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Sirleaf has to challenge. President
Sirleaf, as way forward to restore Liberia’s image abroad through democratic
empowerment of the people, addressed six important issues without which
democracy can not be practiced. Major issues that Liberians are carefully
monitoring are corruption and the administration way of handling the press.
As Liberians reflect on the past 367 days of this administration, it is
important to go back to the inaugural speech of President Sirleaf to know
her administration stands. Some Liberians say President Sirleaf is not doing
enough to fight corruption. Liberians also say she is always at loggerhead
with journalists. How about reconciliation? Some Liberians want War Crimes
Court to replace Truth and Reconciliation.
Reconciliation
Today, as we usher in a new era of responsibility,
accountability, and transparency, we must strive to reawaken our people’s
faith in their Government. We must also recognize the urgency and imperative
of meeting the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction. Yet, no single
issue or factor will define our success or failure in this endeavor more
than our willingness and ability to come together as a nation and people.
Consequently, no task will be more urgent and more compelling; no cause will
require my personal attention and engagement than national reconciliation.
As in the case of the overall challenge of economic
reconstruction, there will be no quick fix to national reconciliation and
healing. But we can neither flinch from the challenge, nor be overwhelmed by
its complexities. After all, some of the underlying factors of our current
problems are as deep and old as the history of our country. So, we must
begin today to reconcile and heal our nation with deliberate and purposeful
commitment, recognizing that we are first and last Liberians – and that our
nation’s strength, progress, and development are directly impacted by our
unity, peace, security, and stability as a people.
Therefore, I today pledge my personal involvement in the work
of reconciling and healing our country. The Truth and Reconciliation
Commission has an important role to play in this regard and my
Administration will support and strengthen the Commission to enable it to
carry out its mandate effectively.
My Fellow Citizens:
Let me assure you that my Presidency shall remain committed
to serve all Liberians without fear or favor. I am President for all of the
people of this country. I therefore want to assure all of our people that
neither I nor any person serving in my Administration will pursue any
vendetta. There will be no vindictiveness. There will be no policies of
political, social, and economic exclusion. We will be an inclusive and
tolerant Government, ever sensitive to the anxieties, fears, hopes, and
aspirations of all of our people irrespective of ethnic, political,
religious affiliations, and social status. Let us be clear, however, that we
will insist on specified standards of law abiding behavior in the exercise
of this tolerance.
My Fellow Liberians, Ladies and Gentlemen:
By their votes, the Liberian people have sent a clear
message! They want peace; they want to move on with their lives. My charge
as President is to work to assure the wishes of our people. We will
therefore encourage our citizens to utilize our system of due process for
settling differences whether those differences are within or between ethnic
groups, or whether they are within or between religious groups. However, we
will forcefully, swiftly and decisively respond to any acts of lawlessness,
threats to our hard earned peace, or destabilizing actions that could return
us to conflict.
As we today savor the new dawn of hope and expectation, I
pledge to bring the Government closer to the people. The days of the
imperial Presidency, of an intrusive leadership, and of a domineering and
threatening Chief Executive are over in Liberia. This was my campaign
promise which I intend to keep. Yet, my Government will be unflinching and
bold in influencing and defending those measures that ensure that our
national goals are achieved.
In pursuing this policy, our Constitution will remain our
source of strength. Its edifying phrase, WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE REPUBLIC OF
LIBERIA, and its equally ennobling proclamation that ALL POWER IS INHERENT
IN THE PEOPLE, will be given concrete meaning and expression in all of our
national life and conduct. The Executive Mansion and Monrovia will no longer
be the only centers of power and sources of development policy making. The
people and their interests, as defined by them, will be at the very heart of
our new dispensation of decentralization and the devolution of power.
And now I would like to talk to the women, the women of
Liberia, the women of Africa – and the women of the world. Until a few
decades ago, Liberian women endured the injustice of being treated as second
class citizens. During the years of our civil war, they bore the brunt of
inhumanity and terror. They were conscripted into war, gang raped at will,
forced into domestic slavery. Yet, it is the women, notably those who
established themselves as the Mano River Women Network for Peace who labored
and advocated for peace throughout our region.
It is therefore not surprising that during the period of our
elections, Liberian women were galvanized – and demonstrated unmatched
passion, enthusiasm, and support for my candidacy. They stood with me; they
defended me; they prayed for me. The same can be said for the women
throughout Africa. I want to here and now, gratefully acknowledge the
powerful voice of women of all walks of life whose votes significantly
contributed to my victory.
My Administration shall thus endeavor to give Liberian women
prominence in all affairs of our country. My Administration shall empower
Liberian women in all areas of our national life. We will support and
increase the writ of laws that restore their dignities and deal drastically
with crimes that dehumanize them. We will enforce without fear or favor the
law against rape recently passed by the National Transitional Legislature.
We shall encourage families to educate all children, particularly the girl
child. We shall also try to provide economic programs that enable Liberian
women to assume their proper place in our economic revitalization process.
Political Renewal
A New Era of Democracy
First, let me declare in our pursuit of political renewal,
that the political campaign is over. It is time for us, regardless of our
political affiliations and persuasions, to come together to heal and rebuild
our nation. For my part, as President of the Republic of Liberia, my
Government extends a hand of friendship and solidarity to the leadership and
members of all political parties which participated in our recent
presidential and legislative elections. I call upon those who have been long
in the struggle – and those who recently earned their stripes – to play
important roles in the rebuilding of our nation.
Committed to advance the spirit of inclusion, I assure all
Liberians and our international partners and friends that our Government
will recognize and support a strong democratic and loyal opposition in
Liberia. This is important because we believe that our democratic culture
and our nation are best served when the opposition is strong and actively
engaged in the process of nation building.
Moreover, we call upon our colleagues of all political
persuasions now in the Diaspora to return home and join us in meeting this
exciting challenge of national renewal. We are aware that we have hundreds
of doctors, engineers, and economists, as well as thousands of teachers,
nurses, professors, and other Liberians who possess specialized skills
currently living abroad. I re-echo my appeal to all of you to please come
home!! Please make the sacrifice, for your country needs you and needs you
now!!!
We make a similar appeal to the thousands of our citizens who
continue to live in refugee camps throughout the sub-region and beyond. We
recognize and sympathize with your plight and will explore with our
development partners ways and means to facilitate your early return home as
a national imperative for our renewal and development. To those who are
still internally displaced, we pledge to work with our partners to get you
back to your communities to enable you to start the process of rebuilding
your lives.
We must have a new understanding. Your job, as citizens, is
to work for your family and your country. Your country’s only job is to work
for you. This is the compact that I offer you today.
Economic Renewal
Governance
In a similar quest for economic renewal, we start on the
premise that we are a wealthy people. Our nation is blessed with an
endowment rich in natural and human resources. Yet, our economy has
collapsed due to the several civil conflicts and economic mismanagement by
successive governments. The task of reconstructing our devastated economy is
awesome, for which there will be no quick fix.
Yet, we have the potential to promote a healthy economy in
which Liberians and international investors can prosper. We can create an
investment climate that gives confidence to Liberian and foreign investors.
We can promote those activities that add value in the exploitation of our
natural resources. We can recognize and give support to our small farmers
and our marketers who, through their own efforts over the years, have
provided buoyancy and self-sufficiency in economic activity, even during the
difficult years of conflict. We can revisit our land tenure system to
promote more ownership and free holding for communities. We can expand
ongoing programs of economic and social infrastructure rehabilitation.
This will call for the translation of our economic vision
into economic goals that are consistent with our national endowment and
regional and global dynamics. Included in this process is a formulation of
the policy framework and identification of the sequential measures of
structural change that need to be taken to achieve the overarching goals of
sustainable growth and development. We will ensure that allocation of our
own resources reflects these priorities. We will call upon our development
partners to likewise recognize that although they have made significant
investment to bring peace to our country, this peace can only be
consolidated and sustained if we bring development to our people.
With this in mind, we are working with our partners to
identify key objectives and deliverables in the first one hundred and fifty
days of our Administration which coincides with the remaining budgetary
period of the former government. We must meet our commitment to restore some
measure of electricity to our capital city. We must put Liberians back to
work again. And we must put our economic and financial house in order. Most
of all, we must revive our mindset of courage, hard work, and a can do
spirit.
Our strategy is to achieve quick and visible progress that
reaches significant number of our people, to gain momentum, consolidate
support, and establish the foundation for sustained economic development.
This will encompass five major pillars: Security, Economic Revitalization,
Basic Services, Infrastructure, and Good Governance.
In implementing the programs consistent with this strategy,
we will ensure broad geographic representation and participation, placing
emphasis on those areas that have received less in the distribution of
economic benefits. In this regard, we thank the European Union for
supporting activities in the power sector, in community development, as well
as providing technical assistance in economic management. We thank the
United States for supporting the restructuring and training of our security
forces, for activities in community development, and for commencing the
construction of the Barclayville Bridge in the
neglected area of the Southeast.
We thank our sisterly countries of Nigeria and Ghana for
providing training for our security forces. We thank the United Nations
System for supporting community development, technical assistance for
economic management, reintegration, and good governance. We thank them also
for the strong peace keeping effort, in conjunction with ECOWAS, which has
enabled us to have an environment that led us to free and fair elections.
We thank the World Bank for support of activities in
community development, infrastructure, and technical assistance in economic
management. We thank the many foreign and domestic non-governmental
organizations for their support for community development, and for peace and
capacity building. As we look ahead, we plan to collaborate closely with
both the international and national NGO’s and the civil society community in
order to formulate an appropriate strategy and approach for their engagement
with our Government in order to maximize their contributions.
For the long term, more will be required from us and our
partners. We will formulate a multi-year economic reconstruction plan tied
to a Poverty Reduction Strategy Program that relieves our country from a
staggering US$3.5 billion external debt and paves the way for acceleration
in our national effort to make more progress in the achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals. We will seek a strong partnership between the
public and private sector, with direct foreign investment and Liberia
entrepreneurship at the core. We envision a multi-year commitment in the
order of US$1 billion for this purpose with details to be presented at a
partnership meeting planned for May or June of this year.
As we seek to engage our youth in our enterprise of nation
building, we must recognize the threat that HIV/AIDS pose to our human
capital and to our growth and prosperity. With 12% of our population now
affected by HIV/AIDS, my administration will tackle this national scourge by
updating and reinvigorating our HIV/AIDS policy within our first 150 days.
We will also reconstitute and empower, along with our development partners,
the National Commission on HIV/AIDS.
Bonding
My Fellow Liberians, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Across this country, from Cape Mount in the West to Cape
Palmas in the East, from Mount Nimba in the North to Cape
Monsterrado in the South, from Mount Wologizi in Northcentral
to Mount Gedeh in the Southeast, our citizens at this very moment are
listening to my voice by radio – and some are watching by television. I want
to speak directly to you. As you know, in our various communities and towns,
our children have a way of greeting their fathers when they come home after
a long, tiring day of trying to find the means to feed the family that night
and send the children to school the next day. They say, “Papa na come.”
Well, too many times, for too many families, Papa comes home
with nothing, having failed to find a job or to get the help to feed the
hungry children. Imagine then the disappointment and the hurt in the mother
and children; the frustration and the loss of self-confidence in the father.
Through the message of this story, I want you to know that I understand what
you, our ordinary citizens, go through each day to make ends meet for
yourselves and for your families.
Times were hard before. Times are even harder today. But I
make this pledge to you: Under my Administration, we will work to change
that situation. We will work to ensure that when our children say “papa na
come”, papa will come home joyfully with something, no matter how meager, to
sustain his family. In other words, we will create the jobs for our mothers
and fathers to be gainfully employed. We will create the social and economic
opportunities that will restore our people’s dignity and self-worth.
We will make the children smile again; the thousands of
children who could not present their voting cards, but repeatedly told me
whenever I met and shook their hands that they voted for me. Indeed, the
voted with their hearts. To those children and to all other Liberian
children across this nation, I say to you, I love you very, very much. I
shall work, beginning today, to give you hope and a better future.
Now, I would like to speak in particular to our youth. You
can believe my word that my Administration will do its utmost to respond to
your needs. We will build your capacity and empower you to enable you
meaningfully participate in the reconstruction of our country. We shall
actively pursue the Kakata Declaration resulting from the National Youth
Conference held in 2005 and the implementation of a National Youth Policy
and Program.
Corruption
Fellow Liberians, we know that if we are to achieve our
economic and income distribution goals, we must take on forcibly and
effectively the debilitating cancer of corruption. Corruption erodes faith
in government because of the mismanagement and misapplication of public
resources. It weakens accountability, transparency and justice. Corruption
shortchanges and undermines key decision and policy making processes. It
stifles private investments which create jobs and assures support from our
partners. Corruption is a national cancer that creates hostility, distrust,
and anger.
Throughout the campaign, I assured our people that, if
elected, we would wage war against corruption regardless of where it exists,
or by whom it is practiced. Today, I renew this pledge. Corruption, under my
Administration, will be the major public enemy. We will confront it. We will
fight it. Any member of my Administration who sees this affirmation as mere
posturing, or yet another attempt by yet another Liberian leader to play to
the gallery on this grave issue should think twice. Anyone who desires to
challenge us in this regard, will do so at his or her personal disadvantage.
In this respect, I will lead by example. I will expect and
demand that everyone serving in my Administration leads by example. The
first testament of how my Administration will tackle public service
corruption will be that everyone appointed to high positions of public trust
such as in the Cabinet and heads of public corporations will be required to
declare their assets, not as part of a confirmation requirement, but as a
matter of policy.
I will be the first to comply by declaring my assets. My
Administration will also accord high priority to the formulation and passage
into law of a National Code of Conduct, to which all public servants will be
subjected.
My Fellow Liberians, Ladies and Gentlemen:
If we are to achieve our development and anti-corruption
goals, we must welcome and embrace the Governance and Economic Management
Program (GEMAP) which the National Transitional Government of Liberia,
working with our international partners, has formulated to deal with the
serious economic and financial management deficiencies in our country.
We accept and will enforce the terms of GEMAP, recognizing
the important assistance which it is expected to provide during the early
years of our Government. More importantly, we will ensure competence and
integrity in the management of our own resources and insist on an integrated
capacity building initiative so as to render GEMAP non-applicable in a
reasonable period of time.
Governance
We know that our desire for an environment for private sector
driven sustainable growth and development cannot be achieved without the
political will and a civil service that is efficient, effective and honest.
The workforce in our ministries and agencies is seriously bloated.
Moreover, many of the ministries and agencies lack clarity in mandate and
have little or no linkages to our national priorities, policies, and goals.
Our Administration will therefore embark on a process of rationalizing our
agencies of government to make them lean, efficient, and responsive to
public service delivery. This will require the creation of a meritocracy
that places premium on qualification, professionalism, and performance.
As a major component of our Civil Service Reform Agenda, we
will review our public service wage system with the view to ensuring that
those who work in our Civil Service are paid commensurate with their
qualifications and performance – and that they are paid on time. It may take
us some time to achieve this objective given our inheritance of a bloated
and poorly paid civil service for which there are currently salary and
benefit arrears totaling some US$20 million.
Our present unemployment situation is a national crisis. We
must redeploy some of our current public service employees to areas where
they can perform successfully. We will start the process to train and
retrain others who lack requisite professional skills. We will empower them
through our proposed alternative employment initiatives. We will also
provide additional support through our proposed micro-loan program.
Foreign Policy
My Fellow Liberians:
Our nation’s foreign policy has historically been rooted in
our core values as a nation and people in the practices of good
neighborliness, non-interference in the affairs of other nations and
peoples, peaceful co-existence, regional cooperation and integration, and
international bilateral and multilateral partnership. These core values will
continue to guide the conduct of our foreign policy under my Administration.
Our foreign policy will take due cognizance of the sacrifices
and contributions that have been made to restore peace, security, and
stability to our country. We will therefore work to be a responsible member
of sub-regional, regional, and international organizations, including the
Mano River Union, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),
African Union, and the United Nations. We will do all that we can to honor
our obligations, past and current, and enforce all international treaties to
which our country has subscribed.
To our sister Republics West, East, and North of our borders,
we make this pledge: under my Administration, no inch of Liberian soil will
be used to conspire to perpetrate aggression against your countries. In
making this commitment, we will work for a new regional security that is
based upon economic partnership aimed at enhancing the prospects for
regional cooperation and integration. In this regard, we propose to tap into
the successful Southeast Asian experiences regarding the promotion of
regional integration with a heavy private sector component.
I also want to speak specifically to the countries which,
from the onset of our civil conflict, have been in the vanguard of
peace-making in
Liberia. Some have made
material and financial contributions. Some have provided moral support.
Others have contributed troops that paid the supreme price for peace in our
country. To our war-dead, our brother soldiers from West Africa and other
regions – as well as to our own, we remember and honor you today. This
occasion is owed to your fortitude and to your sacrifices. To every other
nation and partner, we thank you for standing by us.
By Thomas Kai Toteh
Senior Staff Writer
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