First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Joseph Osei Owusu (Joe Wise) is concerned about the conduct of some members of the House.
According to him, there is a vast difference in the level of decorum between when he joined Parliament and now.
He said that if this is not controlled, members of Parliament will turn Parliament into a place that could be likened to a ‘boxing ring’ in the near future.
“The level of decorum I observed when I joined [Parliament] and what I observed today, there is a vast difference. If you ask me, it is a bad reflection on young people coming into the chamber. I am afraid that if we don’t curb it now, in the next two or three parliaments, we will not have a parliament; we will have a boxing ring,” Joseph Osei Owusu said.
In an interview with TV3, he stated that the party has the responsibility to groom people to become their representatives in the NDC parliament, referring to the number of youth who have picked up forms to contest parliamentary seats within the NDC.
“Sometimes the parties even go out to recruit people who have not demonstrated that they have the intellectual and social capacity to be public officers; because they are popular, they can win the seat. That appears to be the only consideration that parties give to people who are going to contest the seats.
“The parties which have the responsibility to groom people before they become representatives – they are not doing anything.
Unfortunately, it appears to me that those who are vile in their choice of language, those who are rude in their attitude towards their opponents and sometimes internal opponents, and those who can make the most catching comments about others are gaining more popularity, and they are being put in front,” he said.