Who Are These Guys Representing?       1             1940 - 11112008f- Two- Soccer Legends

  Sunday, April 12, 2009             

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

      I don’t want to believe he is aware of the sideshows now playing around him in the form of a resolution that seeks the removal of Speaker Alex Tyler. And if he ever did, he is not showing it; even though his own ascension to his current leadership position came as a result of another sideshow that removed his predecessor, former President Pro-Tempore, Isaac Nyenabo, whose tenure was rocked constantly by charges of corruption, ineptitude, and a lack of leadership.

     Whether Sen. Cletus Wotorson is keenly aware of the commotion now brewing around him just weeks after he was elected by his colleagues to lead that group is unknown. However, the reasons behind the current noise stems from accusations that the Honorable Speaker Tyler be removed from office for “gross incompetence, betrayal of confidence,” failure to display receipt that he paid $40,000 to the Inter-Parliamentary Union the nation owes that body, and for allegedly and single handedly instructing the comptroller to reduce benefit allowances of Members of the House “without their expressed consent.” 

     Those are familiar charges that deserves the attention of the Liberian people; familiar because that rugged path was once traveled before, which led to Sen. Nyanabo’s exit, and explains why the individuals are trying this time to get rid of Speaker Tyler especially after Sen. Isaac Nyenabo was dishonorably discharged of his leadership duties during a toxic legislative fight that did not help one Liberian of his or her problem, did not put food on their plates but serves as a painful distraction to the nation’s enormous problems that are not being addressed by officials elected to represent them.      

              Sen. Isaac Nyenabo           Speaker Alex Tyler                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                              This is unacceptable behavior that cannot be tolerated, because the nation cannot move forward and Liberians cannot improve their lives and put behind them the painful memories of the civil war when their elected representatives, many of whom are elected to a 9-year term (Senators), and a 7-year term (Representatives), and unfortunately, are former rebels and criminals who are constantly ignoring their plight, always fighting their own “civil war” over money and turf, and always ousting or attempting to oust a colleague whom they want the world to believe offended the rules of their little legislative club in Monrovia.

     With their own members constantly falling ill and suffering from the effects of hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes, and succumbing to death in the last five years, coupled with countless Liberians falling ill and dying daily from those illnesses, are good reasons why those elected Representatives should be serious about legislating, must be above the fray, and must fight for Liberians who desperately need affordable or free healthcare since many are unemployed, and since diabetes and high blood pressure seemed to be the leading killers of Liberians during these tough times.

     This is unfortunate, and I wonder how these so-called Legislators feel when they or some of their fellow citizens have to travel afar to Ghana for the treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes, or have to travel to the United States and other countries for treatment when lawmakers, by the stroke of a pen could have appropriated the funds needed (like their Ghanaian counterparts are doing for their people), for preventative healthcare and drugs to Liberian clinics, hospitals, and Liberian doctors; to assist those doctors in the treatment of their patients.

     I have nothing but admiration for Ghana and what the government has done to reach such a stage that attracts ordinary Liberians, influential politicians and non-influential politicians to seek medical treatment there.

      However, if Ghana can do it, why not Liberia? And why not those heartless, dull and visionless parasitic Liberian politicians study the success of Ghana to help their suffering and dying people, who desperately needs help to survive in that tough Liberia?

     Why aren’t these guys working to enact sensible legislation that put the country back on course, improve the educational system and make it free or affordable, improve the legal system, put Liberians back to work, make healthcare available, affordable or free, make housing available and affordable, and help make the country work to encourage local and foreign investors to do business?         

     Instead of advocating and making funds available for medicine and preventative healthcare for Liberians all over the country, those elected Representatives are constantly bickering over money they think someone stole from them, even as Liberians die slowly in the streets or in the confines of their humid homes at times with empty stomachs because of the unavailability of food, during their final days on Earth.

      Unfortunately, those guys don’t get it; and by them acting the way they are now behaving shows they either don’t care, they don’t understand the art of legislation, are irrelevant or too stupid to occupy such an important position that requires patriotism, a caring spirit, passion to fight for the poor and underprivileged, leadership skills, and legislative skills needed to skillfully craft and influence decisions that affects an entire country and people. 

     Where is our national pride? Where is patriotism, also? And where are the so-called human rights advocates, because this is also a human rights issue when people die because of the obvious lack of healthcare in a country.

     However, there is a call from Liberians everywhere who are advocating the dilution of presidential powers and the decentralization of government. A great call, indeed, but if the president is required to be responsive to the citizenry, the Legislators also must be responsive and accountable, and cannot continue to be ineffective and trifling during these difficult times.      

     It is a know fact that Liberian lawmakers are vulnerable. And because they are vulnerable, they are easily bought and manipulated. As a result, they are weak and ineffective; and the executive branch of government aware of such weakness knows how to exploit the vulnerability and powerlessness of the legislative branch in order to roam freely and go unchecked.

     To achieve such a goal that keeps the citizenry involve in the electoral process requires voter’s education, because for those voters to be taken seriously they too must be serious about the voting process, unafraid to vote their lawmakers who are detached and not responsive to their needs out of office, and ought to also know how to go about casting the vote that will eventually affect their future.

     Certainly, there are bad apples operating right now and right across from the Executive Mansion, and in the Executive Mansion that are currently engaged in bad politics, which could possibly derail the fragile democracy the Liberian people are enjoying right now. One would think those bad apples that created and practiced the backward operating methods that destroyed the nation and carried the individuals through all these years, changed with time.

     With clowns masquerading as lawmakers obviously reinforced the unfortunate belief that the Liberian lawmakers are incompetent and simplistic; and by allowing petty politics to cloud their judgment really shows they are not up to the job.