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Knuckles'
resignation and presidential arrogance
Friday,
March 09, 2007
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
To her many
admirers, she is tough as a nail. To her detractors,
she is an arrogant president who travels a lot and
cares very little about public opinion.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wants to be both in
Liberia, and has undermined the existence of the young
democracy she helped gave birth to by doing things her
way instead of the will of the people.
To those detractors, the administration of
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is threading along the path of
dictatorship, especially when her administration
censors the press and shuts down a newspaper for
publishing a sexually explicit photograph of her
friend and former Minister of State for Presidential
Affairs, Willis D. Knuckles.
Knuckles (l) and Pres. Sirleaf
Publisher Sam O. Dean
A clampdown on the media by her clerical
Minister of Information, Laurence Bropleh and a pliant
Minister of Justice Frances Johnson Morris, is not
sitting well with all for many reasons.
The government’s action reminds Liberians of
the days of old when beating on the press was fair
game; and it also unmasked Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who
herself was once a victim of brutality by dictatorial
governments as out of touch with the aspirations of
oppressed people, now that she’s president of a
country.
Whatever one may think of Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf, she is (still) President of Liberia. As such,
much is expected of her to be the leader she once
campaigned to be: Strong on fiscal matters (her
specialty), fighting corruption in government and
fighting the abuse and exploitation of women, etc,
etc.
However, President Sirleaf backpedals on her
promise to protect abused and exploited women when she
went after the messenger, the Independent newspaper
and its Publisher, Sam O. Dean and left untouched the
individual who actually violated the women whom Ms.
Sirleaf dreamed of protecting once she’s elected President
of Liberia.
When President Sirleaf turned her attention
away from Willis D. Knuckles who offended the
sensitivities of a nation and shuts down the
Independent newspaper, says a whole lot about the
president’s sense of democracy, justice and
fairness.
Just last month, the Johnson-Sirleaf
administration denied activist Mulbah Morlu the right
to gather peacefully and protest the policies of the
government in the streets of Monrovia. Mr. Morlu was
later jailed and released after pro-democracy
activists in and out of Liberia petitioned the
government to release the young activist.
There is danger when a president threads a
unilateral path and does not value the opinions of
others, especially in a fragile society such as
Liberia where the mere mention of presidential
arrogance and abuse of power can easily lead to chaos and
dissension.
President Sirleaf came to local and worldwide
fame not because of her formidable appeal and presence
in Liberian politics during the early days of her
career, but through protest politics, and capitalized
on the naked brutality, arrogance, incompetence and
the mistakes of her predecessors who were over their
heads once they reached the Executive Mansion, to
achieve her presidential ambition.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the presidency
not because she was the most trusted and popular
person on the campaign trail in 2006, but because she
was the devil the Liberian people would rather deal
with than the saints they hardly knew, and decided
against rewarding the other seasonal and part time
opposition leaders or candidates the presidency.
Most Liberians did not trust Ms. Sirleaf then
and now because of her incriminating, documented and
heinous pre-civil war past, but viewed her as snobbish
because she did not identify herself with the poor and
working class when she was just an ordinary citizen.
Liberians were willing to give Ms. Sirleaf a
try because of the obvious void in political
leadership, the incompetence and timidity of her
closest political rival, George Manneh Oppong Weah,
and because of the way she portrayed herself to be: patriotic and
caring, coupled with a crafted populist rhetoric,
which tilted many to her campaign.
The Knuckles’ issue and other issues
that transpired since President Sirleaf came to power,
which she failed miserably to address exposed her as
weak when it comes to policing and disciplining her
employees who violates the laws of the nation.
Because of her tendency to mix personal
relationships with political governance, the president
has allowed those personal relationships to undermine
the tough decisions she must make to uphold the
Constitution of the land and protect the Liberian
people.
After all, effective leadership is about making
tough decisions, which could possibly aid or affect a
person. As a result, it is the duty of the leader to
make those tough decisions, no matter where the chips
may fall.
President Sirleaf cannot continue to play
mother, sister, grandmother or an old classmate in the
handling of the nation’s business. The president
must learn to separate her friendship with individuals
from national issues so as not to
appear to be seen as being loyal to an individual than
the nation, which could easily undermine her
credibility and her ability to govern.
As it is now, Ms. Sirleaf seems to be telling
her local and international audience one thing about
her plans to reform government, but is also telling
her “kids,” her government employees and the
Liberian people another thing: That it is alright when
a powerful friend of hers exploit women for sexual
gratification and leaves behind a photo worth more
than thousand words.
While it is true that President Sirleaf
accepted Knuckles’ resignation for his threesome
sexual act after days of soul-searching, the president
took forever to decide his fate.
And when President Sirleaf called herself
speaking to an anxious nation about the latest
controversy involving another high-ranking cabinet
member, the latest her embattled friend, Willis D.
Knuckles over a threesome sexual scandal, President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf did not mince her words nor did
she hide her feelings about her relationship with a
guy who contradicts the so-called “high standards”
she wants to enforce in her government.
The
president said she did not accept Knuckles'
resignation because of pressure from the public. She
went along because of her own willingness to accept
his resignation. Was it really necessary for the
president to make such a statement?
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf peppered her speech to
the nation of Knuckles' resignation with defiance, as
if Knuckle is a victim of a political witch-hunt.
This is not leadership Madam President; this is presidential
arrogance.
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