The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
July 23, 2019

Ambassador Christine Elder

On July 18, 2019, the outgoing US ambassador to Liberia Christine Elder issued a statement, repudiating a protest march planned by the Council of Patriots (COP), an opposition group, to sensitize the Weah administration to the need to curb official corruption and gross mismanagement of our country’s scarce resources. Aimed at sensitizing the people of Liberia and international partners during the 172nd independence anniversary, the protest was slated for July 24, 2019.  Ambassador Elder vehemently stated that having a protest march on Independence Day was unpatriotic.
The Ambassador wrote:

 “As the COP press release specifically calls on the international community to join their ‘long march,’ the U. S. Embassy responds by sharing its view that, particularly from a group carrying the banner ‘Council of Patriots’ and from a group which avows that patriotism remains central to their efforts, staging such actions as they have outlined, during  independence celebrations, would instead convey a lack of commitment to national development.  Ideally, events surrounding upcoming national celebrations should be devoid of partisan promotion or posturing, focusing instead on working together for the common good of the Liberian people.”  Amen!

Undoubtedly, July 26 is the birthday of our nation, and Liberians naturally relish celebrating the day in the spirit of patriotism and national unity. They deeply love their country but with a sense of justice, rights and the collective good in pursuits of which they should hold their leaders accountable.

Ambassador must have a weird sense of patriotism, if she’s not condescending, for suggesting that hapless Liberians should remain apathetic while they wallow in abject poverty amidst rampant official corruption, mismanagement, and a breakdown of law and order.

We, at The Perspective, subscribe to the proposition that the observance of independence anniversary is a patriotic duty of every Liberian citizen. Yet, we respect the rights of any group of Liberian citizens to protest on any day it deems convenient, especially when the state of the nation is deplorable as it is under the Weah cabal. Liberians invariably deplore the official corruption, incompetence, and insensitivity of the cabal to the plight of the Liberian people. They are so disappointed that protesting on Independence Day had become a patriotic duty.

Protest is part and parcel of modern democracy. It cannot be an unpatriotic act. The United States, whose democratic values, endear her to us Liberians, emerged out of the jaw of protest.  “The entire nation was born in protest”, stated historian Jonathan Zimmerman referring to the United States of America--adding, “The Declaration of Independence is a document of protest”.

Ambassador Elder would lecture Liberians to the contrary. She even considers protest on independence day not only unpatriotic but also a lack of commitment to national development. How does the ambassador mean? There is a pattern of protests in the history of the United States. In 1852, the legendary Frederick Douglass, addressing a largely white audience, posed the question: 

“What to the American slave is your 4th of July?”  Douglass defiantly derided the US independence day as an embodiment of injustices and cruelties to which he was a victim. Needless to mention the spate of protests on July 4th in the 1960s in the United States and around the world at American Consulates against the Vietnam war.  Were these demonstrators unpatriotic?

It is mind-boggling for an ambassador of the United States of America to state categorically that people exercising their inalienable rights on independence day are unpatriotic--especially when such protest is against injustice, corruption, chronic unemployment, a backbreaking inflation, economic mismanagement in all forms and matter, and mass poverty.

Ambassador Elder further writes: “Ideally, events surrounding upcoming national celebrations should be devoid of partisan promotion or posturing, focusing instead on working together for the common good of the Liberian people.” 

The Baby Trump Blimp

Really?  Didn’t President Richard Nixon make the July 4th celebration in 1970 a “partisan promotion or posturing” until the celebration was interrupted by protestors, some of whom were completely nude?  Didn’t President Trump make this gone American Independence Day, the “Salute the Nation” Program, a day of “partisan promotion or posturing”? Didn’t Ambassador Elder see the “Baby Trump Blimp” launched by protesters who were protesting the separation of children from their parents seeking asylum? 

Ambassador Elder certainly needs to not only read the history of her country’ but she should also be aware of what is happening in her country today. The Ambassador pretentiously used the word, “ideally.” Are the conditions and state of affairs in Liberia “ideal?”  Hell No! Most reasonable people will beg to disagree with Ambassador Elder. Ideally, Liberia should be doing much better at 172 years old, but there are indications that it is the third poorest nation, ranks at the bottom of all human development, education, infrastructure, and health, etc. measurements.

The United States and other developed nations have put into Liberia billions of dollars since 1847--we have learned. But what can Liberia show for all these donor aid and investments during the past 172 years?  These are the long and hard thinking the Ambassador ought to be doing and supporting ordinary citizens who are bearing the brunt of failed leadership. What has been accomplished? Who have been brought to justice for the 250,00 people killed during the war, and the other millions who were refugees around the world?

The efforts by some Liberians to protest, sensitize or get the attention of the international community, the United States being one of the international partners, is a healthy exercise for the nation. In fact, the United States Embassy in Monrovia has aided and abetted in making the prevailing situation in the country worse by conniving with the alleged thieves, President Weah and former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and others to redact the audit report of KROLL--the very audit the US government-sponsored with US tax dollars.

President Weah approached the U.S Embassy for help in finding the real culprits in the missing 16 billion Liberian dollars, and the 25 million United States dollars taken from the Central Bank of Liberia, which have not yet been accounted for.  But, for some strange reasons, the audit report was redacted as if to say it was a classified report filed from the Embassy to the State Department.

 Arguably, this was done with the notion that Liberians do not know any better and that all efforts will be exerted by the Embassy through Ambassador Elder to make Liberia to remain permanently a “Shit Hole”.

The actions of the US Embassy such as the assistance to the government of Liberia to cover up the L$16B saga and the demand imposed upon patriotic Liberians to end the democratic process intended to pressure the government to curb the rampant corruption, thereby encouraging President George Weah to disclose the source of the money used to build his forty-seven commercial buildings indicate that the US government has embraced this government because the officials will allow American institutions to siphon our resources in exchange of limited benefits.

One would have hoped that the evidence of corruption in Africa, specifically in Liberia, carried out by Americans and other multinational corporations, as reported by the Thabo Mbeki Committee of the Illicit financial outflows from Africa and Transparency International, is sufficient to encourage American Officials to support Liberians who are willing to risk their jobs to put pressure on this government.

The Liberian Government spent over $150,000 for the recent trip to Guinea and has earmarked over half a million dollars for the July 26thIndependence Day Celebration, at which time the Liberian Government officials, the international partners, including ambassador Elder will celebrate the “achievements” of Liberia. So, the patriotism and partisan quip is an affront to the suffering people of Liberia.

On the other hand, however, it is good that the COP has postponed the protest because what the US Embassy statement has given the Weah Government a carte blanche to kill “unpatriotic” protestors at will.

The action of Ambassador Elder is repugnant to the suffering Liberian people, but then again, she wants Liberia to remain a “Shit Hole”.

After 172 years and from the date Abraham Lincoln recognized Liberia as an independent country and after the very USA has claimed to spend billions in Liberia, at 172 years what has been accomplished: Corruption induced poverty and despair.

Let Ambassador Elder celebrate poverty and corruption in the name of patriotism.  Let her eat and drink a few beers, champagne or expensive wine on the poverty-driven Liberians and feel good about that. We feel that the Ambassador cares less about the suffering of the Liberian masses.

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