(Community Update)
Atlanta, GA Oct 13: Not only Bill Clinton and Bob Dole criss-cross this country in an attempt to become president. Joseph D. Zeakedoe Korto is also running for president: He's running to become president of ULAA. Dr. Korto brought his campaign to the Liberian Community Association of Georgia on Sunday, Oct 13. He presented a summarized version of his platform to the community.
But Dr. Korto will not have an easy ride because the community members are still in shock over the inaugural speech delivered by Ben Matalda, current president of the Liberian Community Association of Georgia (LCAG), in which he justified the atrocities committed by some Nimba tribesmen against the Liberian people. Ben, who is also from Nimba County like Dr. Korto, said that John Ramsey's letter to Doe started the animus between the Nimba people and the Doe regime and this conflict started as a result of that letter. Mr. Matalda, however, forgot to mention too that there was similar letter from chief Mongrue outlining the same suspicion that Ramsey alluded to. Some Liberians, who insist on condition of anonymity, said that Ben's position is understandable since his brother is one of Charles' commanders in the Kakata area. Ben, however, apologized but refused to make copies of the speech available to the members.
A question was asked by one of the LCAG members as to how Dr. Korto, who is from Nimba, would unite ULAA when Nimba is blamed by most Liberians as being responsible for the senseless killing and destruction of infrastructures in Liberia. Dr. Korto noted that when he was president of the University of Liberia Student Government he brought unity among students who were, prior to his administration, divided along ethnic lines. Similar strategy will be used to unite ULAA.
Dr. Korto also said that the question about who is responsible for the unfortunate war in Liberia is debatable. He pointed out that Charles Taylor, Tom Woewiyu, John T. Richardson, Lavala Supuwood were not from Nimba. He said that all Liberians were responsible (one way or the other) for our problems.
There are lots of unanswered questions: Though the people named by Dr. Korto are not from Nimba, why some Nimba citizens do the dirty works for them...? Is Dr. Korto really from a bona fide ULAA Chapter?
When asked of his activities as member of ULAA prior to this election, he had a very short list for his involvement in ULAA and a long list for UNICCO activities.
Here is another perspective by other Liberians. Efforts to reach Dr. Korto to respond to the listed allegations were unsuccessful.
The Coalition of Progressive Liberians in the Americas (COPLA)
· 108-09 91st Avenue · Queens, NY 11418
· 2061 Beaver Springs Lane, Norcross, GA 30071
(718)849-8243 Fax:(718)849-1721 (770)449-8389 Fax: (770)409-0186
TO: Liberians Living in the United States
FROM: The Coalition of ProgressiveLiberians in the Arnericas (COPLA)
DATE: October 18, 1996
Do not forget the tragic invasion of our country Liberia on Christmas Eve 1989. Rebel Charles Taylor decided to return the Americo Liberians to power. In the process he fooled some country people in Nimba County to join him. They did. Taylor said he was coming to overthrow Samuel Doe who had defeated the Thomas Quiwonkpa foiled coup. Quiwonkpa himself was a big Bagcarrier of the Americos.
Some of our Nimba friends who were ignorant of the plot joined Taylor's slaughter machine and killed over 250 000 innocent Liberians. They dissected fetuses. They killed pregnant women, children, old people and everything in sight. They even killed dogs and cats and ate them, thus displaying the highest level of barbarism. What a total disgrace to humanity, civility, and Liberia particularly!
Korto constitutes a beach head for institutional instability. He is not a man of his own. For example he developed a major disagreement with the Liberian intelligentsia simply because the Amos Sawyer - led Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) denied him the portfolio of education minister after his desperate campaign for that job. Korto is not the right candidate for an all Liberian organization at least not now.
Korto has been canvassing using other Nimba citizens to run his campaign ignoring qualified Liberians of different ethnic stocks. The plan is to transform ULAA into a traditional UNICCO an organization explicitly created to foster Nimba concerns exclusively. Watch and see how many UNICCO members and other Nimba citizens who have come to elect Korto to OIL the anachronistic wheels of TRIBALISM. They have come along with their Urban Allies the Americo-Liberian aristocrats from Far and near in bus and car loads, planes and trains, to elect Korto.
Who is Korto and what is his ideological repertoire? Korto is an icon of diehard tribalism and a hardcore gravyseeker. He represents a coterie that is largely heedless of topical Liberian reality. He is out of touch with the political idiom of the times. This is not to pillory Korto for he's a very short and handsome man who is relatively educated. But when it comes to Liberia's interest Korto and his kind are DEAD WRONG for national reconciliation and unity fellow Liberians please do not deliver ULAA to tribalism. ULAA is our hope for position convergence outside Liberia.
VOTE AGAINST. Tribalism VOTE AGAINST SELF-INTEREST. VOTE AGAINST DECEIT.
VOTE AGAINST KORTO
Copyright © 1996 The Perspective
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