Unity Party's Loss - December 10, 2009
After reading Party Chairman Charles Clarke’s
assessment of why his party, Unity Party, failed to win the recently
held Montserrado County Senatorial By-election, as reported in the
New Democrat – “the importing of officials with fabulous salaries
….and the divorcing of the party from the government,” – it became
needy to throw some glare on reasons for the loss.
Mr. Clarke, your party failed because your government
has become unresponsive to the governed and has not been able to
deliver on the many promises it made since its ascension to power.
Where are the schools? Where is the pipe-borne water? What about
health-care for indigent Liberians? What happened to the roads? What
happened to the fight against corruption? What about the
electricity? What happened to the code of conduct? What happened to
the jobs? Have you all forgotten about easing the hardship of the
Liberian people and “papa coming home?” What happened to the
glorious Poverty Reduction Strategy? What percentage of the
“deliverables” has been achieved and how has it reduced the level of
poverty in Liberia? Will there be anymore “deliverables” for the
masses or just “deliverables” for the few?
Let it be clear, Mr. Clarke as you pitifully rant and
rage due to your souring loss, Liberians are Liberians whether they
live at home or abroad and if one decides to go home to work for his
people, he is not being “imported.” You and many in Monrovia have
begun to poison the minds of our people back home that their
brothers and sisters are being “imported” and this is now developing
into a rift between Liberians at home and those abroad. There are
those Liberians who resided abroad that Ellen Sirleaf singularly
hand-picked for jobs in Liberia, offered lucrative remuneration that
is comparatively unfair to the struggling masses, are corrupt and
stealing from the Liberian people; and there are serious minded
Liberians abroad who are honest, diligent and dedicated to hard work
and change – the likes of John Morlu, Liberia’s Auditor-General. The
former are the ones responsible for your loss along with your
leader. Your party’s continued failure is now beginning to take the
country in the wrong direction. And sadly its action would be why
“through crab, crawfish drink water”!
The Lions Club Of Unity Party - November
11, 2009
No one can deny the enormous need for resources to fund any
political campaign. Even in the west this undertaking is revenue intensive
and requires donations and fundraising activities to cover the long list of
expenses. Toward this end, candidates and their political campaign organize
and undertake a number of activities to attract funding for their cause.
Like in the United States, political action committees (PACs) are put
together by candidates to raise funds for the campaign. Most times
candidates and their campaigns seek and receive donations from corporations,
groups and individuals who identify with the stance of the candidate or
their party. And there are rules that govern these committees and their
activities, as there are also rules that govern the limits of such
contributions. At no time do candidates use humanitarian organizations or
their symbols to solicit funding for political purpose.
However, when Clemenceau Urey, the ruling Unity Party
candidate for the vacant senatorial seat of Montserrado County, Liberia,
used the symbol of the Lions Club International to raise fund for his
political campaign, it brought into the question the objectives and mission
of this humanitarian entity. Many in Liberia have benefitted from the work
of Lions in their communities through the many contributions and
humanitarian work they have performed, and are grateful. As such, many in
Liberia see the club as one that is there to help communities in times of
disaster, need and/crisis. At no time do they see the club as a fundraising
arm of a political entity, such that its symbol is used to attract funds for
one of its member’s political escapade. By doing so, the image and
objectives of the Lions become diluted, and the entity itself becomes seen
not only to serve the purpose of the larger society, but as a resource
generating engine for a few whose political ambitions see no boundaries.
One of the Lions Club’s stated purposes is “to provide
a forum for the open discussion of all matters of public interest; provided,
however, that partisan politics and sectarian religion shall not be debated
by club members.” No where in the vision statement, mission statement, or
purpose of this organization does it require members to use its symbol to
solicit funding for political purposes. This is discouraged! Urey and the
Unity Party have crossed the line! And this is the time for citizens to
stand up and challenge Urey and his party for intentionally using the symbol
of a humanitarian organization to raise fund for their singular political
cause, as this was not inadvertent. Unity Party and Urey cannot be allowed
to conduct political pursuits under the canopy and work of Lions Club, using
its symbol to raise funds and gain votes. For if this happens, others who
identify with various humanitarian entities in Liberia will continue in this
line and efforts to provide services to the poor and needy will be hampered.
Dear Binyah - Letter To A Compatriot
Dear Binyah,
Greetings!
I read with deep
consternation a story in the FrontpageAfrica online news organ regarding the
salaries of NPA managing director and her deputies that “The
Chairman of the NPA Board and head of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs has
meanwhile threatened to dismiss any employee of the corporation who may have
leaked the proposed information to the media. Commissioner Kessely said the
action will be in line with what he termed as ‘confidentiality.” Is this the
truth? Because if this is so, I am totally appalled that you would make such
a threat to ordinary Liberians who bear the brunt of poverty and degradation
in the midst of open aggrandizement and disparity that has the tendency to
pit one group against the other. This was what your father fought against –
inequity, the unfair and imbalanced distribution of the wealth of society,
as well as the stifling of truth – and this is not what such action tend to
uphold if there is any veracity in this news story. Instead, it fortifies
the very practices and threats to ordinary Liberians and impoverished
working people of Liberia that led to the
recent and dark epoch that characterized our beloved patrimony. Such an
action on your part, if held up as truth, simply put can only be portrayed
as an attempt to institutionalize once again a class society where the
benefits of the elites, as you and Wokie and the rest have now become, shall
not be known to the trodden masses on whose backs, sweat and tears wealth is
amassed.
Let me remind you not to
get your hands soiled with the tricks and chicaneries of those qualified
Judases of yester years, whose deceptions and lies led to the destruction of
our country and deaths of thousands of your fellow Liberians. They are now
masquerading as the new redeemers of the society with a sinister agenda to
once again stuff their pockets with the wealth of the society while our
people linger in abject poverty. Their use of tactful diction and code words
akin to “confidentiality,” only brings into the limelight their obvious
intentions. And you must be shrewd not to be a part of their schemes. For I
have quietly sat on the sidelines and listened to many of your utterances
and cautiously began drawing painful conclusions on these declarations. And
I have held back on speaking out for I have confidence in your abilities to
do what is right and just, based on where you come from and the accompanying
values you were brought up to uphold. Surely this is not one of them, for if
it is, then the corpse of Stalwart Kessely is turning restlessly in its
resting place but pardon me for interrupting his peaceful rest. But let me
end by saying to you that you not let your hands be used to take the hot
coals from the fire; for truth pressed down shall rise again.
To you and Wokie, I say,
“Stella Polaris”!
E, Everything Ellen - October 5, 2009
The President of Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf, recently appointed
Benoni Urey, a Liberian who the UN has blacklisted along with many for the
role they played in the Liberian crisis during the Taylor regime. A role
that included the siphoning of millions of dollars belonging to the Liberian
people from Liberia’s maritime program to private accounts for Taylor and
his crony arm dealers, and himself as he headed the maritime bureau. A role
he played to grease Taylor’s war machine with Liberia’s maritime funds,
which brought death and destruction to many Liberians. To date Urey still
remains on the UN travel ban list and has shown little or no remorse for his
actions as he ditches out his ill-gotten wealth on lavish homes and to
poverty-stricken Liberian politicians including those within Ellen’s
political circle who are clamoring to get him off the hook.
It seems their efforts are paying off as Ellen has
erratically added the needed building blocks to the perpetuity and
sustenance of corruption, impunity and thievery. She has now validated to
Liberian youths that it is ok to steal from the people and show off your
ill-gotten wealth and be rewarded with a post in government for such an
illicit undertaking. What does Ellen really stand for? One day she is
against corruption; another day she rewards those who are stained with the
vice. What message is she sending to the very international organization
that she so esteems and considers? That they are wrong for the action taken
against an “innocent” Liberian and that she has abiding confidence in him.
Overall, it seems that she has all along been paying lip service to the
fight against corruption, particularly when it comes to those of her own
stock. Her action to appoint Urey undermines all that the UN has been
fighting to uphold, even though the title of city mayor of Careysburg may be
infinitesimal.
Who is Ellen playing to? From all indications it seems
evident that her action plays to the Americo-Liberian (Congau) base, who has
been her largest benefactor. She has cleverly placed a veneer over the
resurgence of the Congau-country divide with the conferring of recognition
on a number of indigenous (country) Liberians, admitting them into “The
Order of The Pioneers.” Yes, “the order of the pioneers” on indigenous
Liberians! To attract additional funds for her political escapade and that
of her party, yes, her party as Unity Party has become, she has began
stooping to her own regardless of moral probity and virtue. The issue here
is what does E stand for? And using a pseudo-sophist argument, one can
conclude the following: E is for everything; Ellen starts with an E;
therefore Ellen is for everything. Yes and sadly so Ellen stands for
EVERYTHING!
and The Converted Jew Lied - July 20, 2009
"I am a father of 14
children, grandchildren, with love for humanity, have fought all my life to
do what I thought was right in the interests of justice and fair play."
These are the words of Dahkpannah Dr. Charles Ghankay Taylor, the 21st
President of the Republic of Liberia. Being “a father of 14 children,
grandfather, does not strike at the core of this discussion for he may be;
rather the latter part of his statement which is important to consider
within the context of the Liberian reality, since now he is answering to
charges of his involvement in the Sierra Leonean conflict.
That Charles Taylor loves
humanity is questionable, especially when considered in the context of
Taylor’s actions and inactions when he controlled parts of Liberia as a
faction leader, and later when he became its legitimate ruler in 1997. What
sense of humanity is Taylor speaking about? The humanity that led to the
deaths of thousands of innocent Liberians who sought refuge on the Fendell
Campus of the University of Liberia at the hands of his National Patriotic
Front of Liberia; the humanity that led to the massacre of hundreds of
innocent civilians and children at Carter Camp in Harbel; the humanity that
led to the displacement of thousands of Liberians as he attempted to further
his personal ambition to take over the seat of power in Monrovia in his
failed Operation Octopus in 1992?
That Taylor fought all his
life to do what he “thought was right in the interest of justice and fair
play” is again questionable! What is Taylor’s world of justice and fair
play? The justice and fair play that led to the death of Nowai Flomo at the
hands of his men; the justice and fair play that led to the untimely and
brutal death of Serena Dokie by his (Taylor’s) security chief; the justice
and fair play that turned Liberians into beggars as he looted and pillaged
the resources of Liberia to fill his pockets and those of his cronies?
Amazingly, when given a
chance to redeem himself after an epiphany that resulted in his so called
conversion to Judaism, Taylor still trod down the same path that got him to
where he is now – lies and deception! And again without a surprise, this
CONVERTED JEW LIED!
2012 -Time For Change In Liberia - June
18, 2009
As Liberia
crawls to elections in 2012, there have been calls for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf,
the current president to seek another 6 year term. Although she had
initially declared when she campaign in the previous elections that ‘she was
seeking only one term,” she has not given any sign of acceptance. Certainly,
pressure is mounting on her to seek another term from many quarters,
especially from her inner-circle and other beneficiaries. The question
however is, and it goes to the core of her character and values, is she a
woman of her word, or was she misleading the Liberian electorate to seek a
personal political agenda? Liberians believe in her and her stance for which
she was branded “iron-lady.” We are proud of her accomplishments in so far
as lifting up this proud nation and people, and we thank her.
However, the
next elections should and must be a generational election that ushers in a
new breed of leaders with new thinking on moving the society forward and in
new direction. The current generation of leaders, led by Ellen Sirleaf, must
be ready and prepared to hand over the reins of power and governance to a
younger breed of Liberian leaders (the likes of the writer) who are
dedicated to CHANGE. Prominent individuals of this new generation must begin
the crusade for CHANGE and join with the current leadership to begin making
the argument for CHANGE and our readiness to lead this vibrant nation. The
fight will begin as the current leaders are expected to resist, but our
generation have the votes, a greater side of the argument, and perhaps are
the only catalyst for real CHANGE in Liberia. Should our generation of
leaders be denied this opportunity, we must disjoint ourselves from the past
and form a new force for CHANGE to challenge and take power through the
ballot box and with a united voice for CHANGE.
Utilize Democratic Institutions To Seek
Redress - April 26, 2009
Media reports of the intent to institute
legal actions against the Unity Party-led government by the National
Patriotic Party, in lieu of the decision taken by President Sirleaf to
transfer Charles Taylor to the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for Sierra
Leone, is much heralded. This is a nascent beginning in the exercise of the
rule of law in a society which was characterized in the past by strong arm
actions and arrest with the total disregard of the rule of law. Seeking a
legal redress to determine the context, letter and spirit of the CPA reached
in Accra, particularly as is relates to Charles Taylor brief exile and
subsequent indictment is the right way to go, instead of instituting any
violent action that would shift the tide of Liberia’s new democratic
reality.
Perhaps the courts have a clearer
definition and could regurgitate to the Liberian people in general and the
NPP in particular, what the thinking of the architects of this document was,
if what has been read and understood by all in the CPA is not self
explanatory. Who knows, the courts could rule in favor of the NPP, but one
is not clear if such ruling would change the status quo of Charles Taylor.
However, the NPP would have a legal precedent and a legal basis to now
challenge the jurisdiction of the Tribunal as Taylor is now claiming.
There are other avenues, however, that
NPP can pursue. As an opposition party, the NPP can use its influence
amongst its partisans in the National Legislature to lobby for the creation
by law, of a Liberian War Crimes Tribunal which would seek to prosecute
those responsible for death, destruction and abuse during the civil war in
Liberia. Here is a proposal: attach a bill to national budget before passage
by the Legislature, for the establishment of the Tribunal and funding as
well which will have a high probability of passage. This will be a classical
political move that would be hailed by all, thereby rendering our democracy
strong.
Never more should Liberians revert to
violence to seek redress, but in the exercise of democratic freedoms, must
utilize the institutions that are guaranteed in a democracy to provide
direction, interpretation and order.
A Response To Hon. Bai Gbala
I am always taken aback by
comments of some of our elder statesmen and their continued effort to
present a one-sided view of issues in Liberia. I would be very interested to
hear from Mr. Gbala as to why it would be harmful to pardon Mr. Taylor but
ok for Prince Johnson to be forgiving and continue to hold a permanent
position in our society. I also think that it’s very wrong to allow any one
to make accusations of someone giving orders for another person to be killed
without providing prove of such. This is what is wrong with Liberia and
gives me the view that Mr. Gbala is pursuing a personal agenda in his
article. The abuses of the civil war in Liberia should never be forgotten
but all redress must be even temper and fair.
Wallace
Pope
Production/Office Manager
Brooklyn Park, MN.
Email:
wpope@egisticsinc.com
Happy New Year !!!
Most
of the time with the coming of a new year, people tend to make resolutions
for what they are going to do for that year. From time to time what is left
off is not considered at this juncture but what will be done in time. How
can one go forward without considering what they’ve not accomplished, where
they are and what has brought them to that point, as well as the challenges
that will beset them as they forge ahead? There is nothing wrong with
setting goals; but in doing so one must take into consideration the past,
the present and draw from them in making a determination for the future. And
so as Liberia takes another step in its sojourn, we must begin to ask
ourselves: What has changed in the lives of ordinary Liberians since 2008?
What went wrong, where did we err, in 2008 that stopped us from getting to
where we had aspired to? What are the present conditions of Liberians as
2009 begins? And what can be done considering the latter to make the changes
in their lives? When we reach these conclusions then can we begin to set
achievable and reachable goals for our people and our country for 2009.
One thing is for sure; our
people continue to linger in a state of poverty, while our country is eager
for sustained democracy, participation and transformation. These are not
difficult goals to accomplish, but require the will from every sector of the
society to move in this direction, particularly from those at the helm of
leadership who will rise above petty partisanship and focus on the larger
picture in moving the society forward. Time is not on their side, neither is
it on the side of the Liberian people, many of who will not be able to
realize this dream of seeing actual and tangible change. As in the words of
the Chinese saying “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first
step.” And so let the journey begin with recognizing the errors and
shortfalls of 2008, understanding the existing state of our people and
country, and developing the courage, fortitude and will to trek in a
direction that begins to elevate the state of our compatriots and nation.
Happy New Year!
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