Contemporary Constitutional Issues in our Multiparty Democracy become axiomatic that the media can dictate taste and create models. Moreover, the word ' media ' itself refers to an idea of ' mediated ' reality, a reality that is no longer ' immediate '” . 8 Flowing from the above, “ the media ” , as I define it here will include politicians like Members of Parliament and Civil Society Organisation(CSOs) through whom the reality of the common woman is mediated and invariably misunderstood or deliberately distorted to the advantage of the “ media ” . Where “ the media ” sets the agenda for constitutional reform in accordance with their interests, they are setting an inappropriate agenda for the common woman. This problem is more serious than we think and will take a lot to address. The dearth of information on the basis of which ordinary people can take decisions about whether or not we need a constitutional amendment is lacking. The sophist consultations that CSOs and consultants engage in nowadays cannot fill this void. Added to the above are the self acclaimed Constitutional – Demi-God ' s, whose acclaim lies merely on their number of years on the job, and not the intrinsic integrity and resoluteness of their espousals. When these people speak nothing, it is taken as something, because of the author, not because of the statement. In the face of such Constitutional Demi-God ' s, the ordinary voices, which alone can voice the real constitutional issues that they confront on a daily basis, will need shut up. I know I have disappointed you in the course of this lecture by refraining from providing a list of issues for consideration in the amendment of the 1992 Constitution. What I have tried to do in this lecture is to point to how we may be chasing the wind in our effort to amend our Constitution by focusing on issues that are irrelevant to the majority of Ghanaians and completely ignoring issues that are very, very relevant to the survival of the majority of Ghanaians. I have sought to establish that this is not a mistake but a deliberate agenda of the middle and upper class, conscious or unconscious. I have also noted that this state of affairs, which permeates not only the Constitutional amendment process, but all areas of policy and legal change forebode an implosion of our polity which we cannot afford. The two opposing propositions for and against the amendment of the Constitution are both wanting in significant respects. Those clamouring for an amendment of the Constitution are doing so for the wrong reasons. Those insisting that the 8 Marilena Amerise,“On the Nedd for a Critical Approach to the Media”, Catholic Standard, April 19-April 25, P. 2. 16
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Contemporary constitutional issues in our multiparty democracy : 22nd April, 2009, British Council Hall, Accra ; 2009 Annual Law Week celebration, Ghana School of Law, 20th - 26th April. 2009
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