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Presidential
gift rattles Press Union of Liberia? Give me a break
Monday, January
15, 2007
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
The late former president Samuel Kanyon Doe,
who was never fond of the Liberian politicians,
denigrated them when they criticized him for his
authoritarian rule.
Mr. Doe was often heard saying how the bunch
who considered themselves pro-democracy activists
would wine and dine with him at night when the general
public, the microphones and the cameras were absent,
but found pleasure going after him during the day
about human rights and democracy for the sake of
publicity and to bash in their collective fifteen
minutes of fame.
Mr. Doe later revealed how he personally gave
opposition politician Gabriel Baccus Matthews of the
United People’s Party (UPP), Progressive Alliance of
Liberia (PAL), or whatever, who was then a key critic
of his predecessor and later a critic of Mr. Doe’s a
vehicle to drive the opposition politician around.
President Doe knew the politicians of his time
were never serious about human rights and democracy in
Liberia even though they pretended to be, and never
had any ounce of respect for them because of their
hypocritical nature but took the politicians for
granted until he was violently ousted by those
non-politicians during the civil crisis.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s
relationship with the Monrovia-based politicians has
been one of convenience, a mutual relationship that
relies heavily on the other scratching, looking out
and watching the back of the other.
And knowing how much skeletons they parties
have in their respective closets, the other party
dared not make the other angry; else, their dirty
laundries would be washed thoroughly in public for all
to know what really happened in the past and present.
As a result of that mutual truce, corruption,
which will eventually be the legacy of the Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf administration looms in the press and
in the government.
President Sirleaf, who is still enjoying her
political honeymoon reminds me of an endangered
species that must be protected so as not to face
extinction. As such
it is rather preferable, as some would like it
to be for the president’s critics to leave her alone
because she's this special breed of human one cannot
seriously engage. We have to be gentle with President
Sirleaf so that she will
also save a struggling nation on the brink of
extinction.
As a result of that fear the president can do
whatever she wants to do, employ whomever she wants to
employ even when the individual constantly violates
the laws of the land as the people of Liberia
continues to hear reports after reports of alleged
corruption in the administration of Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf without any relief in sight.
Harry A. Greaves, who was recently cited by a
UN panel of experts for underreporting $7m in oil
revenues, and for awarding oil contract to a Nigerian
company without ever going through the competitive
bidding process is still employed as Managing Director
of the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation (LPRC),
while selected former government officials are being
cited for “economic sabotage.”
President Sirleaf’s relationship with the
Liberian press is not on the same level as it was with
her predecessors in terms of intimidation; harassment,
imprisonment and execution even though the president
once referred to the press as “checkbook”
journalists for the way some members go about doing
their job.
Despite the incendiary rhetoric from the
president, the press has been allowed to freely
operate under the Johnson-Sirleaf administration, while the
Executive branch has been allowed to also do its job
under the watchful eyes of a friendly press.
However, President Sirleaf came under fire
during the holidays when she offered as Christmas gift
$500.00 each to media institutions in the country,
which was meant to put them in the holiday spirit.
That gesture did not sit well with the Press Union of
Liberia who saw it as an attempt by the president to
bribe its members.
So what’s the difference this time, I wonder?
Because in the past the president was allowed to visit
and gave out cash to ailing members of the press and
their families, and was also encouraged to gave money
to a member of the press whose house was razed by a
stubborn fire with the hypocritical endorsement of a
pliant, complacent and gullible Press Union of Liberia
who later issued a statement commending the president
for her contributions.
When I wrote in previous columns about the
president’s habit of doling out money to the press
and other institutions because such practice tend to
corrupt the political process, renders the press
ineffective and indebted to the president and other
officials of government, a reader bluntly told me to
“Leave the old ma alone.”
“Liberia in truest, does not have an
independent press,” journalist Moses D. Sandy noted
in a recent column in The Liberian Dialogue but
attributes its ethical lapses to poverty.
I will agree with my colleague that Liberia
does not have an independent press, but will
respectfully disagree with him when poverty is used as
an excuse for bad behavior.
When grown men and women who supposed to uphold
the integrity of their profession sell it to the
highest bidder for money, they rob the citizens who
depend on them for news and information, and can no
longer be trusted to be the buffer between the people
and branches of government.
The press in Liberia is like a lap dog
answerable to its owners and those that can afford to
pay for its services, but barks selectively only when
it feels like it while corruption is running amok in
that country.
The Press Union of Liberia (PUL), cannot pick
and choose which behavior it wants to conveniently
criticize, yet is comfortable with incompetence and
corruption, especially when its countless members and
news organizations cannot cover a story in Liberia or
publish an article from abroad unless they are paid
financially.
I am anxiously anticipating the day the Press
Union of Liberia will clamp down on money changing
hands between the President of Liberia, government
officials, the public and its members.
Let there be loud noise made for all financial
transactions and presents given to the press, and not
only for the ones given by a president in the name of
Christmas.
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