I applaud IGP for defending the Ghana Police Service – Frankie Asare-Donkoh writes

Let’s be patriotic, nationalistic, and objective

For those who are blaming the IGP, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, for responding to the unnecessary attack by the British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson, on the Ghana Police and the country’s justice system, why didn’t they question the British High Commissioner for her non-diplomatic utterances?

The integrity of the Ghana Police Service was questioned by a diplomat who knows too well that her position did not permit her to make such undiplomatic statements, and we all, including those who think they know, sat quietly without a word. Then when the IGP responds to the undiplomatic language, we are attacking him instead. What kind of hypocrisy is this?

And sadly, some members of Parliament, are condemning the IGP and praising Harriet Thompson, who by every standard, had breached her diplomatic immunity and protocols. I thought our members of Parliament owe allegiance to Ghana and would therefore defend Ghanaian institutions. What a shame”!

Those who are claiming that in no country would the IGP respond to a diplomat, have ether intentionally refused to admit or pretend not to know that, in no country anywhere in the world are diplomats allowed to make questionable and political statements on internal affairs of the countries they serve. If it was the Ghana High Commissioner in London who did what Harriett Thompson did, he would have been summoned by the Foreign Secretary to go and explain the basis for such a comment.

For the two decades or so that I have lived in both Ghana and the United Kingdom, there has never been any single occasion where the Ghana High Commissioner to the UK or any diplomat in the UK has made any statement on the internal politics and issues of UK, including the many mistakes the Metropolitan Police and other police forces in the UK had made. Are we saying that our High Commissioner in London does not see or hear the many atrocities meted out to especially, black people by the UK police forces? He sees and hears them all, but he is not permitted by the diplomatic protocols to make any public statements about them.

The diplomatic practice is that if a diplomat has concerns about issues taking place in the country they serve, they pass their concerns or comments through the diplomatic channels and not though the media including social media platforms.

Prof Kwaku Asare argues that because a former British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin, had a field day of talking about everything about Ghana, sometimes talking “by heart”, and was never scolded, we should allow Harriet Thompson to do same. Is Prof Asare saying that Benjamin’s behaviour is the yardstick, and that the current high commissioner, Harriet Thompson, can also insult our intelligence and downgrade our governance system and institutions and be allowed to go free because she is a diplomatic? Whose interest are we on?

Prof Asare lives in the US, and I am not sure over there he has seen or heard about diplomats in America publicly attacking either the US government or any of its agencies. So why should Ghana be different? Where from this hypocrisy? And why can’t we be a little nationalistic?

The argument by some MPs that Ghana looks up to the UK for support and so the IGP’s response would affect Ghana’s relationship with the UK is worrying. If that is the thinking of those MPs who are attacking the IGP, why don’t they allow UK MPs to decide for us what to do in Ghana, and for that matter, what is the use of our MPs then?

Are our MPs not aware of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961? They better go and read and save themselves from their ignorance and populist talks. No matter what party is in government in Ghana, principles must be followed, and Ghana’s interest must be paramount.

In the UK, the Ghana High Commissioner would not attack the Metropolitan Police and other Police Forces, therefore, the Head of the Metropolitan Police would have no cause to send a response to the Ghana High Commissioner. It is as simple as that. This is the basic truth we are covering up because of our parochial political and personal interests.

When would our MPs stop defending foreign missions in Ghana to make them look good boys and girls, and get money and visas from the missions to travel?

The simple truth is that if we do not respect ourselves, nobody will respect us. The British High Commissioner is not permitted to make any public pronouncements on the internal affairs of Ghana. We have in recent times allowed western diplomats in Ghana especially, from the US and UK to make all kinds of derogatory comments about our democracy, government, and other institutions without anyone raising fingers at them.

This must stop, and I applaud the IGP for defending the Ghana Police Service.

By: Frankie Asare-Donkoh

Politics/Governance & Media/Communication Consultant

Source: GhanaPlus.com