Rawlings, Jerry (1947–)

Jerry John Rawlings, who ruled Ghana between June and September 1979 and from December 1981 to January 2001, was born on June 22, 1947. He is charismatic, with a penchant for populist rhetoric and a cunning ability to identify with the masses. His analysis of deprivation and poverty pits the privileged elite against the oppressed masses. At a symbolic level, these acts demystified the office of the head of state and presented Rawlings as a leader in touch with his people by being willing to sacrifice the conveniences of office. His political rhetoric emphasizes accountability, probity, equity, social justice, and grassroots participation, portraying him as a paragon of virtue and a defender of the subaltern, even though some actions by his governments cast doubt on the extent to which these principles were upheld under his watch.

Rawlings was commissioned as a pilot officer in the Ghana Air Force in January, 1969. On May 15, 1979, he was arrested for attempting a coup which, he averred, was motivated by extensive corruption within the military government, elite privilege, and socioeconomic deprivation among the masses. On June 4, 1979, he was freed from custody by some military personnel. The operation culminated in a coup d'état, and Rawlings was appointed chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). The AFRC ruled for 4 months, pursuing a “housecleaning exercise” to rid the country of socioeconomic ills and promote the virtues of probity and accountability among citizens. It received tremendous popular support, even though the period witnessed extreme human rights abuses against those who were seen as enemies of the “revolution.” The AFRC handed over power to the democratically elected government of the People's National Party (PNP).

On December 31, 1981, Rawlings overthrew the PNP government, accusing it of violating the tenets of the revolution, and formed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). Much of the PNDC era witnessed a brutal assault on political dissent and free expression, in the media and elsewhere, culminating in the incarceration, death, and disappearance of some regime opponents. The result was a “culture of silence,” as citizens felt intimidated from voicing alternative views freely. The government maintained a stranglehold on the state-owned media using legal instruments, such as the Newspaper Licensing Law, to control the limited private press that existed.

In the early 1990s, the PNDC was compelled, through internal and external pressure, to initiate a transition to constitutional rule. Notwithstanding his avowed disdain for multi-partyism, Rawlings founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to contest democratic elections in 1992 under a new democratic constitution. He and his party won this, and the 1996, election. Political expression was more open, but the NDC used legal and extra-judicial tactics to curb expression, even in a democratic setting. The regime [Page 701]exploited the convenience of the archaic colonial laws of criminal libel and sedition to cow and victimize journalists. The law of sedition prohibited the publication of any material that could be discerned by the authorities as threatening to national security and public order, exciting disaffection against the government, or evoking hatred or contempt for it. Even though Section 183A of the penal code (which made it an offense to publish any material “with intent to bringing the President into hatred, ridicule or contempt”) preceded the Rawlings regimes, it was conveniently and rigorously applied by the regime to mollify criticism. The government employed the power of arrest for emotional, psychological, and sometimes physical torture of journalists. To this end, it used those security agencies that were notorious for brutality (such as the Bureau of National Investigation and the military), instead of the police to effect the arrest of its staunchest critics in the media.

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