"I Was Born Kru, I Live Kru, and I Will Die Kru" 

                                - Edmond Nah Kloh (2009)

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

    Edmond Nah Kloh can be an inspiring public speaker if he really wants to be. He can also be an uninspiring speaker if he wants to be. Either way, Kloh lives both worlds. Declaring a run for the Liberian presidency, however, brings out the worst of Kloh, the iconic college professor adored by many he taught along the way.

     Edmond Nah Kloh has not been at his best since he came out as an aspirant for the presidency, and has not done anything worthy in terms of laying out a sensible and comprehensible plan to rebuild the country and improve the standard of living of the Liberian people, and has not convinced Liberians he is ready indeed to be president.

     What has dominated Kloh’s public appearances in a negative way are those unbelievably chilling and near-ignorant remarks he made during the introductory phase of his long shot presidential bid in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2009, and later in Tampa, Florida during the 2009 annual convention of the National Krao (Kru) Association in the Americas, when he was given a microphone to say what he had on his mind.

     Kloh actually went on stage to tell his brethren his plan to run for President of Liberia in 2011. What happened later exposed this long time school teacher not for his accomplishments in the classroom, but exposed him for what he said at a time when he should have presented a branding statement that introduced him to his audience, and a statement that separates him from the other candidates. He should have also made a pitch as to why they should vote for him in the first place.

      Instead, Edmond Nah Kloh said these unforgettable words: “I was born Kru, I live Kru, and I will die Kru, which explains the man’s obvious lacked of political savvy even as he stood at the podium rambling about his other reasons for aspiring to become a presidential candidate.

     When Kloh was later asked about his preference for a political party, he “jokingly” said something like “National Kru Party, ” and also remarked that his run for the presidency is the result of “divine providence” meaning, his candidacy is guided and determined by the will of God.

     I did not expect such pronouncements from Kloh since he has being portrayed in most circles as an enlightened man, a “genius” of a college professor who spent his entire life in academia teaching nearly every Liberian (men and women) I know in Liberia who came out of their mother’s wombs wanting to be educated.

     When I wrote in 2007 about Kloh’s desire to run for the presidency, he dreamed at the time of running on the ticket of George Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change political party, even though he's not a member of that party, he never met Weah, he never attended any of CDC’s conventions, and did not know a thing about that political party.    

     However, like others ahead of him – life long educators for that matter who once aspired for the presidency and are once again hinting a run for that coveted national political office, Kloh is out of touch with reality and brings to the table naked arrogance and a distant understanding of practical politics that embraces all ethnicities. That error diminished his standing as a scholar and a serious presidential candidate. Kloh’s antics also obscure his message and what he stands for (if he has any) in a presidential race that could eventually collapse because of his penchant to alienate voters, and also his penchant to sound crazy.

     In an election season that supposed to bring out serious candidates with serious ideas that could possibly ameliorate the pains and suffering in a country Kloh and others claimed to love, exposed us all to buffoonery characters whose mere utterances and past and present lifestyles of corruption, dishonesty, political miscalculations, ineptitude and past criminal activities are painful reminder of what’s to come, and where Liberia is heading after 2011.

     No one doubts Edmond Nah Kloh’s sincerity that he wants to be President of Liberia in the 2011 elections. No one doubts his patriotism, either. As a Liberian citizen, he is entitled to exercising that right. The truth is, Edmond Nah Kloh is not ready to be president, period.

     A life-long college professor, Kloh’s antics revealed he is politically unsophisticated and unprepared for the presidency, and also dilutes whatever support he anticipated from the many Liberians who went through his classrooms throughout the decades he taught school.

     When the idea of running for president first hit Kloh just before I met him in 2007, during Jlator Nah Gewleh’s wedding in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I later wrote an article after that encounter that was critical of Kloh. After the wedding, Gewleh, a fellow Krao, who was Kloh’s campaign manager/organizer in the Minneapolis area attempted to recruit me to be on Kloh’s team because I share the same Kru ethnicity with the gentlemen.

      After all, both men must have forgotten the obvious fact that I do not base my politics on ethnicity, and I will never support Kloh or any other Kru man or woman because the individual is Kru. My support of any (meaningful) Liberian for the presidency is based on ideas, vision, character, the individual’s support of democracy and the rule of law, and the candidate’s ability to listen and forge relationships with others to rebuild the country and improve the lives of ordinary Liberians.

     One of the issues with Kloh, who has a doctorate is that he often refuses to listen to the advise of his own campaign manager/organizer, Gewleh, a doctoral candidate who supposedly is not on par with the established Kloh.

     “Kloh is cocky, ill prepared and does not listen” Gewleh also said. “Our disagreement is not personal. I just have serious professional disagreement with Kloh, because he has no respect for those he asked to work with him," Gewleh noted. As a result of the Charlotte controversy and other fundamental differences with Kloh, both men parted ways and are not on speaking terms.

     Another disagreement is this comment reportedly made by Kloh. As president, according to Gewleh, Kloh said he will not accept a paycheck because “I don’t need the money” but will take the presidential paychecks anyway to send his grandchildren to school. 

     You cannot have it both ways, Kloh. You either refuse a paycheck or accept it.

     Edmond Nah Kloh is still talking but is not making sense. If he could at least get a steady and seasoned political hand to advise and steer him to say and do the right thing, he probably would be on the right track. 

     As it is now the boat Kloh attempts to paddle seems not to be heading toward the Executive Mansion, but is sinking, sinking and sinking deep into the Sanquine River, near Sanquine, Sinoe County where he hails.