The political rivalry between the newly launched Democratic Freedom Party and the National Democratic Congress has just begun. This clearly manifested last Saturday October 28, at the official launch of the DFP in Accra. The immediate past chairman of the NDC and the longest serving minister of state, Dr Yao Obed Asamoah, now Patron of the DFP, fired from all angles when he addressed the delegates. He asserted that, in his former party, freedom of thought, access and choice was subject to the dictates of one person and any transgression attracted vilification, character assassination and vulgar abuse by what he called “trained and schooled coterie of serial callers”. Dr Asamoah further charged: “At the conference of the party, non- conformism is met with violence and the threat thereof. In such an atmosphere, intellectualism is atrophied and machismo glorified. And so we have left; we prefer freedom with danger to being in power servitude. No amount of intellectual dishonesty which seeks to present our departure as merely due to my losing the chairman bid will succeed in erasing the facts or in distorting history”. Philosophizing, he warned members of the DFP to expect provocation, particularly from those elements of the NDC who cannot appreciate or concede their right to form, join or leave a political party; no matter what the Constitution says and never mind that it is their conduct that has dictated their course of action. Though Dr Asamoah avoided mentioning the name of the former President in his address, it was clear whom he was referring to, stating that if as a leader one thinks service to the people calls for cleaning gutters at Nima then one must do so whether one is in or out of office. Asamoah added that, if a leader runs the risk of being accused of being hypocritical when he stops afterwards. The one time Attorney General continued that, if as a head of state or a member of government one cannot also gobble up such assets under the cloak of an NGO or other organisation. This, he said, was a conflict of interest par excellence and called on his party members not to create room for corruption. He cautioned supporters not to give false testimony about people but give praise where it is due and condemn only when necessary, noting that no one has a more harrowing experience of false testimony against a person than himself. The octogenarian noted that, if it is wrong for a member of government to send his children to schools abroad, it is equally wrong for the person making the rule to do likewise. He added that, if one threatens to jail his political opponents, he cannot complain, if they want to do likewise, and should not put the blame for their action on the leaders of foreign countries. The interim national chairman of the party Alhaji Abdul Rahaman Issakah, dismissed statements by some NDC presidential aspirants to the effect that they will endeavour to bring back to their fold, those NDC members who are now members of the DFP. This, he said, was based on misconception that the DFP is made up of only former NDC members. “In the fold of the DFP are people who used to belong to the NDC, CPP, PNC, GCPP, NRP and DPP. We want to make it absolutely clear that the formation of the DFP is an irrevocable decision and we are determined to build a new and viable party”, he stated. Source: The Heritage