The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
Posted June 15, 2019

The June 7 demonstration has now proven to everyone that something is not going well in Liberia.

As the dust settled in that black hole in a negotiation process, where each side attempts to claim victory and posture to take advantage of the pitfalls of the other side.

Saying that it was a public relations disaster for the Weah administration would be an understatement. Nobody wants to be in the same category as the last batch of autocratic regimes on the continent. But that is what the administration did by shutting down the Internet. In these days and age, no democratic government tempers with the Internet. That simple action has put the Weah administration among those regimes considered as “undemocratic.” It reminds Liberians of the Doe and Taylor eras.

President Weah is calling for a national round table to solve Liberia’s problems. Does that mean the Pro-Poor Agenda not working?

The Council of Patriots (COP) responded positively to the call of dialogue but demanded the resignation of the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank. This is a faux-pas.
There is another faux-pas. In as much as it was able to mobilize thousands and shut down the city for a day, COP does not speak for all Liberians. It’s not up to them to decide under which conditions a national dialogue should take place. This is a much bigger issue that calls for the involvement of all stakeholders.

Rather than ask for the resignation of Tweah and Patray, COP should probably ask the President to make public his assets and make his appointees to declare theirs. This is a real issue, which deals with breaking the law, subverting the Constitution. In a way, people who have not declared their assets should not be allowed to stay in government. Focusing on the firing of two persons as a solution to the current economic stagnation and the political confusion is like trying to cure cancer with a band-aid.

A national dialogue must look at structures and systems not at individuals. Tweah and Patray are part of the structure. As long as that structure remains, the result would be the same no matter who is appointed. One cannot keep taking the same road and expects to be somewhere else.
Liberians have been blindsided many times in recent history because they fell for messianic figures who end up disappointing everyone because there is no such thing in politics as a Messiah.

Back in 1993, after Octopus, some people came to Interim President Amos Sawyer with a plan to “eliminate” Charles Taylor. Dr. Sawyer refused to go along, saying that Liberia’s problems were much bigger than Taylor. He said something to the effect that after the killing of Presidents William R Tolbert and Samuel K Doe, we were still facing and talking about the same issues. Therefore, we must go beyond personal issues to look at what is wrong with what we refer to as Liberia as a nation.
There are some 20 young people languishing in jail for their association with Representative Yekeh Korlubah. That issue is now taking a life of its own. People are talking about “political prisoners” that include university students. The administration may find lots of laws to indict anyone but arresting people ahead of a demonstration is called witch-hunt.

The President has an obligation to publish his assets and get his appointees to do the same. If he cannot abide by that singular law, there is no reason to trust anything he promises. The Code of Conduct was first crafted back in 1992 by Dr. Amos Sawyer when he was interim President but it didn’t pass until recently under the Sirleaf administration. It’s the first step towards integrity and transparency in public administration. The Code of Conduct is the most singular constitutional issue facing the administration. This is the first step of gaining back some confidence.

The second action the President needs to take would be to free the 20 young people and stop being paranoid about Representative Yekeh Kolubah. The more you go after him, the more popular he will get... because conditions are getting worse and the number of unhappy grows by the day, as the Liberian dollar keeps climbing.

However, the most important action the President needs to take for his own sake is to fire the person who suggested that they should shut down the internet during the demonstration. That person caused more damage to this administration than President Weah can ever begin to imagine. “Creeping dictatorship and corruption” are not epithets that can be washed away easily.

The effects of June 7. 2019 will be felt for a long time to come. The administration has every reason to ensure that there is no repeat. The next one could lead to unpredictable consequences. 

The big question: how sincere...?

 

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