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In
defense of Beatrice Munah Sieh
Saturday,
July 29, 2006
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
As
a columnist and a political activist for close to
three decades, I have been able to take on some of the
toughest issues of the day by making painful decisions
that requires taking on my own tribal people when they
do wrong, and have been able to also shower them with
accolades when they do the right thing.
So let me make it crystal clear. This is not,
and should not be about ethnicity, but about applying
justice in the right way.
Police Director Beatrice Munah Sieh
Just incase anyone wants to tear me apart for
speaking so kindly of, and in support of Beatrice
Munah Sieh’s recent troubles, and whether I am not
fair, they should go further into researching my
writings – my unabashed support of the Mandingoes,
their Islamic faith, their rights as Liberian
citizens, the land issue in Nimba County, and my
support and criticisms of people of my own tribe. To
cut matter short, I think I have been consistent. And
I am proud of myself.
Police Director Beatrice Munah Sieh is a fellow
Krao whom I greatly admire for what she has done with her life by plucking herself out of poverty and
overcoming discrimination in a sexist male-dominated
conservative society that has done little to improve
the lives of its female population.
Ms. Sieh excelled perhaps because she probably
didn’t want to be like her mother, sisters, aunts
and other females around her who didn’t make it pass
the elementary school level, and was motivated by the
obstacles she faced daily to stayed on course to be
what she is today.
One does not have to go too far in Liberia to
see the neglect, the inequality, the injustice and the
inattention given to women’s issues – say
education, healthcare, rape, family planning, domestic
violence, etc, etc, as women were left at the mercy of
selfish men to decide what’s good or bad for those
women to survive in that very tough country.
Ms. Sieh, together with President Sirleaf and a
handful of other ambitious career-driven women who are
governing the country today in many capacities, fought
hard to survive, stumbled and fell along the rugged
roads, got up, brush off the dust and sands, moved on
and never looked back again until they finally
realized their respective dreams for a better future
for themselves and their families.
That rags-to-success story has given
inspiration to many young Liberian girls who are now
wearing the painful shoes Ellen, Munah and other
disadvantaged Liberian women once wore when they too
were young ladies struggling to live from day to day.
Those young girls are also stumbling and
falling today, and continues to brush off the dust or
sands daily, always hoping that with faith and hard
work, they too can be like their heroines in the days
and years to come.
There is a price that one pays for being a
leader, because with leadership comes responsibility
since a lapse in judgment can seriously affect a
generation of people and define that leader’s
future.
Police Director Munah Sieh, who’s also a
minority because of her gender erred when she made a
stereotypical remark warning women, especially Muslim
women in Liberia against the idea of wearing their
customary veils, which she unjustly and naively linked
to terrorism, and wants us to believe threatens the
lives of Muslim women.
First it was House Speaker Edwin Snowe, who
attempted to run his own foreign policy by recognizing
Taiwan instead of living with the “one-China
policy,” which has been the official policy of the
Liberian government forever. Now, it’s Munah’s
turn.
This is yet another example of another overzealous
government official who might not mean any harm but is
carried away by the power and authority vested in her,
and is trying to impress the president who appointed
her by going out of the official policy of the
government to do her own thing.
That kind of recklessness deserves some kind of
punishment, perhaps sensitivity, diversity and
multicultural training, and an annual training for the
entire police department, other law enforcement
officers and their departments and officials of the Liberian
government.
It shouldn’t stop there. The Johnson-Sirleaf
administration ought to put in place a visible and
coherent Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), a kind of
operating ‘Bible’ that explains to
department/agency heads and their employees their
roles, what to expect from everyone, and how
to address sensitive issues while working for the
Liberian government.
I don’t want to believe President Sirleaf
instructed her police director to be a fashion czar
who wants to institute her own dress code in the name
of fighting terrorism, totally oblivious and
insensitive to the religious reasons behind the
wearing of the veils.
This kind of behavior poisons the already shaky
atmosphere in the country, and invites wannabe leaders
with their own hidden motives and venomous diatribes,
who cannot wait to quickly jump on this terrible
mistake to insult and discredit Munah Sieh, who
hasn’t been given enough time to prove herself as a
capable administrator.
It is true Police Director Sieh should have
known better because of her past employment working as
a middle school teacher for the public school system
in New Jersey, where she worked with kids of all
religious faiths - Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and
others from all sectors of the world.
She really should have known better. And
fortunately for her she apologized for making those
silly remarks. Now Munah Sieh must try by all means to
meet with leaders of the Islamic faith to formally
apologize and show how much she regrets her comments,
and how much she wants to put the blunder behind her.
Beatrice
Munah Sieh is certainly not Edwin Snowe. She’s not
any of the rebel warlords whose hands are dripping
with the blood of the Liberian people, either. If a
Truth and Reconciliation Commission could be set up to
forgive those individuals for their heinous crimes
against the nation and people of Liberia,
then Munah Sieh should be forgiven by those she
offended by her unsophisticated choice of words.
The Police Director has a responsibility to
provide equal and fair protection to every citizen and
foreigners living in the 15 counties or political
subdivisions of the Republic of Liberia based on the
letter of the law, and not on the basis of their
religion, ethnicity, national origin and one’s
status in society.
Police Director
Sieh needs to focus on her job
description, and must learn to do it well.
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