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From
Snowe to Tyler
April
22, 2007
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
I really
don't know what the guidelines are for electing a
Speaker of the House of Representatives in Liberia,
but an Alex Tyler of Bomi County, a member of the
Liberian Action Party was elected recently
to replace the controversial and embattled former
speaker Edwin
Melvin Snowe, during a political contest that rejected
a candidate of George Weah’s symbolic and
directionless Congress for Democratic Change (CDC)
political party.
The change of leadership in the House of
Representatives was highly anticipated; but when it
would happen and how to go about the change was the
challenge the politicians had to grapple with from the
day Snowe arrived on the scene with his baggage and
decided to serve not only as another politician, but
as one who wanted to be more than just Speaker of the
House of Representatives in Liberia.
Former Speaker Snowe
Alex Tyler - Speaker
Edwin Melvin Snowe’s problem was
self-flagellation, political inexperience or
incompetence and a history of corruption that followed
him even as he attempted to reinvent himself as
a serious presence on the national stage.
However, with the kind of momentum and
political capital Snowe acquired after he defeated
establishment candidate Dusty Wolokollie for the
speakership in 2006, subsequently “seizing” the
leadership of the House of Representatives in 2007
from the CDC (Congress for Democratic Change), the
political party with the three letters of the alphabet
that rhymes like
children’s song, many believed then that despite his
credibility problem, Snowe was destine for greater
political things in Liberia if he ever could get his
life together and on track.
Well, Edwin Melvin Snowe never recovered and
was never seen as a thinker who had any political or
intellectual clout anyway, and played his cards wrong
by misreading the politics around him for which he was
ousted and is now being pursued for economic crimes or
“economic sabotage” with the possibility of serving time in
prison for the crimes he allegedly committed during
his stint as Managing Director of the Liberian
Petroleum Refinery Corporation when his then-father in
law Charles Taylor served as President of Liberia.
Because he was constantly haunted for his
excesses and was always busy defending himself, the former speaker had no
time to do the job for which he was
"elected," and had no credibility to use
the pulpit of the third most powerful political office
of the land to address those heart-wrenching national
issues like corruption, hunger, skyrocketing inflation,
education, health care issues, sanitation, erosion and unemployment that afflicts the Liberian nation and
people.
As a result of that political impotence,
Speaker Edwin Melvin Snowe became comical and irrelevant; and as
some would say using the sports analogy, became a
benchwarmer who couldn't play because of his
troubles on and off the floor of the House of
Representatives.
The troubled tenure of Edwin Snowe as speaker
is history now, which is left with us to decipher as to how
much influence or impact he had on the Liberian people
and the job many believed he paid his way into, thanks
to the $30 million he allegedly stole from the
coffers of the nation’s struggling oil refinery.
While it is true that Mr. Snowe could arguably
be the most ethically challenged leader since the days
of his mentor Charles Taylor, the new speaker cannot
afford to be like Snowe, and must
work harder to win the confidence of the Liberian people who
craved practical results from their politicians more
than ever before because of the total lack of basic
necessities to sustain them.
There is no way to gauge Alex Tyler’s
abilities as a legislature or a leader because of his
once obscure role as just another member of congress,
and because no one knows how much of a legislature he
was before his accidental ascension to the office of
speaker.
One thing that’s clear however, is that the
low-profiled Tyler is not the once high-profiled Snowe
who inspires verbal onslaught; some justified while
others uncalled for, passionate and endless debates from
Liberians everywhere from the time he spoke of his
selfish desire to run for the House of Representatives,
let alone speaker, even though Snowe knew how
unprepared he was and how much his presence as a
lawmaker would polarize a nation that truly needs
peace and unity to resuscitate the broken lives of its
downtrodden citizens and rebuild its crumbling
infrastructure.
Speaker Tyler must provide leadership by being
a visionary and by being fair
and balanced questioning and challenging
presidential waste, presidential travels and extravagance, and corruption,
and must sprint to craft
serious legislations intended to create jobs, to
create loans for small businesses and
technical training,
educational and investment opportunities for the
Liberian people, and must also strive to award rebuilding and
development contracts to Liberian-owned businesses.
There is a lot to be done in the Republic of
Liberia in terms of actual work, and Speaker Alex
Tyler cannot afford to be seen as one who campaigned
for the position just to be recorded in the history
books as Speaker of the House of Representatives, than
one who actually ran for the position out of
unconditional love for his people to impact their lives and
make a difference, which too could be recorded as
actual accomplishments we all can proudly cherish.
If Speaker Tyler can provide true leadership by
working with the other branches of government, mainly
the executive branch by being practical and
result-oriented, he probably would then make us all forget
about the tragedy of Edwin Melvin Snowe as speaker.
Anything short of a splendid job performance could
invoke painful memories of the former speaker, which
does not bode well for the republic, the Liberian
people and the new speaker.
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