The air in various Liberian communities across the United States is thick with expectations regarding the mission of several visiting Liberian ministers and their planned Town Hall Meetings. The stated goal of the meetings is the “Government’s strategy to engage Liberians both at home and abroad on the Lift Liberia Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS)“.
While I view this mission as an exercise in futility it could turn out to be a carefully crafted plot to cast members of the Liberian opposition in a very bad light.
Already there are cries for boycotts and other forms of protestations solely meant to dent the significance and impact of the visit. The cacophony is so rancorous that some have gone so far as to advocate for violence against the persons of the visiting ministers.
Currently, the ranks of the Liberian opposition is bursting at its seams. Filled with a motley crew of characters. Some drawn in by their sheer desire for power and a realization of the fragile political state of the Unity Party government - clearly brought about by its penchant for corruption and woeful maladministration.
This mixture of disgruntled former government functionaries, charlatans and a host of “yesterday’s men” have found refuge in different sections of the Liberian opposition. Couple that with hangers on from the PAL and MOJA lineage and we have a perfect recipe for disaster.
While the planned "Town Hall Meeting" is an apparent travesty, of the worst sort, I will urge members of the opposition to engage the Ministers in a respectable manner. Boisterous and riotous behavior should be avoided at ALL cost.
This is intended to be an “engagement” in the arena of ideas. We should all respect the opinions of each others no matter the vehemence of our disapproval of what the “other side” espouse and or their methodologies.
I will also plead that ALL planned protests be devoid of violence and clearly designed to send an unequivocal message to the authorities in Monrovia.
I will urge the Congress for Democratic Change to encourage its members who wish to attend these meetings to be civil and engage the ministers in an amiable debate.
The outcome of these meetings will, to a large extent, say more of who we are than the ministers.
Benjamin Kofa Fyneah
Gainesville, Florida
[ add comment ] ( 1 view ) | permalink |
( 3 / 10 )Calling the CDC's bluff - a reaction
Sam Ajavon piece titled " Calling the CDC's bluff published on the Running Africa website begs a reaction. My personal interaction(s) with the man, Mr Ajavon, will compel me to be civil despite Mr Ajavon public and wholesale ridicule of the CDC, and her partisans, of which I am a member.
The piece is laden with NUMEROUS falsehoods that need to be publicly debunked and exposed for the fabrications that they really are.
Numbering Taylor's bandits
The first wrong assumption was the strength of Mr. Taylor's rag-tag army. For your information Mr Ajavon, Liberia’s warring factions were NEVER fully disarmed. The disarmament process, like most events in Liberia was overshadow by rumors and complicated by ECOMOG’s questionable neutrality.
Most of the rebel groups wrongly transferred their distrust for ECOMOG to their successor, UNMIL. There were no ways, humanly possible, to verify the numbers of personnel in the various killing bands that roamed Liberia simply because they had no core organizational structure(s). To assume any number in terms of their actual strength will be the height of folly.
“The false perception continues today".
Well, I will point Mr Ajavon to the recent Montserrado county senatorial by-election as proof of the CDC's strength and popularity. Does Mr Ajavon recognize the effort and resources the Unity party employed to ensure victory ? This was indeed a referendum on the sitting government. A government that has lost its way, has become bereft of credibility and mortally wounded by an unprecedented level of gross ineptitude.
“ordinary Liberians who may have little to do but roam the streets”
It is WRONG for Mr Ajavon to depict CDC partisans as hoodlums. This wrong perception is fast becoming the Unity Party undoing. Mr Ajavon, do you remember the insulting label with which Former president Tolbert christened Ellen and her cohorts in the seventies - during Ellen heydays as a rabble rouser ? Do you remember the names Samuel Doe called Ellen and her cohorts in the eighties ? Indeed, history has a STRANGE way of repeating itself
Doubts !
Currently, If any major Liberian politician attracts ANY doubts it is Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf. With advanced age setting in coupled with MASSIVE corruption and INCOMPETENCE one can ONLY wonder why the second term venture. Is it a sign of the usual African leaders "I want to die in power mentality"? Or an indicator that total power is totally corrupting Madame Johnson-Sirleaf's mind ?
“fear and uncertainty that diminishes his electability“
Mr Ajavon, if anyone or any group of Liberians are overwhelmed with fear it is Unity Party partisans. Their collective shock, fear and uncertainties were brought by an individual whom they perceived as a “nobody” who, to a large extent, has been able to confound and challenge their exaggerated sense of self-worth and false belief of been destined to Lord over the Liberian nation and people
Mr Ajavon, Samuel Doe launched a so-called revolution in 1980, a revolution brought about by inequalities and enacted by myriad of forces. It was a revolution deeply rooted in angst of a CORRUPT and repressive system that sustained itself through chicaneries and devious political machinations.
The ultimate Liberian revolution will be enacted come 2011, a revolution that promises to give birth to a Modern Liberian state, a revolution not born out of strife and violence but one that will be FULLY clothed with the popular mandate and collective will of the Liberian people united under the banner of the CDC !
Benjamin Kofa Fyneah
Gainesville, Florida
[ add comment ] ( 1 view ) | permalink |
( 3 / 15 )Why April 12th should NOT be Celebrated
Long before the coming of the settlers to the shores of Christopolis the indigenous tribesmen regularly did battle with each other for control over territory and natural resources. The coming of the settlers, while initially meant to placate worried slave owners who were afraid of violent retaliation from former slaves, was a welcomed event.
These were to a large extent children of distant relatives who were "taken" to faraway lands and subjected to inhumane conditions. Their new found freedom gave the locals a reason to celebrate. The NEWCOMERS also LOUDLY proclaimed “the Love of liberty brought us here” ! Like the Native Americans, the locals showered the emigrants with a lot of goodwill. Lands and other largesse were sold for “fire sale” prices. The emigrants misread the goodwill for ignorance.
Unbeknown to the locals MOST of the returnees were overcome by the plantation mentality. They viewed the locals as savages who were NOT equal in stature and or position in society. Strangely, and in no time they became masters and the locals servants or less.
Copying their masters in the West, they established a class system where the very few controlled the masses by violence, intimidation and "politricks" where applicable. The setting up of the monolithic TWP would ensure their rule and dominance forever they envisioned. Voting rights for the indigenous population were restricted mainly to control the outcome of political elections.
Surnames and family ties became the means by which access and position in society were acquired. This apparent apartheid lead to simmering anger that grew larger as the years went by - more than a hundred years !
After world war II, with the onset of the cold war political agitation could no longer be suppressed. Pseudo revolutionaries found an acceptable refuge in communism that proclaimed the "we are all equal" mantra. The USSR intention to create a bi-polar world after World War II compelled her to make major inroads in South America, Asia and Africa. Indeed the genie was OUT of the bottle.
Liberian "progressives" seized their opportunity in the early seventies and began agitating for CHANGE.
Their agitation culminated in the "Rice Riots of April 14 1979" where scores of demonstrators were killed. The government quelled the riots but the damage was done.
On April 12 1980 Samuel Doe and a few enlisted men "allegedly" stormed the Executive mansion and slaughter President Tolbert. This was the revolution which the “progressives” craved but were NOT prepared for. They had no experience in governance and were mostly overwhelmed with a sense of retributive justice and blinded by ANGER. The rest is history.
What does April 12 1980 means to us ? Both indigenous and settlers. Liberians I believe should viewed this as a day of solemn reflection. A day on which while trying to correct numerous INJUSTICES we created another...... to be continued
[ add comment ] ( 2 views ) | permalink |
( 2.9 / 18 )CDC, Mulbah Morlu and the question of credibility
The recent news that Mr Mulbah Morlu has been allegedly appointed as "Policy Chief" of the Congress for Democratic Change has created a media feeding frenzy and jolted the Unity Party to its very core.
Before the ink could dry on the “purported” press release Unity Party partisans were up in arms with shrill cries regarding Mr Morlu’s alleged "questionable credibility".
A brief analysis of Mr Morlu stance regarding key players in the Liberian civil war will explain why the very mention of his name send chills down the spine of the Unity Party.
It is a fact that over 250,000 Liberians are DEAD. Gone FOREVER ! I believe it is right to advocate for the prosecution of vicious warlords and their enablers who orchestrated this MONSTROUS slaughter of many innocent Liberians. A cause which Mr Morlu has spear-headed with almost "religious" ZEAL !
Mr Morlu's methodologies might not be acceptable to all but his CAUSE is JUST and noble.
The false cries of his lack of credibility is simply meant to disguise their collective fear that another potent political force is aligning with the CDC.
Indeed two wrongs do NOT make a right but how does Mr Morlu's credibility measures up to former Information Laurence K. Bropleh who was ORDERED to restitute $358,000 that he defrauded the Liberian Government?
How does Mr Morlu's credibility measures up to former Minister and presidential confidante Willis Knuckles and Mr Estrada Bernard – President Johnson-Sirleaf's brother-in-law – who were accused of accepting bribes from Yoram Cohen, the operator of Liberia's lucrative shipping registry, Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry (LISCR) ?
How does Mr Morlu's credibility measures up to former Agriculture Minister Christopher Toe who was FORCED to resign amidst a row over funds for victims of crop-destroying caterpillars ?
How does Mr Morlu's credibility measures up to Gender and Development Minister Varbah K. Gayfor who was RECENTLY booked for theft, exploitation, and abuse of office by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission,(LACC) ?
How does Mr Morlu's credibility measures up to former Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Ambulai Johnson, who as head of the Project Management Team, FAILED to follow the guidelines governing the management and implementation of the Social Development Fund ?
I believe Mr Morlu's quest for JUSTICE is a very worrisome development for some key functionaries within the Unity Party government who will stop at nothing to see him silenced.
Lastly, how does Mr Morlu's credibility measures up to our president, Madame Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who publicly declared " level Monrovia and we will rebuild it" while horrified men, women and children were subjected to Taylor's vicious marauders in his quest to oust Samuel Doe?
This is NOT a question of credibility or the lack of but a knee-jerk reaction triggered by an overwhelming fear of their imminent loss of political power and a lack of ANY credible reaction to the “purported” press release.
In the cause of the Liberian people, the STRUGGLE continues !
Benjamin Kofa Fyneah
Gainesville, Florida
[ add comment ] ( 2 views ) | permalink |
( 3 / 17 )On the Morning of April 12th 1980 Samuel Doe’s frightened voice announced a revolution that was meant to wipe out “rampart corruption". 30 years on we are, to a large extent, still in the political, social and economic doldrums and our societal dynamics seem stagnated.
The monolith of the TWP was built and sustained upon cronyism, corruption, a trickle-down mentality and quasi-apartheid. This system of governance could never be sustained in our modern era where individuals have become aware about their rights and the responsibilities of their government.
Fast forward to 2010 we see a Unity Party government led by a stalwart of the so-called Liberian progressives Madame Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. A former vocal advocate for CHANGE and equality in the Liberian society.
Liberians were optimistic that the much heralded ”Iron Lady” would live up to her hype and institute a sense of credible governance after the sham governments of Samuel Doe and the fiend Charles Taylor.
This was indeed an opportunity for Madame Johnson-Sirleaf to shine. But what we got was unprecedented failures and dashed hopes basically due to the lack of political will to hold ministers and governmental functionaries accountable for their excesses.
Good governance demands the rule of law. No one is advocating hauling innocent Liberians before kangaroos courts on spurious charges but an enforcement of the law to the letter IRRESPECTIVE of the personalities involved. Effective and UNBIASED law enforcement guarantees a free society remains FREE.
The Liberian “Fourth Estate has always been potent pro-democratic force. This group comprises of Liberians who have risked life, limbs and properties to ensure the excesses of successive governments were exposed for what they were.
The opposition has always found in the media a dear friend, how that relationship will develop and be assured of a long term commitment, post Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, remains to be seen.
I am yet to see or hear a major politician clamoring for the strengthening of the GAC. This body has been very instrumental in at least exposing corruption at almost every level of the current government. I am of the opinion that the GAC should be expanded to contain a “prosecutorial arm”.
Exposing corruption is one major step but holding the perpetrators ACCOUNTABLE in a duly constituted court of law will serve as an effective deterrent to future perpetrators.
Baring an exceptional MIRACLE the next election will result in an opposition victory simply due to the fact that the Unity Party has broken every rule in the book of good governance. Widespread theft, incompetence and out-and-out maladministration will be its legacy.
The Liberian opposition, including the CDC MUST make a public commitment to encourage and promote “press freedom” which to a large extent will ensure our society remains on an even keel.
In the cause of the Liberian people, the STRUGGLE continues !
Benjamin Kofa Fyneah
Gainesville, Florida
[ add comment ] ( 3 views ) | permalink |
( 3.1 / 16 )
Calendar