One person should not monopolise power - Justice Apaloo

Rehabilitation of destroyed coconut farms begin

Winneba (Central Region), 29^th December 99

Mr. Justice F. K. Apaloo, former Chief Justice, said on Tuesday that concentration of all state powers in a single individual would lead to dictatorship.

The presidential system, which Ghana operates now "serves us less well" than the parliamentary system.

Justice Apaloo was delivering a lecture on "The year 2000 elections: Issues before the nation" at the 51st Annual New Year School at Winneba on the Theme "Consolidating democracy in Ghana: The year 2000 elections and beyond".

He said unlike the 1969 Constitution, which makes the Cabinet the real government, in the present case, the President constitutes the government.

Mr Justice Apaloo explained that the 1969 Constitution made Cabinet collectively responsible for their decisions.

The legal consequences of this is, "for all that passes in the Cabinet, each member of it who does not resign, is absolutely and irretrievably responsible and has no right to say he agrees in one case to a compromise while in another he was persuaded by his colleagues.

"A member who is not prepared to defend a Cabinet decision must resign. In the cabinet system, members of the government are collectively responsible for the decision whereas, in the presidential system, the President alone is the decider and can by himself over rule the unanimous decision of the Cabinet".

The question therefore is, whether in the circumstances, this country is well served by investing in one individual full government powers, he asked.

Mr Justice Apaloo however said that the President as Head of State should be given some powers under the parliamentary system and as a father figure, he should be insulated from the "hurly burly of everyday politics".

This would enable him to play and be seen to be playing positively his role as father of the nation.

As a constitutional father, he said, the President should embrace all his children whether rich or poor, young or old irrespective of the "child's" political affiliation.

Mr Justice Apaloo said that the Attorney General should be insulated from politics by not holding a ministerial appointment.

"If democracy is to survive it is necessary that legal processes should not be tempered with, he said adding that political expediencies should not be put above the law."

Equality before the law is a primary necessity in a democracy and the Attorney General should be as free as possible in carrying out his functions vis a vis the courts and lawbreakers.

In advising the government, it is important that he should not be tempted to bend and twist the law to justify government policy.

Mr Justice Apaloo said since the Legislature is the bedrock of democracy regard should be given to the undesirability of giving the President the monopoly in the appointment of all members of the Electoral Commission.

He said in Togo for instance all members of the Electoral Commission were formerly appointed by the President but as a result of Opposition accusations of bias and fraud it was recently agreed and the situation was reversed.

Mr Justice Apaloo said that currently Togo's Electoral Commission is composed of 20 members with the government and the opposition providing 10 members each.

He said that there is wide spread feeling that the performance of the Judiciary leaves much to be desired because they lack the courage to go about their duties in an unhindered manner.

Mr Jutsice Apaloo said this fear is due to alleged molestation of members of the bench and cited the murder of the three Judges in 1982 as an example, adding that they were abducted and cruelly murdered "and lost their lives on account of the performance of their judicial duties".

"On another occasion, when a lady judge was in the performance of her duties fearlessly, an attempt was made to kidnap her young children, and a Judge's car was burnt apparently because he made an order, which displeased someone".

Mr Justice Apaloo said the country could not consolidate its current democratic dispensation without the press, saying that no modern institution is more potent in keeping the government in check, in exposing its wrong doing and other acts of mis-governance than the press.

Mr Justice Apaloo said the constitution guarantees the freedom of the press and imposes on it a public duty.

In discharging its functions, however, the press has found itself frequently in collision with both the government and private individuals.

In modern democracies, the sanction taken against an errant press, is a civil claim for monetary compensation, he said, adding that section 114 of the criminal code imposes criminal sanctions in certain specified cases.

"It is within my knowledge that that law was challenged in the Supreme Court as a violation of article 162 of the constitution".

Recent experience show that persons convicted of criminal libel or contempt are invariably sent to prison.

"I do not pretend to sit in judgement on the correctness or otherwise of their convictions". There is however, one matter that troubles me, namely, the routine imposition of custodial sentence in these matters.

"Unless the modern approach to criminal justice is more repressive than in the past, I cannot accept that it is anything other than an abuse of judicial power to send to prison decent and otherwise law-abiding person because he was unfortunate enough to fall foul of free speech or because he did an act, which the Court thinks offends it dignity".

He said the modern theory is that a Court should be slow in making persons who are not real criminals in the true sense of the word familiar with prison life.

It is more so in view of the known dehumanising conditions of the prisons, added.

GRi

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Elmina (Central Region), 29^th December 99

The French government is assisting the Ministry of Food and Agriculture with four million dollars to rehabilitate 1,200 hectares of coconut farms destroyed by the Cape St. Paul Wilt disease.

The assistance is under the Coconut Sector Development Programme to resuscitate coconut farms in the Western and Central regions, Mr. Ransford Arthur, Counterpart Project Manager of the programme told a meeting of the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo Abrem District Assembly.

He said 4,000 of the country's 40,000 hectares of coconut farms, 2,400 in Western Region and 1,600 in Central Region have been affected by the disease.

He said a new coconut hybrid, the Malaysia-Yellow Dwarf-Vanuatu Tall, which is tolerant to the disease will be planted over a five-year period adding that committed farmers will be given inputs to rehabilitate their farms once they applied for assistance.

The credit facility will also be extended to women engaged in the processing coconut.

GRi

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