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TRC
must expand its mandate to be effective and
credible
Sunday,
February 03, 2008
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
Musician
Sundaygar Dearboy, who was cited just recently during
the ongoing hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC), in Monrovia for the alleged brutal
and fatal roles he played during the Liberian civil
war, wants us to "forgive and forget,” an exact
quote from one of the songs that made him popular all
across Liberia and among Liberians in the Diaspora.
“Let’s forgive and forget,” he sings
joyously and made us all believers even as we
continued to think about the brutality he and others
allegedly rained on our innocent relatives, friends
and the destruction of a country by those who
supposedly love Liberia more than those they maimed,
raped and killed during their adventurous civil war
for political power and for the nation’s abundant
natural resources.
Liberians did not just ‘fall in love’
with Sundaygar Dearboy’s music because of that one
particular song but because of the passion he brings
to his singing, and the excitement he generates as a
leading musician in post-civil war Liberia often
singing in the Bassa dialect with pride, singing in
simple English – the Liberian version with
stereotypes, and is also known to sprinkle a bit of
the Kru dialect into his act to expand his appeal.
Prince Y. Johnson Sundaygar Dearboy
Nyundueh Monkomana
As he sang his heart out day in and day out
since the end of the civil war, little did we know
that the man who crept slowly into our vulnerable
hearts at such a critical time when we were still
mourning the loss of our friends and relatives, when
we were still learning to love ourselves and one
another, and when we were still healing from years of
abuse and trying to put our lives back together, lived
a double and shameful life, always behaving as if
he’s just another Liberian who was also affected by
the civil war the way his victims suffered at the
callous hands of Sundaygar and his armed friends.
Sundaygar Dearboy’s not the only person
who is talking about letting bygones be bygones since
the end of that inhumane adventure. In fact the hint
about forgiving, forgetting and moving on is the
centerpiece of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission’s theatre-like hearings, which is now
playing or will be playing near your community in days
to come, with the hopes of getting the afflicted and
traumatized to narrate to the “trauma counselors”
or “Council of Commissioners” without fear how
they were treated by the warlords and their armed
surrogates during the civil conflict, as if that alone
will heal the scars and offer genuine closure to those
that are still hurting.
The live drama in Monrovia is a
feel-good spectacle that resembles reality TV intended
to fill our down time with plot lines of extreme
wickedness, intrigue, blood, tears, suspense, the
eating of feces and the killing of babies, with
some of the leading characters displaying
insensitivity, arrogance, toughness and the absurdity
they are known for before an audience that cannot
demand true justice because of a political call to forgive
and forget, which is hard to swallow.
The problem with that line of
thinking is that it is a clever way to exonerate the
politicians and the former warlords through this mock
trial without the genuine input of the citizenry, who
are or were mostly affected by the war. It is also a
non-therapeutic exercise crafted by politicians for
politicians, whose hands are still dripping with the
blood and tears of Liberians who went to their early
graves, were maimed or are still traumatized because
of the naked ambitions of many selfish individuals,
who are still running around Liberia today calling
themselves politicians and college professors.
So what will become of the once-forgotten
victims whom since the end of the civil war were never
heard from until the recent hearings, who have not had
closure, psychological counseling, enough food to eat,
shelter to call home, let alone a job and spending
money necessary to put their shattered lives back
together in order to get their troubled minds off the
nightmares they encountered at the hands of the
savages now in Monrovia?
What becomes of the age-old saying that in
order to be forgiven, one has to truly recognize what
they have done, admit their wrongdoings and be
remorseful, before the aggrieved or society can offer
such a gesture of forgiveness and kindness?
As things are now, it seems President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, who, according to reports was never
an innocent bystander in the Liberian civil war is
among a handful of individuals pushing this one-sided
policy of forgiving and forgetting, at a time when we
are hearing gruesome details of how Liberians suffered
during that war of convenience.
Even as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC),
which does not have indictment and enforcement power,
brings forth victims after victims to narrate their
painful experiences, we have also been painfully
exposed to stories of extreme wickedness perpetrated
against Liberians by one “General Butt Naked,” now
a born-again Christian, who brags about killing 20,000
innocent Liberians on the killing field. Other than
the stories told by “General Butt Naked,” there is
the gruesome disclosure that former Speaker of the
Liberian House of Representative in the Taylor
administration; Nyundueh Monkomana demanded a
“bucket of blood,” ten babies and the burning of
65 persons for a sacrifice intended to capture
Monrovia during the Duport Road Massacre in 1992.
As if it things are not getting
interesting, the buffoon, Prince Johnson, who does not
recognize the legitimacy of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission sees himself as a
revolutionary, while his former ' brother in arms,'
Alhaji Kromah also cries foul. In denial and in defiance, Johnson,
who’s now a lawmaker and also a born-again Christian
currently chairs the Senate Standing Committee on
National Defense and Security, vowed to resist any
attempt to have him testify before a group he
considers as “witch-hunting.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC),
wants Liberians to believe in its mission and purpose,
and expect Liberians to accept its final verdict of
letting bygones be bygones after the hearings are
over.
It is hard to forgive and forget after
hearing such stories, especially when the criminals
who perpetrated such acts of violence against innocent
people are not remorseful enough to appear voluntarily
before a body that advocates a peaceful, forgetful and
forgiving resolution to the Liberian tragedy.
However, whenever he entertained his diverse
audience, Sundaygar Dearboy often sings, “Let’s
forgive and forget.” The TRC’s mission is not
entertainment, and cannot be seen as pandering to a
particular group by ignoring and brushing aside the
legitimate grievances of the victims, loosely telling
them to simply forgive and forget without giving them
the assurance of a better tomorrow, and giving them
something significant back in return for their pain
and suffering in what is seen as a national
embarrassment.
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