Design for Opponents

"Honorable members," pleaded the speaker of Ghana's Parliament in the midst of a sudden outburst of anger on the floor, "let there be harmony in this House." Ghana's legislators were debating the Emergency Powers Bill by which the increasingly highhanded government of Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah pro posed to arm itself with virtually dictatorial powers in case of a too-militant opposition. Time and again in the course of the two-week debate, shouts and catcalls, taunts and insults were hurled across the floor.

Principal champion of the bill was blustering, barrel-chested Krobo ("The Crowbar") Edusei, whose power and prestige as Nkrumah's Minister of the Interior would be immeasurably enhanced by its passage. "I'm glad to say," said Edusei, who tends to see a potential subversive behind every tree, "that the country as a whole is quieter now than it has been in three years. But there are still those who, if the opportunity offered, would be ready for a resort to force." The proposed bill is only a routine restatement of emergency powers granted during World War II by Britain to its Governor General, Edusei insisted, and is essential if the government is to "preserve public safety and order in an emergency."

When Is An Emergency? Opposition Leader K. A. Busia, who took two years' leave from his job as sociology professor at Ghana's University College to help his nation find its political legs, pointed out a prime weakness in the argument: there is no emergency.

Argued Busia in level tones: "What the original British bill says is this: 'We shall seek suspension of laws to ride roughshod over fundamental rights only if the entire nation is imperiled by war.' What the Ghana government is now saying is, 'No, no, we want you to give us powers to exercise absolute authority, even if only a local area is affected.' "

As newly independent citizens of a former African colony, said Professor Busia, Ghanaians have a duty to other Africans seeking self-government. "Let us testify our determination to maintain civil liberty and democracy," he cried. Retorted a government spokesman: "The concern of the leader of the opposition merely betrays his guilty conscience because he was and has been the leader of those who perpetrated atrocities in Ashanti"--the wealthy (cocoa and gold) territory that is the heartland of Nkrumah's opposition. "Let me tell the House this bill is being introduced purposely because of the Ashanti," blurted another government spokesman.

Delayed Judgment. By week's end, the government's top-heavy majority had rammed through the Emergency Powers Bill. It was equally successful with the Avoidance of Discrimination Bill, which gives the government the power to ban without a hearing and "in the responsible minister's discretion," any parties or organization "based on racial, tribal, or religious interests." Critics promptly charged that its original title was more frank: Political Parties Restriction Bill. As the opposition fought a losing battle to delay passage by demanding a vote on every clause, Nkrumah's Minister of Justice Ako Adjei bellowed: "The divisions you are calling are merely postponing the time of judgment for those of you in this House against whom they may have been designed."

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