The Deputy Attorney General and MP for Tempane Constituency, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, on Tuesday appealed to the general public to see Members of Parliament as fallible and not subject them to undue criticisms or attacks.
He said the MPs were elected to legislate and contribute their quota to the development of the country, rather than being insulted at the least error or fault.
“MP are sometimes taken to the cleaners without provocation, Mr Speaker, this is as a result of the breakdown of indiscipline in our society.
Contributing to a statement titled “The relevance of Parliamentary Acts without Law Enforcement” in Parliament, in Accra, by Mr Daniel Okyem Aboagye, MP for Bantama, Mr Kpemka insisted that law enforcement was fundamental to democratic governance and accelerated national development.
Mr Kpemka said: “In trying to deepen our democracy, law enforcement must be at the core of everything. The very things seen as insignificant are the causes of lack of law enforcement in the country.”
He therefore called on colleague MPs to desist from aiding citizens to be undisciplined as that often becomes the basis for citizens to turn around and bastardise the lawmaker.
He added: “You find people riding motorbikes recklessly, and when they are arrested they call people in high authority, including MPs to come to their aid to talk to these law enforcers to let them go scot free.”
According to the MP, when people are emboldened to act in such a manner, knowing very well that the next call would release them from trouble, they would continue to perpetrate acts with impunity.
Mr Kpemka regretted the situation where law enforcement agents are sometimes given punitive transfers or threatened with such, when they fail to heed to the call by people in high authority to aid or overlook unlawful acts.
“The laws are enacted by Parliament, and in the course of implementation, the critical reality stare in the face, and when trouble looms as a result of our own conduct, we bemoan it and then forget about it and move forward in like manner,” Mr Kpemka said.
First Deputy Speaker and MP for Bekwai, Joseph Osei Owusu bemoaned undisciplined acts of jumping traffic and littering and urged the law enforcement agents to go all put to bring offenders to book.
Mr Sam Nartey George, MP for Ningo Prampram, urged colleague legislators to act in a manner that would not bring the institution of Parliament into disrepute.
He was of the view that Parliament remains the fulcrum and bastion of the country’s democracy because it is the representation of the people, and pointed out that parliamentarians had a responsibility to protect the institution.
Members of Parliament, he said, must lead by example and be careful about their conduct on the roads, citing for example, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament earlier warning this year to members against the use of sirens.
“Mr Speaker, we have all seen the videos, if we had heeded to the counsel of the first Deputy Speaker earlier this year, parliament may not have been dragged to the things we have seen in the past few weeks,” Mr George said.
Mr Aboagye, in the statement, called on parliamentarians to support the law enforcement agencies to discharge their duties professionally.
He said the law enforcement institutions are the creation of parliament and the legislature must therefore be seen as aiding law enforcement which enhances the work and image of the House.
He noted that without law enforcement the work of the law-makers would not be worthwhile.
Mr Aboagye also commended Citi TV and the Police Service in their recent collaborative work in enforcing the Road Traffic Act (RTA) and Road Traffic Regulation (RTR) which are both an Act of parliament.
He said the reportage of the traffic violations has generated a lot of public discussion about the fact that certain members of the society including lawyers, doctors, teachers, security officials and law-makers do not respect the laws.
He urged the Police Service to sustain their law enforcement effort on the roads to help reduce the more than 2,500 lives lost annually as a result road accidents.
“Mr Speaker, while I believe in democracy, parliamentary immunities, the supremacy of the law (and the fact that no one is above the law and the law must be no respecter of persons), I also believe that members of parliament should not be seen abusing our privileges or institutions that enforce them”.
He urged the Police to seize every opportunity for law enforcement collaborations, adding that, the Police itself must do more law enforcement on their own without the camera.
Some MPs in recent times had come under fire for violating certain road regulations in the Citi TV’s war against indiscipline campaign where fellow legislators, security personnel, lawyers among others had been exposed.
GNA