The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
January 7, 2020

We, at The Perspective, decry the brute and lethal force used by the Liberian security forces yesterday on peaceful and unarmed protesters and call on all Liberians to condemn the police brutality. The police use of hot water cannons and excessive teargas on unarmed civilians is against international human rights protocol.  We also call on the United States Embassy, European Commission, ECOWAS, UN Mission to Liberia, the Inter-Religious Council, etc.  to equally condemn the police brutality and obtain a commitment from the ruthless Weah regime for a rerun of the protest at the same venue without a repeat of the police brutality we witnessed yesterday.  The planting of a gun and explosives by the police in the vehicles owned by Representative Kolubah is criminal mischief. We should like to also point out that the mixed signals sent by the international partners and local NGOs have emboldened the Weah Government in using police brutality on peaceful citizens.

The Perspective respects 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.

In June of 2019, Liberians turned out to demonstrate against the thefts, lack of accountability & transparency, the lack of the rule of law, rapes with impunity, etc. that were and are still prevalent in the Liberian society.  The position statement of the June 7 Protest was presented to the Weah Government for redress, but for the past seven months, the Weah Government didn’t address the issues raised by the June 7 protesters. 

In fact, President Weah made it worse by giving the then CBL Governor Patray a $500,000 retirement purse and replacing him of Tarlue who does not have any clue and economics and finance. As if that was not bad enough, President Weah astronomically increased the budget of the Finance Ministry from $36,181,453 in 2018/2019 Budget Year to $80,526,744 in the 2019/2020 Budget Year to legalize the theft. But because the Liberian lawmakers only look for what is in the budget for them, they did not care to examine the budget in totality.

The involvement of the U.S. Embassy (July 24 planned protest)
Following the June demonstration, the COP opted to stage another protest in a bid to seek redress from the Liberian Government.  But that effort was shut down by US Ambassador Christian Elder when she considered the planner of the protest, Council of Patriots, as an undemocratic outfit in a press release:

 “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.”

A 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”.
We then wrote that Ambassador Elder was lecturing Liberians to the contrary. She even considered protest on Independence Day not only unpatriotic but also a lack of commitment to national development. Really? But let’s look at the 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?

So it was mind-boggling as it does now that the ambassador of the United States of America would 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.

The involvement of former President Sirleaf
This time around, the mentor of the U.S. Ambassador in the person of the flippant former President Sirleaf has decided to pinch-hit for Ambassador Elder. As we know,  Madam Sirleaf recently stated that “protests and demonstrations” damage the image of Liberia within the international community, thereby driving investors away.  But Madam Sirleaf whose administration was satiated with protests staged by members of CDC has a fish to fry in this one.  We know from impeccable sources that some of the money from the missing 16 billion Liberian dollars was used by Madam Sirleaf to fund the George Weah presidential campaign.  We also know that Madam Sirleaf sought protection that could only be guaranteed by the then-candidate Weah.  So, she is now lobbying her international cronies who form part of the international partners in Monrovia to cover her corruption.  Therefore, the redactions in the Kroll report – fearing that the report was going to expose her misdeeds.

Besides, The Perspective is aware that the flippant former president is orchestrating a plan for Liberia to become a United Nations’ receivership – she once quipped that she put President Weah in the position and she knows how to replace him.

The involvement of the U.S. Embassy and international partners (December 30th planned protest)
Again, the US Ambassador and some international partners called for the postponement of the scheduled December 30th demonstration. Naively, the COP felt that it was a “positive intrusion”.  But we at The Perspective know that there is no such thing called positive intrusion: you either intrude or you intervene.

Following the police brutality of yesterday, The Perspective went further to interview Cllr. Jerome Verdier, the former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and he stated as published below:
“International Justice Group (IJG) is appalled but not surprised using brute force against peaceful Liberians protesting squalid living conditions and the (un) responsiveness of the government of Liberia to a shopping list of grievances presented to the government over six months ago.

“It is an inhumane and callous manner,  the government, rather than yielding to the demands of its people to be accountable, will resort to brute force using a hot water hose to spray boiling water on peaceful demonstrators whose only aim is to simply express their grievances to the government.

“This is not the first time that the government of Liberia will wantonly violate the human rights of the people and commit crimes against humanity, which is now becoming persistent and widespread warranting the IJG to consider calling on the ICC to probe the case of Liberia to abort future reoccurrences and guarantee greater protection of fundamental human rights that the widespread abuses can be eliminated. After 14 years of a very devastating civil war civility and the rule of law must characterize our civic interactions and engagements so that the rights of all can be protected, sustained and respected by all

“Rather than protecting peaceful protestors, Mr. Weah unleashed his vices on harmless, peaceful protestors. He obstructed the free movement of protestors, created barricades in their free movement and burned protestors with burning water, using hot water hoses meant for fighting a fire to burn harmless, peaceful protestors,” Cllr. Verdier concluded. 

But some Liberian miscreants are questioning the logic of protesters cooking on Executive/Capitol Grounds just to justify the police brutality.  The Capitol Building that does not even have running water - where janitors must fetch water from a shallow well to flush the toilets?  We know that during the Sudanese Protests that ousted President Omar Al-Bashir, for example, volunteer medical doctors, cooks, and other professionals helped in sustaining the protests. We saw people cooking on the protest grounds. So, these groupies of President Weah are not sincere to him.

To the COP, our advice is that they must go from community to community to mobilize the people and establish leadership teams in those communities.  The current COP looks like a three or four persons entity.  In other words, it is not inclusive - meaning that its leadership does not reflect the cross-section of the Liberian society.  Besides, for demonstrations to yield good results, it must be spontaneous.  It does not make any sense to plan a demonstration for three or more months.  The best time for the demonstration under review was December 19, 2019, the day Costa entered Monrovia.

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