Charting A New Direction for A Traumatized Liberia
By
Syrulwa Somah
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
May 13, 2004
 |
|
Syrulwa Somah
|
As a product of traditional
Bassa culture and Liberian society, I know firsthand the richness of Liberian
cultural traditions, values, mores, and religious practices. I know that
leadership practices in Liberian traditional culture did not differ much from
the western system of democracy. The Bassa people, and people of the various
ethnic groups in Liberia for that matter, freely elected their leaders and
enstooled, enskinned or installed them as "watchers of the kingdom in
accordance with the relevant customary laws and practices." The people stood in
line behind their candidates of choice during elections. Each candidate for a
particular office and his supporters were counted on the spot, and the
candidates with the highest votes won the elections. The electoral system was
free and fair, even where the conduct of the elections and the counting of the
votes took weeks to complete.
The people were key in
traditional Liberian cultural practices. The people were regularly consulted
for their suggestions and inputs regarding major programs, projects, and policy
decisions affecting the entire town, village, or kingdom. The people knew a
major decision was at stake whenever the towncrier called out to the town’s people
to "follow the road." Every town’s man,
woman, or child also knew that "follow the road," meant that the council of
elders was about to debate an issue of consequence crucial to the survival and
well being of the town that needed the urgent input of everyone. And no doubt
current growing discontent, insecurity, and poor standards of living in Liberia
today might have been just one of those cases in which the council of elders
would mandate the towncrier to signal to all Liberians to "follow the road." But
the directive to "follow the road" is much deeper in meaning than most educated
Liberians might appreciate, so I thought the title, "Charting A New Direction
for a Traumatized Liberia" would be more clearer and appreciated by all
Liberians and non-Liberians alike.
First, the unique circumstances of Liberian
history resulted in an overwhelming infusion of western culture and traditions
in Liberian society such that no one in his or her right mind could sincerely
ask Liberians to reject western culture outright because that would be
suicidal. At the same time, no one in his or her right mind could also advocate
for the wholesome westernization of Liberia because that too would equate to
"self-imprisonment." Liberian history therefore dictates that we must embrace
both traditional Liberian culture and western culture with the goal of
extracting from each culture those ingredients that would yield the most
benefit to all Liberians. Hence, as we embark on new sweeping changes for a better Liberia beyond 2005, we must
consider carefully those cultural mores of national stability, peace,
belongingness, loyalty and nationalism, which were the very fulcrums our
forefathers relied on to promote good governance, civil discussions, unity, and
peaceful elections. We must symbiotically join together and contribute
meaningfully to the good fight of our forefathers so as not only to make
ourselves proud as a nation and people, but also to make those ancestors whose
footsteps we are walking in proud during and after election 2005.
All Liberians must board the
ship of brotherhood and nationalism and sail for a better Liberia in 2005 and
beyond, with the full knowledge that the process of selecting one’s national
leader is a cultural and moral value determined by each culture. The name under
which these changeable moral rights or electoral processes unfold is always
arbitrary, and in no way determines the hallmark of a free society. The ability
of citizens or individuals to associate with other like-minded individuals,
organizations, and associations to express their views, petition their national
governments, and establish a system of good governance and rule of law is what
matters the most. So if our nation does not get wrapped up in all the noises
and emotions about democracy and take its time and objectively look at our
system, we will see that our traditional system had similar electoral rules and
governance processes as the modern democracy.
For instance, if you ever
visited the Liberian countryside and observed the daily lives of our people,
could you sincerely say they were not in charge of their daily lives? Did they
not influence their historical fate through their social and political
institutions like the Sande and Poro Universities? Surely, you did. But the
premise for these rhetorical questions is to make the point that government and
election, as we know them today, are two of every human race’s oldest and most
important institutions. From antiquity, some kind of government with elected or
ascribed leaders have always been an integral part of every society, and
Liberia is no exception. So the concept
that human beings are divinely created equal and given changeable moral rights
as opposed to "unalienable rights" to live and elect whomever they want to lead
them did not originate with the Americans and Europeans.
For example, if we took a
closer look at the American Declaration of Independence, it argues, "all men
are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable
rights…" But what the Americans did in their declaration of independence was to
paraphrase the universal moral rights of the human race in a cultural context
for their own understanding and edification. No one can therefore discredit
American founding fathers for making a good attempt at converting universal
moral rights into a national cultural institution and political philosophy
known and styled as the Jeffersonian democracy. And this is the kind of practical application of universal human
and moral rights that Liberians ought to adopt in line with traditional
Liberian culture.
Liberians must take charge of
building our nation by using an electoral process and form of government that
befit our cultural values and political realities. One person, one vote, as
well as the counting of every vote cast during an election fairly and squarely
without prejudice were conspicuous when our traditional forefathers elected
their kings, chiefs, and other leaders. In fact, voters stood behind their
candidates of choice during elections and the persons with the most votes
always won. There was never a time when the leader elected had more votes
than the entire population as in the case of CDB King in Liberia, or the person
with the most votes lost the elections as in the case of Al Gore in the United
States.
It is therefore unarguable that
democracy, whether in a traditional or a modern sense, always meant a "rule of
the people," that is a system in which the people are truly in charge of their
daily lives and can influence the course of their own historical fate. For example, the Greeks saw democracy as a
"government by the people," the Latin saw democracy as "the public
affairs," and the Roman saw democracy as "a system of government in
which both the people and their rulers are subject to law." Even Aristotle
and other philosophers saw democracy as "a government of laws and not of
men." As a result, the Jeffersonian Electoral College electoral system of
democracy is unique to Americans, and the European parliamentary electoral
system is unique to Europeans. But it is difficult to tell which electoral
system is unique to Liberians. There is none because we have continued to build
monuments in honor of our conquerors instead of joining forces to produce an
electoral or democratic system that is unique to us, in accordance with our
cultural and moral values as Liberians.
Yet we say we want democracy in
Liberia without knowing which type of democracy is good for us. As a result, we
continued to fight amongst ourselves and destroy our country in a general lack
of direction. The Greeks, Romans, and others had difficulty with defining
"democracy," and Liberia will surely have difficulty defining "democracy." We
in Liberia "misappropriated" the word democracy in the past, we have
continuously "misappropriated" the word democracy in the present, and we will
continue to "misuse and misapply" the word democracy in the future if we
continue to see modern democracy as an American cultural value worth copying.
The fact of the matter is Americans, Europeans, and others succeeded in
defining democracy in the context of their cultural values and developmental
aspirations, and Liberians must learn to do the same.
The traditional African political
philosophy of Non-partysim was an emblem of good governance and national unity
in traditional Liberian society because it meant upholding our cultural values
and mores. Thus, when it came to fair election, spirituality, communalism,
mutualism and councilism - the idea of "you watch my back and I watch
your back"-our people were greatly united than the rest of the world.
So the mushrooming of political parties in our nation today is a direct
result of borrowed American and European cultural values. Even the United
States - with a population of nearly 300 million people - that we are trying
very hard to imitate has only two principal political parties and never stops
strangling the growth of a credible third party. Yet Liberia, with a population
of less than four million people, has 18 political parties and we still wonder
why we are divided.
Divergence of views did not lead
to forming multiple political parties in traditional Liberia. National development
objectives were decided upon and attained through consensus by finding a common
ground and assembling the best brains or human resources in society. And this
is the very societal cooperation I called "Councilism" in my most
recent book, "Nyanyan Gohn Manan: History, Migration and Government of
the Bassa." Councilism was part and parcel of Non-partyism, as Non-partyism
was primarily associated with the notion of a relatively homogeneous people
highly conscious of their values as a people. But many Liberians alive today
have departed from our cultural cohesion and conspicuous sense of shared heritage. Instead,
we have spent the last 156 years of our national existence as a nation and
people in promoting a society of social and political inequalities, dominated
by a multitude of political parties gravitated toward individual enclaves
and "cult personalities." As a result, Liberia now has nearly two-dozen
political parties whose goals and contributions to the Liberian society remained
meaningless. The table below shows
only the number of political parties and presidential candidates that participated
in the 1997 Liberian special elections, as 18 political parties are operating
in Liberia today:
|
Presidential
Candidate
|
Political
Party
|
|
Chea
Cheapoo
|
Progressive
People's Party (PPP)
|
|
Martin
M.N. Sheriff
|
National
Reformation Party (NRP)
|
|
Fayah
J. Gbollie
|
Free
Democratic Party (FDP)
|
|
Harry
F. Moniba
|
Liberia
National Union (LINU)
|
|
Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf
|
Unity
Party (UP)
|
|
Alhaji
G.V. Kromah
|
All
Liberia Coalition Party (ALCOP)
|
|
Charles
Ghankay Taylor
|
National
Patriotic Party (NPP)
|
|
Cletus
S. Wotorson
|
Alliance
of Political Parties (Alliance)
|
|
Henry
B. Fahnbulleh
|
Reformation
Alliance Party (RAP)
|
|
George
T. Washington
|
People's
Democratic Party of Liberia (PDPL)
|
|
Gabriel
B. Matthews
|
United
People's Party (UPP)
|
|
George
E.S. Boley, Sr.
|
National
Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL)
|
|
Togba
Nah Tipoteh
|
Liberia
People's Party (LPP)
|
Proposed Practical Solutions
Unlike many Liberians, I do not believe that the
only way to contribute to the rebuilding of Liberia is through the presidency.
This is truer today than ever before. Not everybody is a capable leader or can
solve our problems as a nation, but everybody pretends to be one. There is no
soul in Liberia today that does not regard itself as deserving anything less
than Liberian presidency. There are also some Liberians who are willing
to destroy all other Liberians just to become president. Then there is another
group of Liberians who think the Liberian presidency is their birthright. And
the list goes on. But regardless of how one feels, it is expected of all
Liberians to come up with transparent practical solutions to this hunger for
the Liberian presidency. And the best
solution is to create an electoral system that is fair and transparent. But all
Liberians must search deep into their souls and in history to find the clogs in
the present electoral system and engineer the clogs out just as our ancestors
did with minimal conflicts when confronted by political decisions.
Of course, our ancestors did live in a different
time period far removed from our modern world. But the foundation they laid for
fostering political stability can be revisited, as a process that produces
peace cannot be old. So let us blend
some of the traditional cultural practices and the western cultural practices
to create a new system. Hence, I wish to propose a "Tetrahedron Primary"
system, or a four-step electoral system that could ease our electoral
confrontations:
·
First
primary
·
Second
primary
·
Run
–off primary
·
Final
election
In the
first and second primaries, only candidates with the highest votes, say 40-45
percent of the popular vote, can move into the next round of voting. The third
or runoff primary would be restricted to cases in which three candidates are
evenly tied in the number of popular votes. No run-off primary election would
be permitted even if a candidate wins by a single (one) vote margin, as long as
the national elections commission can certify the first or second primary
election was free and fair and both the process of the elections and the
election results are verifiable. In
other words, if majority of the votes cast can be verified, the losing
candidate’s bid for the presidency or whatever office he or she was seeking
would respectfully be over for that particular election. Run-off elections may
be necessary only if three candidates emerge from the second primary with
nearly equal votes of say 48 percent of the popular votes for two of the three
candidates, and 47 percent for the third candidate.
In this
case, the two candidates with 48 percent of the popular votes would be eligible
for the run-off primary, and the candidate with 47 percent of the popular votes
would be effectively disqualified from running in the next rounds of the
elections. Such free and fair electoral
process could minimize civil strife and destructive radicalism, and eliminate
any violent acts against the nation because the people would have freely spoken
with their votes. The will of the Liberian people would also be clear at this
point, and both the winning and losing candidates would do well to respect the
will of the people. A losing will still have the rights to challenge the
elections results in a Liberian court of law, nonetheless. And anyone who
looses the national election after all possible legal challenges must endeavor
to work for attainment of the national development objectives of the Liberian
nation and people.
Practical Solution I: Voting and Voters
Education
People are the key to every local or national
election. Without the involvement of the people, there can be no
elections. And this is why it is very
important for any credible elections to rely on an accurate count of the number
of people available to vote at all times. In Liberia, the responsibility to
count all eligible voters rests with the national elections commission. The
commission must not only ensure that voters are duly registered to vote, but
must also endeavor to educate the voters on their rights and responsibilities
as voters. For it would be awkward if we had 500,000 registered voters and the
elections results showed that one million persons participated in the
elections, or the votes of half of the 500,000 registered voters were discarded
because the voters did not understand the voting rules.
Voter’s education is therefore
crucial to the success of any democratic elections, in regard to the number of
registered voters as a percentage of the total population. And this is why I want to impress on all
Liberians to realize that voting influences our quality of life not only in
setting national policies and electing our local and national leaders, but also
in promoting cooperation and respect between the electorate and the elected. In
other words, voting must be orderly and transparent in such a way that it
becomes a tool of cooperation and not a tool of division. And this is why education about voting must
be part and parcel of Liberian junior and senior high school curricula so that
the voter’s registration message can get across to all Liberians at an early
age. Having Liberians to cast their votes during local and national elections
under a voting system they do not understand will continue to hurt and not help
the Liberian nation and people.
Unquestionably, Liberia has an
electoral system. But if the question were why the Liberian electoral system
has not functioned properly, the obvious answer would be that Liberians have
not permitted the system to function properly due to deep divisions,
resentment, and suspicions. Invariably, the voting process, the transporting of
ballots, the shortage of ballot papers, the deprivation of political party
supporters of their right to vote, and the early closings of polling stations
have been at the epicenter of disgruntlement and dissatisfaction with our
electoral system. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves how these irregularities
seeped into the Liberian electoral process, and how best we can together
correct these irregularities or imbalances for a secured future for all
Liberians.
For me, I think the solution is obvious. We need
to establish a regional voting division in each of the 15 counties to handle
the counting of ballots during each local or national election. The National
Election Commission will then be required to provide voters’ education (see
details under subheading The Elections Commission and Voters’ Education) to
citizens in each county, and to train the staff of each local regional division
in handling and tabulating votes (ballots). This approach, I believe, would
remove any elements of surprise in the vote counting process, and remove the
need to transport ballots to Monrovia for counting purposes.
Practical Solution II: Electoral Regions of Liberia
I believe the current Liberian electoral system
is unnecessarily complicated, when the system could have been simplified to
accommodate all Liberians with ease. We
could establish coordinated regional electoral systems to not only ensure the
fairness and transparency of the local and national elections in Liberia, but
to also minimize the high costs of transporting ballot boxes and election
commissioners back and forth from Monrovia during elections. So I believe the
most efficient and practical solution to this problem is to create three
electoral regions in Liberia to include a West
Region, a Central Region, and an East Region. With the establishment of these
regional voting divisions, national elections such as those for president and
legislators could then be conducted sequentially in each region on specific
dates as represented in the table below:
|
West Region (Voting Day One) |
Central Region (Voting
Day Two) |
East Region (Voting Day Three) |
|
Grand Cape Mount |
Grand Bassa County |
Grand Gedeh County |
|
Lofa County |
Bong County |
Maryland County |
|
Bomi County |
River Cess County |
River Gee |
|
Montserrado County |
Nimba County |
Grand Kru County |
|
Gbarpolu County |
Margibi County |
Sinoe County |
Practical Solution III--Regional Voting Points
An equally problematic issue relating to
Liberia’s electoral process is the lack of electoral points. I believe the
electoral process could be made much easier if electoral points were assigned
to each political subdivision of Liberia, and if candidates desiring elected
office were to vie for those electoral points. For example, let’s say if a
presidential aspirant needed a majority of "county electoral points" to win the
presidency, the voters would have a clear choice of the winner based on the
ranking of each presidential aspirant in the context of county points
accumulated from county number 1, 2, 3, and so forth. This kind of points system, or what I would call "Pictorial/Choice
voting" is a simple format that should provide fair results even if the
elections were independent, partisan, or Non-partyism.
Non-partyism, a traditional African philosophy
of governance, holds that political decisions are better valued when the best
brains of a nation are grouped together to work for national development and to
openly debate possible options to derive consensus in order to fairly
distribute national resources. In other words, in a system of democracy or
Non-partyism, consensus is always key to the success of the system, even if
consensus were developed solely in the mind of the individual. The essence here
is that in a county point system as the one being proposed, a voter could rank
as few or as many presidential aspirants as possible, realizing in advance that
only candidates with the highest county points could go onto the next round of
voting, as the winner of a particular election would eventually be determined
by the number of county points. And this process of elimination could minimize
conflicts about disputed elections.
Another teaching of Non-partyism is that good
rules cannot by themselves heal social rifts, but good rules can accurately
move forward all opinions within the electoral process. So in my view, the best
chance for the 2005 election would be an electoral system geared toward
political moderation and promotion of a governance structure tilted toward
centrally balanced national policies and programs. In this light, I have
presented below a county electoral point system not based on each Liberian county’s
geographical size, but on the population of each county in relation to data
available from the 1984 national referendum in Liberia. The only exception to
this rule is the two new counties of Gbarpolu and River Gee, in which case
population and county points were projected based on geographical size. Also,
current Liberian population is projected at somewhere between 2.8 and 3.4
million people, and county electoral points are limited to a 100 percent
statistical range.
|
County |
Population (1984 Figures) |
County Electoral Points |
|
Montserrado |
525,475 |
10 |
|
Nimba County |
393, 404 |
9 |
|
Bong County |
259,412 |
8 |
|
Lofa County |
245, 901 |
8 |
|
Grand Bassa County |
150,016 |
7 |
|
Margibi County |
123,532 |
7 |
|
Grand Gedeh County |
104,943 |
7 |
|
Bomi County |
94,813 |
6 |
|
Maryland County |
93,493 |
6 |
|
Grand Cape Mount County |
93,094 |
6 |
|
Sinoe County |
73,568 |
6 |
|
Grand Kru County |
43, 378 |
5 |
|
Rivercess County |
22,000 |
5 |
|
Gbarpolu County |
20,000 (projected) |
5 |
|
River Gee County |
20,000 (Projected) |
5 |
|
|
|
100 % |
Practical Solution III: The Elections Commission and Voters’
Education
As I mentioned earlier, voters’ education is
very crucial to the electoral process in Liberia. The National Elections
Commission must build on the blueprint of the Liberian Rural Communication
Network (LRCN) to undertake a voters’ education drive tailored to the people in
each Liberian county. Accordingly, the elections commission should liaise with
the traditional friends of Liberia, including Germany, Canada, Great Britain,
and the United States, to secure SBS-1 Radio Station in a Suitcase C/W 100
Watt FM Stereo units for each county. At $4000 per unit, 15 SBS-1 Radio will
cost $60,
000 in equipment, excluding installation and training. The SBS-1 radio has
local range (25-50 km radius) or frequencies less than 1000 MHz, but can be
improved to cover more km radius. There is even a greater need to send out
additional proposals for 500,000 wind-up, solar powered radios or a solar panel
and rechargeable battery unit which lasts up to ten years, to be used in the
voters’ education process. At current estimates, the solar panel and
rechargeable battery cost $2 to $3.00 each, while solar powered radios cost
about $25.00 each, and the fact that the radio depends on sun energy to run
would be very helpful to our people during the elections as money is scarce in
Liberia nowadays. Finally, a
geographically or a centrally-focused national radio system buttressed by
relays or micro-bin throughout the nation to facilitate complete coverage of
the elections would be ideal for this purpose.
Here, regardless of which radio units the
elections commission acquires, the main purpose for each radio unit MUST be to
broadcast accurate and objective news to the Liberian people in their various
Liberian languages, about voters’ registration, voter’s responsibilities and
limitations, and general personal and national development information. In that
context, the theme of the radio broadcasts must center on:
·
Educating each ethnic group in the language of
their understanding from their county headquarters
·
Voters registration
·
Get the vote out
·
National development message
·
Programming for health education
·
Cultural promotion
·
National unity message
·
Agricultural message
You see, Greek philosopher Aristotle once said,
"Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers."
So which other way could we promote and educate indigent Liberians about
democracy than in their own languages through the magic of radio? Radio is an
influential communication device that plays a crucial role in public education,
and all Liberians would do well in 2005 by using these participatory
communication approaches. The strength of rural radio as an extension tool of
communication lies in its ability to reach a wider audience of unlettered
voters in the languages they understand.
I am not proposing that technical information be simply read to the
people over the airwaves. I am interested in the kind of broadcast and
translation of technical information about voting and other subjects that the
people will understand and discuss within their cultural context at the
community or town level.
I believe there is a need in Liberia today for
full citizen participation in every aspect of national life and governmental
policy issues. Current illiteracy rate in Liberia stands at between 65 and 80
percent, yet the bulk of Liberian radio frequencies do not extend throughout
the country. As a result, the BBC and other foreign news outlets are the main
sources of news, which in most cases include political news and not socio-economic
news about Liberia. Such a situation does not sit well for national unity and
development if Liberia must make any inclusive headway for a better beginning
in 2005 and beyond. And we cannot continue to permit this kind of scenario to
play-out in the new Liberia.
The French philosopher, A. D. Benoist once
stated correctly, "The highest measure of democracy is neither the extent of
freedom' nor the extent of equality', but rather the highest measure of
participation." In essence, there is an important difference between knowledge
and information. Previous elections in Liberia paid more attention to supplying
information rather than developing a knowledge base that will support and
enhance lasting political participation through self-empowerment radio. Focusing
on gathering information rather than developing knowledge to use the
information does not work at all. It is always very important to create
environments that are conducive to knowledge sharing and network building among
all Liberian voters. In other words, the diversity of Liberian society has yet
to be adequately recognized, and without this recognition, active citizenship
participation cannot be expected to take root in Liberian politics and in
education of the electorates.
Hence, for the 2005 general elections to be
all-inclusive we need to establish a media landscape throughout Liberia to
educate the Liberian people about their rights and responsibilities as voters.
Each major language in each of the 15 counties should have its own independent
radio stations at the county level to explain the process to potential
voters. Portable radio stations would
become highly valuable for interacting with specific disadvantaged groups and
for even handling complex social and political problems.
Conclusion
Democracy and an efficient voting system take
time to develop. The electoral college voting system in the United States, and
the parliamentary voting systems in Great Britain, France, Germany, Israel and
other places that we so greatly admired took years to develop. Liberians can do
the same. We need to develop a democratic voting system that relies on the
cultural values, traditions, and political realities of Liberia. And this is
the very reason why I think an electoral system based on regional voting blocks
and county electoral points would empower all Liberians at the polls, and
minimize or eliminate any chances for votes rigging. Only the candidates with
the highest votes in each preliminary round of voting would advance to the next
rounds in each national election until a president, senator, or representative
is elected. This way, the Liberian people would always know the candidates who
are ahead in the polls, and they will be prepared to resist votes rigging at
the polls in one form or another.
With the Liberian people monitoring the
elections, candidates for public office will then be inclined to debate their
platforms publicly if they want to be elected. I am therefore asking all those
who have good hearts for Liberia to add to these suggestions. Liberia needs to utilize its best brains to
find practical solutions to the many problems confronting our nation. Liberia
does not need knee-jerk reactions to her problems, nor unending battles of
verbal exchanges. If you are lawyers,
economists, unifiers, political scientists, nationalists, soldiers, and the
like. Liberia needs the best from her sons and daughters. Liberia needs to know
the "books" you have written that can be applied to the developments of
Liberia, and not how many books or theories and philosophies you have read. For
the books you have read are meaningless to the development of Liberia unless
you can apply the knowledge gained to make our nation better.
So, tell me, "Are you a Liberian?" Is there any
Liberian among you? Are you willing to help develop Liberia?" Well, if you are,
I want to let you know that all Liberians can join forces to prevail over
entrenched opportunistic politicians, warlords, and privileged elites who have
ruthlessly exploited all of us and Liberia. We have had first republic, second
republic, third republic and the soon-to-be fourth republic. We can make this
fourth republic of Liberia and its "new" leadership the oasis of
freedom, justice, peace, and equality for all Liberians. The "new leadership"
that Liberians are yearning for should emerge as a fearless and outspoken
champion of the masses. We have suffered so long under inefficient national
policies and now is the time to find practical solutions to our problems.
Liberia does not need another untested savior occupying the Executive Mansion
to preside over the status quo. In the upcoming fourth Republic we must ensure
that no Liberian special interest group lives the good life parasitically by
exploiting the Liberian masses and pillaging our natural resources.
Let us look forward to election 2005 to unite
ourselves and ascend from the dungeon of self-destruction to the highest
pinnacle of development for the common good of our people. I am willing and
capable to work with those who are in charge of the upcoming election to put
this plan in action before 2005 election. We all know that there are many of
you out there who can help our nation. Give yourselves and your contributions
to Liberia. Let us not let our nation suffer another stroke in 2005. Liberia needs all of your suggestions so
that we can take our case directly to the Liberian people regarding how a fair
election can be held. We are the ones
who are crying, dying, and staving day-in and day-out. Brothers and sisters, we
are the ones who are bleeding and bloodletting. We are the ones who are being
infested with HIV, water-borne diseases, gang rapes, ritualistic killings, and
material exploitations and degradation on the world stage. The time is ripe to
grab the cow by the horn and come up with practical solutions for the
cancer-like problems in Liberia.
I need not remind you that men and women can
fall down. All nations can also fall down; hero and heroines can fall down, and
a boxer can fall down and loose a championship fight. But the challenge is
whether or not a person chooses to rise up or stay down after falling. And this
is the main challenge for the Liberian nation and people today. We have been on the ground for well over 150
years. We have lived through worst
times in the last 14 years. It is time now to say we are tired with staying
down. We need to get up and find out what we want, what we don’t want, and what
we expect for the future. After all, at the end of the day, it is our
dedication, integrity, devotion, hard work, and contributions to the "new
Liberian republic" that will matter beyond 2005.
Syrulwa Somah, Ph.D., is an associate professor of occupational safety and health at a local university in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is author of several books, including, The Historical Resettlement of Liberia and It Environmental Impact, Christianity, Colonization and State of African Spirituality, and Nyanyan Gohn-Manan: History, Migration & Government of the Bassa (a book about traditional Bassa leadership and cultural norms published in 2003). Somah is also the Executive Director of the Liberian History, Education & Development, Inc. (LIHEDE), a nonprofit organization based in Greensboro, North Carolina. He can be reached at: somah@ncat.edu
