagues jun. 4, 1979, ushering the brief but
bloody rule of the armed forces revolutionary council (afrc).

part of the clean-up exercise which the military junta of
14 junior officers initiated was the execution of former
military heads of state, including gen akwasi afrifa and
acheampong.

market women were beaten in the streets by soldiers on
allegations of trade malpractices. rawlings condemned the
lebanese business community as being parasitic.

one of rawlings' afrc colleagues says the young military
officers had vowed to execute all who had usurped power by force
of arms.

during rawlings' ''second coming'' -- as the coup of 1981 is
termed -- hundreds of others were jailed under subversion
charges. the npp's campaigns coordinator, kwame pianim, spent
nine years in jail.

it is being argued here that rawlings' 11-year rule was
necessary for ghana: to stop the drift, inject economic
discipline which no other government could have so single-
mindedly achieved.

but the ghana of the 1970s is not the ghana of today and
rawlings, confronted by the demand for political pluralism,
seems increasingly anachronistic to a new generation of a more
confident technocrat and business class demanding change.

a period of instability is forecast in which personal scores
maybe settled and the npp's powerful financiers could well want
a return on their investment in the sense of political
influence. (end/ips/ro/oa/apc/92)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african