Pres. Sirleaf 's 2nd Term Announcement Bold and Defiant: Where Are the Opposition Politicians, Anyway? 

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

     President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is not one of those persons who will back down from a fight, especially if that fight is about promoting her own opportunistic agenda to be president of Liberia.

     She succeeded at that prior to her run for the presidency the first time when she trusted herself into the popular fight to oust the dictator, Samuel Kanyon Doe, the indigenous who embarrassed indigenous Liberians for a decade when he held the position they were denied for over a century by the minority Americo-Liberian elite ruling class, and were now elated that their native son finally at the helm of political leadership would fight vigorously to improve their living standards, institute genuine democracy and the rule of law, and work hard to make Liberia a decent place to live and raise a family.

    After all, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s entire political journey has been about pursuing the presidency, and building a case about why she should be president of Liberia. And building that case before the world and the local population meant portraying herself as this sympathetic pro-democracy activist and heroine, who was victimized by the despotic military cum civilian regime of Samuel Kanyon Doe whose desire to remain in power at any cost would eventually throw Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in prison.    

Pres. Sirleaf's Annual Message to the Liberian Legislature (Courtesy Executive Mansion - circa, 2010).

     Going to prison for advocating democracy and free and fair elections became Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s passport to ‘sainthood’ and the presidency as she became the darling of the international community that did not understand Liberian politics or the Liberian tragedy for that matter, but dwelled on her staged and crafted image as a reformer (which, she is not), her Ivy League education, and her symbolic historical role as the continent’s first elected female president. And the idea that she is not the much-hated criminal, Charles Taylor also cemented her hold on the presidency.

     Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s opposition against the dictatorial Samuel Kanyon Doe, and her clarion call for democracy and free and fair elections resonated with weary, displaced and hungry Liberians, who were still traumatized from the decade-old civil war that decimated some to beggars and homelessness.

     However, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s inability to translate her populist message that resonated so well with the Liberian people during the 2005 presidential campaign, and mixing that message with common sense bread and butter/palm butter and rice policies that put food on the table for Liberians; policies that provide jobs and decent wages, affordable education and transportation for students to go to and from school without having to chase taxis and buses in the morning/evening; affordable and accessible healthcare, affordable housing, modern operating sewer system, and garbage disposal sites/landfills, clean air and clean environment, adequate and affordable public transportation, etc, etc, has been a disappointment.

   With a stagnant and centralized national political system still an impediment to development and nation building often inhibiting the equal distribution of resources, and not empowering the political sub-divisions to be self-sufficient in terms of running their own local governments, collecting and using taxes collected in their regions for their own regions, prohibiting Mayors, Superintendents, Commissioners, and tribal Chiefs from being elected, one would think President Sirleaf would use the bully pulpit of her office to work with the legislative branch to amend the Constitution and have those local officials elected (not appointed by the supreme president) in order to have a decentralized government that works.

     Aware of her arrogance and fighting spirit even when her back is against the wall, it didn’t surprise me when President Sirleaf, who like other co-conspirators are barred from running for office, according to the TRC report or ("verdict") for 30 years, recently thrust herself in the fight for a second presidential term amid a looming and damaging Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report that clearly incriminated her, and spelled out her deadly role in the civil war that killed thousands, destroyed a country, and brought untold suffering to many innocent Liberians who bear the brunt of this “Iron Lady’s” selfish political aspirations.

     Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the bold and defiant “Iron Lady,” who refuses to acknowledge the report of her own TRC commission, cleverly studied the political landscape, downsized the feeble opposition knowing very well that the opposition politicians or political parties are not prepared, organized and ready to take her on in 2011, defiantly refused to set up a Liberian War Crimes Court, and took her case for a second term not through a second or third party but directly to the political parties, their representatives and the nation via her Annual (2010) State of the Union Address where she articulated her reasons for seeking a second term.

     “Honorable Legislators, our vision for Liberia, enshrined in our Poverty Reduction Strategy, remains unswerving and unambiguous. Liberians want to build a new nation that is peaceful, secure and prosperous, with democratic and accountable governance based on the rule of law and with abundant employment and other economic opportunities.”

     “Our critical objective, over the next two years of this Administration, is to continue on an irreversible path toward this goal: to achieve rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth and development; to build the capacities of and provide new opportunities for Liberia’s greatest asset – its people; to establish responsible institutions of justice, human rights and governance. This is our vision and our commitment, which can only be achieved when the majority of our people share in the vision and are willing to participate positively and constructively in the processes of reform and change,” the president said.

    The timing of President Sirleaf’s Annual Message was wrong and inappropriate, her in your face style insensitive, did not address the TRC report and its findings, reinforced existing beliefs that she is not accountable to the electorates and stone deaf to the sensibilities of a traumatized population, care less about genuine peace, forgiveness and closure, and also care less about what is being said about her collaborative and fatal adventures during the civil war.

   Credit however, must be given to President Sirleaf for her successful debt reduction or debt elimination policy with foreign governments, which she noted in her annual message to the nation when she said these words:

     “We have reduced inherited external debt arrears, which were unprecedented across the globe when compared to our national wealth, from US$4.9 billion to US$1.7 billion and we expect the bulk of this remaining debt will be forgiven when we reach the HIPC Completion Point at mid-year. We are pleased that this includes the buy-back of all but a small amount of commercial debt of US$1.6 billion at 3 cents on the dollar. We have, in short, escaped the economic burden of our past, and freed ourselves for a better future. In short, though still riddled with the economic and other burdens of the past, we are coping effectively and laying a sound foundation for a better future.”

     While it is true that President Sirleaf has been focused on Liberia’s external debt, another profound disappointment is her inability to make bold decisions that are not politically popular, but are the right decisions to make.

     An example is her annual recognition of the November 29^th birthday of William V.S. Tubman, which should be eliminated immediately. Why continued to celebrate Tubman’s birthday annually as a national holiday? Why not celebrate an annual President’s Day for all Liberian presidents past and present? This guy, Tubman, was not only the longest-serving president of Liberia (27 years), his directionless and visionless regime, coupled with his despotic rule kept Liberia in the dark age, and defined Liberia as the impoverished and undeveloped country it is today.        

     If this president, Sirleaf, is serious about reforming government, then why is there an LPRC (Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation) or a Ministry of Information? Why not just privatize or sell LPRC? Why continued to have this archaic patronage LPRC agency and a “gas slip/coupon” system that has the potential of breeding corruption? Why not have computerized card-like system and gas depots in various areas of the country for fueling government vehicles, with those cards placed in each government vehicles used by the vehicle operator with identifiable vehicle numbers for each vehicle printed on the cards, and an on/off central control system – a safeguard for unauthorized use and managed by a watchful government employee who is also monitored? The Ministry of Information, which I am not a fan of, should be abolished because of its propaganda mission for a sitting president and the administration.

     Why is the Sirleaf administration still renting private buildings in Monrovia for government use? I want to believe this is one of the reforms the former People’s Redemption Council’s military government of 1980 put in place as soon as that government took over. The PRC government of Samuel Kanyon Doe immediately abolished the corrupt practice of the Americo-Liberian led-government of previous administrations renting buildings from their families and friends for government use.

     President Sirleaf’s inability to provide jobs and sustainable wages to minimize the hard times in the country, her inability to curb corruption, crimes, and nepotism; her inability to come clean with the Liberian people about her war past, and the games she’s playing with the TRC report are all legitimate reasons for the opposition to seriously challenge her second presidential bid.

     But who are the opposition? Where are they, because I don’t see any. Do they have any practical platform and message that resonates with the Liberian people? Are they serious, ready, credible and capable?

     As it is now, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf seems to be a shoo-in for a second term in 2011.