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The
battle for our hearts and votes
Saturday,
July 15, 2006
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
Officers and
members of the Union of Liberian Associations in the
Americas, (ULAA) will meet in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania on September 23, to elect a new president
who will replace the retiring Arthur K. Watson, whose term expires
after a two-year stint as head of that umbrella
organization representing Liberian associations in the
United States.
The delegates will also elect a vice president
and other officers who are expected to work with the
incoming administration, in furthering the interests
and ideas of the 32-year old organization’s mission,
which is “to advance the just causes of Liberians
and Liberia at home and abroad.”
The race for the presidency is between the
Emmanuels – as in Wettee and Toe; two equally
ambitious ‘Union’ men with a record of civic,
political and community involvement, whose
determination to fill the coveted post has turned the
always contentious ULAA elections into the talk of the
Liberian communities, as supporters and detractors
rushed to put their candidates on top, or deny the
other side a chance to prevail on election day.
ULAA's
presidential and Vice presidential candidates. Top,
from left-to right Emmanuel Wettee and running mate
Georgia Selli. Bottom, from left-to right Emmauel Toe
and running mate Danlett Norris.
Emmanuel Toe’s running mate is Danlette
Norris, former president of the Liberian Community of
Rhode Island, while Emmanuel Wettee’s running mate
is Georgia E. Selli, a one-time student activist at
the University of Liberia, and executive member of the
Liberian Community of Massachusetts.
However, in a little over two months leading to
the actual elections, the duo has not yet been
certified by the Elections Commission, and has not put
forth a platform or any working document that will
guide potential voters in deciding which candidate
means well; is capable, competent and ready to lead
ULAA in these critical times.
I learned a little about the two candidates and
what they intend to do for Liberians and the
association they want to lead during a separate July
11 phone conversations I had, first, with Mr. Toe who
had just returned from the Sinoe County annual
convention in Minnesota, and later with Mr. Wettee,
who couldn’t attend the event because of an illness,
but was also willing to chat with me for this article.
Even though both candidates expressed their
respective interests in the job in the strongest term,
Toe vowed to de-politicize ULAA if he is elected so
that the organization will be able to meet its other
pressing challenges ahead.
“If anyone wants to be political, that person
will have to go to Monrovia where the action is so
that they will challenge Ellen, because ULAA is not
the place,” echoed Toe, who ran in 2004 as a running
mate of the former presidential candidate Morris Koffa.
“My opponent and his friends are writing
negative things about me on the Internet, but we will
not respond because I have a vision for this
association, that’s why I am running for
president.”
“I am the only candidate so far who worked with others in Michigan to acquire a community
center for our association. We are the only
community in the United States who has collected
$10,000 in dues in a particular year.
Before I came to Detroit no one paid dues.
We’ve raised over $35,000 since my involvement with
the community association, and we’ve even
established 501c3 for our chapter. That’s
leadership, and I want to bring that same leadership
to ULAA if I am elected president.
On the immigration issue, Toe acknowledged his
administration would lobby congress so that TPS will
be cancelled and be reclassified to DED. “I will
lobby congress for Temporary Residence Status for
Liberians for 3 years because it is easy to adjust,”
he said.
Wettee don’t want “ULAA to be seen only as
a political organization, but a partner in the
redevelopment and reconstruction of our country,”
vowing “to transform ULAA into an association that
will address our social needs by focusing on lobbying
the U.S. congress on immigration issues for
Liberians.” Wettee also wants to work very hard on
the issues of education and medicine.
As president, “I want to take Liberian-born
doctors and their foreign-born counterparts to Liberia
to address the medical needs of the Liberian people. I
want to also continue in the path of our out-going
president, Arthur Watson.”
Wettee, who is considered “Doyen” of the
Liberian organizations because of his10-year tenure
within ULAA’s leadership council, wants to visit all
the chapters after he’s elected and will strive to
bring those associations back to the Union.
“I helped to elect 4 of the 5 previous
presidents. This election, I am electing myself. In
fact, I am now planning my inauguration,” he said.
Toe alleged that President Watson has never
made a financial report since he became president and
never had a meeting, even though the Constitution calls
for quarterly meetings.
Toe and Wettee stressed the need for
financial accountability, and will do all they can to
bring transparency to the Union.
The Union of Liberian Association in the
Americas (ULAA) is a dying organization that continues
to be on life support, and is barely surviving on a
day-to-day basis. Whether the two ambitious and
idealistic candidates with their ever-present populist rhetoric
will be any different from their predecessors is still
to be seen.
However, ULAA lacks credibility and the seriousness it
takes to be a viable organization. ULAA is an
organization, as its critics will say that needs more
than rhetoric and “mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” to recover
from years of neglect, incompetence, financial
misappropriations, corruption, failed policies, bad
and opportunistic leaders who would rather look out
for themselves, their resumes and future political
appointments in Liberia than to really look out for
Liberians in need.
As the oldest of all the Liberian associations in
the United States, ULAA lacks a clear direction, let
alone a vision or even a community center with computers and social
programs – any program that will assist new
(refugees) Liberians entering the country. Not too long ago, a picture of a building in
Washington D.C., advertised to be ULAA’s
headquarters was
e-mailed to many Liberians across the United States.
The Liberian Dialogue found out from a
well-connected source recently that
ULAA does not own the building in question, but
purchased an 800-phone number manned by an individual whom ULAA pays to
answer the phone, in the name of whom else…ULAA.
"Nonsense," said Arthur Watson who spoke
with me by phone about this article, and went on to
challenge his critics to get the address on ULAA's
website and go to Washington D.C., to see whether
there is no space the Union occupies. "You know
in this day and age there are many ways people own
offices."
"When we came on the scene two years ago, ULAA
did not have a physical presence. This is the first
time in the history of ULAA that we have our own
office, which is not an 800-phone number," he
said. "The Union has an office she pays
for."
On the issue of him not calling a meeting since he
became president, Watson said: "We've had
numerous meetings, not physical but legitimate
teleconferences. The critics ought to call the local
chapters and find out whether they never joined us in
those teleconferences. Wehtoe, I am looking forward to
my retirement."
I am also anticipating September 23, 2006.
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