It Reflects Poorly on Sirleaf Administration When Government Officials Verbally and Physically Assaults Liberian Citizens and Foreign Nationals Of Two Soccer Legends

Thursday, August 13, 2009

“This certainly is not the message that this administration wants to send abroad and even those at home, who want to be part of this country and help in whatever way they can, Liberia is for all of us and I think there is a due process, there is a way and manner people get dismissed and things are turned over.”

- Chris Wleh Moore, 2009

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

     The statement above reportedly are the words of Chris Wleh Moore, a friend who left these shores of the United States recently to answer the clarion call made by President Sirleaf and officials of her government for Liberians in the Diaspora to return home and help in the reconstruction of their country.

     It is a call that is too difficult for some to ignore but not too hard for others not to ignore, for the mere fact that returning to Liberia is risky business from a safety and financial perspective; and like Chris Wleh Moore, any grown and responsible man can be beaten or killed by a government official for no reason whatsoever, or could be ordered beaten and humiliated because the individual “violated” the unwritten rules of a government official who supposed to be a servant of the people instead of being their tormentor.

         Chris Moore displays torn pants after he was allegedly assaulted          

     Returning to Liberia is a risk not worth taking because Liberians returning home are at the mercy of those callous government officials who care less about public opinion, about protecting Liberians, and care less about abiding by the laws governing the country knowing that President Sirleaf, as usual, will always be there to protect them the next time they verbally or physically assault Liberians and foreign nationals.

     The recent beating of Chris Wleh Moore, Executive Director of the Special Economic Zone, by security guards loyal to Harry Greaves on orders from Greaves after Moore saw himself disagreeing with the Teflon Managing Director of the Liberian Petroleum Manufacturing Corporation (LPRC), certainly highlights the risks one takes when he or she relocates to Liberia.

     I always thought those dark and lawless days when Liberians chillingly heard: “Do you know who I am?” often recited by those ancient and backward-looking reactionary government officials years ago are over by now, because once upon a time as we all know, those dreaded six words were once a person’s passport to physical assault or prison time in a country where it is or was once illegal and a crime for any Liberian or a foreign national to walk when the flag is being hoisted, or when any of those individuals who is a tax-paying citizen is seen walking on a public sidewalk that happens to be in front of a government official’s house.

    One would think in 2009, things would be different; but insensitivity is on the rise in the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration, coupled with the mis-education of government officials whom apparently are educated but don’t seem to understand human relations, their roles in government and how government works, and how their actions are undermining progress and development in Liberia, just like it was decades ago.

     The obvious lack of leadership on the part of President Sirleaf, and the obvious lack of an effective and exhaustive communication process in government or on the part of government officials known to verbally or physically assault Liberian citizens or foreign nationals first before ascertaining information, is a serious problem.

     However, undemocratic and uncivilized behavior of this kind running amok in a supposedly democratic country that favored Ellen Johnson Sirleaf over her opponents during the 2005 presidential elections, brings back the painful memories of the past when Liberians constantly lived in fear in their own country.

     President Sirleaf, on the other hand is not making things any better when she refuses to separate friendship from leadership, especially when she refuses to discipline or fire her cronies who are accused of corruption; and still refuses to act when her friends verbally or physically abuse Liberian citizens and foreign nationals. President Sirleaf cannot continue to ignore this barbaric, uncivilized and animal-like behavior shown by these individuals by shoving the problem under the rug and pretending as if the problem does not exist especially when the individuals is her “right hand man."

     It is one violation after another involving some of the nation’s most powerful legal and political leaders and many more, who would rather threaten another person or exercise vigilante justice than treating a fellow human being like human beings, the same way the official would like to be treated.

     In 2007, Chief Justice Johnnie N. Lewis reportedly threatened Liberian journalists whom he claimed did not address him properly with a 30-day jail sentence for not referring to him as “The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia His Honor Johnnie N. Lewis. In December 2008, Klahn Gbolloh Jarbah of the Ministry of Public Works allegedly assaults Deputy Auditor General Winsley Nanka. In May 2009, Senator and President Pro-tempore Cletus Wotorson reportedly assaults journalist Solomon Ware, when the journalist attempted to interview the senator. Now, it is Chris Moore’s turn, courtesy, Harry A. Greaves Jr.    

     It is disappointing that things have to be the way they are in Liberia when citizens of that country supposed to be living in a new day that brings hope to them and not just a privileged few. However, Liberians who are die-hard supporters of the president cannot continue to blindly support her and see others as “Ellen-haters” in the wake of these disgraceful events that are happening on her watch.

      If these individuals insist they want to continue to support the president that is their right, however, they have to be balanced in their observations because when they fail to see what is obviously wrong in this administration and continues to say the opposite, it makes it difficult for Liberians who can barely protect themselves to stand up and be counted because of the president’s terrible policies.

      President Sirleaf is missing in action on these issues, and I have yet to hear any comments or disciplinary actions coming out of the Executive Mansion regarding the verbal and physical assaults against Liberian citizens by government officials, which got me to ask: Who’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf working for? And where does her allegiance lies, to her friends or the Liberian people? Why isn't Harry Greaves fired by now?

     What does Harry A. Greaves Jr., have on Ellen Johnson Sirleaf so much that the president is reluctant to challenge him, discipline him, fire him, ask him to resign, or ask for an independent investigation of this man who has become an embarrassment to her administration and the Liberian nation, especially when Greaves’ name keeps popping up in one controversy after another?

     However, is this not the same Harry Greaves who sued and withdrew his lawsuit, and later vowed not to listen to the Liberian Legislature but later succumbed to mounting public pressure after the Liberian Legislature refused to allow him to single handedly sign a $24.8 million contract between the UK-based Zakhen International and the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation (LPRC)?

     Is President Sirleaf afraid that Harry Greaves might end up becoming the Biblical Judas who might eventually betray her the same way he betrayed former interim leader Gyude Bryant years ago, when as Economic Advisor to Bryant, he exposed his former boss by providing crucial information to the United Nations Panel of Experts and auditors of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), about the over $1 million secret deal that led Bryant to be put on trial for economic sabotage and later acquitted in 2009?  

     On August 21, 2006 Greaves, as usual, unilaterally signed a controversial oil deal with Addax Ltd of Nigeria, on behalf of the Liberian Petroleum Corporation, in violation of the Public Procurement and Contract Law of Liberia. Since then, Greaves refused to make available copies of the contract to the public citing confidentiality. So why is Harry Greaves still around?

      Ellen Johnson Sirleaf gave Liberians hope by making them to believe revolutionary change was on the way after she became president three years ago. As we all have seen, corruption is not the only problem threatening to sink Liberia into oblivion, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's obsession with protecting her bosom buddy Harry A. Greaves Jr., and others is also part of the problem.