{"id":96805,"date":"2025-10-03T05:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96805"},"modified":"2025-10-03T05:25:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:25:00","slug":"singapore-bans-gum-rwanda-bans-plastics-why-cant-ghana-enforce-order-zanetor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96805","title":{"rendered":"Singapore bans gum, Rwanda bans plastics, why can\u2019t Ghana enforce order? \u2013 Zanetor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 17 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The Korle Klottey MP, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, has challenged Ghana\u2019s inability to enforce basic laws and discipline, pointing to examples from countries like Singapore and Rwanda. <\/p>\n

Speaking on the JoyNews podcast Talk No Dey Cook Rice<\/em>, she lamented what she sees as a growing culture of irresponsibility among both citizens and leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not allowed to chew gum in Singapore. Whether you\u2019re a visitor or whether you\u2019re from Singapore, whether you\u2019re a VIP, no exceptions made. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not allowed to chew gum. It\u2019s as simple as that. You cannot take plastic into Rwanda. Simple as that. There are certain tough decisions you have to take in order to have governance be good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings warned that Ghana\u2019s democratic space is being reduced to a cycle of elections, with little attention to the values that build a strong society. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t seem to appreciate the fact that there are responsibilities that come with the rights that we have as citizens. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt also appears as though we\u2019re constantly taking less responsibility as citizens for what we should be doing. Someone else is going to clean it, someone else is going to fix it, someone else is going to service it.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to her, the disconnect between leaders and citizens has eroded trust. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve steadily moved away from this sense of being a part of the thing to being outsiders of governance. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you don\u2019t have leadership that is willing to bring the people along and expect more of people, you create a feeling of, well, what difference does it make anyway?\u201d<\/p>\n

She also criticised political populism, which she argued undermines integrity in leadership. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems as though we\u2019re constantly chasing elections, and the populism thing is just becoming so central to what is always being done that we are not paying enough attention to what is the right thing to do, not just for today, but for tomorrow, for generations yet unborn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing Rwanda as an example, she stressed that admiration without discipline is hollow. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople look in envy at Rwanda. You can\u2019t litter the way you do over here. There is zero tolerance for selling in the wrong space, but we are not ready to take on board the level of discipline and commitment that it takes to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, good governance goes beyond transparent elections. <\/p>\n

\u201cGood governance is not just about going for elections and having a certain level of trust. You\u2019re making sure that the dignity of the citizen is respected. You\u2019re making sure that working conditions are good enough. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re looking at the roads and making sure that the number of people who are dying in road traffic accidents is no more than the number of people who are dying of disease in hospital, because then you have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings questioned why ordinary citizens face harsher consequences than leaders who misuse state resources. <\/p>\n

She cited the recent jailing of a trader for damaging an overpass. <\/p>\n

\u201cIs it too harsh? I\u2019m not going to comment on that, but are we going to be able to do that to a public servant, a politician, who does the equivalent of damaging that where a road should have been built, and it wasn\u2019t done, it\u2019s full of potholes? <\/p>\n

\u201cThey got the money. We can\u2019t account for how the money translated into a road being built, but they are walking free because maybe they supported someone\u2019s campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

She ended with frustration at the low standards tolerated in governance. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re bringing the bar so low because we feel that it\u2019s okay to do that and get away with it because of politics, I don\u2019t understand that. We have to, at some point, draw the line and do what is right for the people of Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SingaporeThe Korle Klottey MP, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, has challenged Ghana\u2019s inability to enforce basic laws and discipline, pointing to examples from countries like Singapore and Rwanda.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4265,2006,1883,9765,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-zanetor-agyeman-rawlings","category-hp-news-7","category-national","category-plastics","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}