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Charles
Brumskine's the candidate to beat in 2012
Sunday,
September 02, 2007
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
I wish he were as assertive as a politician
when he served another president and another political
party, the National Patriotic Party years ago, as
he’s today stubbornly standing up to President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf as an opposition leader from the other side of
the political aisle.
Then again, it was years ago when the old
Charles Walker Brumskine, who was another person in
another life blindly and cowardly followed the wishes
and caprices of his president, Charles McArthur Taylor
whom he served quite well until the two men fell out
later transforming Brumskine into the new person he is
today.
Going from a loyal floor leader in a corrupt
and despotic regime in one year to being an opposition
leader the following year is not fun and can kill a
political career, as his detractors would later
realize the obvious opportunistic nature of such
abrupt political transformation and the credibility
problem it created for Brumskine, who is always
playing defense whenever the subject about his ugly
past, which will never go away is ever mentioned.
Charles Walker Brumskine
What if Taylor had not fallen out with
Brumskine? Will he (Brumskine) follow the independent
path he has now taken to be this serious and
no-nonsense opposition leader he is today? And why
didn’t he put up a good fight by challenging Taylor
at every turn as he is doing today, seriously going
after the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration?
Charles Walker Brumskine wants us to believe he
is as substantive and consistent as he is serious
about his new role as an opposition leader as we saw
in his 2005 campaign for president, which did not come
easily because his candidacy from the beginning was a
laughable one because he first had to be taken
seriously, then forgiven and accepted by the Liberian
people, who had to build a level of trust with the guy
for him to go as far as he did to finish in third
place behind perennial favorites Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
and George Manneh Weah.
A long way, of course, from the days of the
early 2000s when Charles Walker Brumskine, who was on
the run and fresh from his stint as Charles Taylor’s
side kick was always talking politics but his message
wasn’t resonating with the Liberian people because
of his perceived flaws, he couldn’t find a soul in
whatever room he shared with his audience to listen,
trust or believe whatever justification, denial or
reasons he gave for his role in perpetuating tyranny,
only to turn around and later embrace multi-party
democracy was hard to swallow.
However, Brumskine did what most people who
strayed off course to the far left in politics would
do when seeking redemption. He was remorseful and
consistent; he stayed on message and showed that he
genuinely cares about the plight of the Liberian
people by not just talking the talk, but by walking
the walk.
Charles Walker Brumskine did not go away, and
was always in our faces talking politics and telling
us what he will do for us if we elected him president.
He defined his mission, his platform and his
candidacy, shred every ounce of the ghost of Charles
Taylor from his life, took his defiant and refined
message of hope, optimism and inclusion to the
Liberian people everywhere he went and even to the
current occupant of the Executive Mansion, and looked
presidential, as he continues to discuss those heart-wrenching Liberian political issues that haunts us all
with passion and conviction.
If Charles Brumskine is doing all this with
dried-face insincerity because he desperately wants to
be president of Liberia, then he surely has done a
good job on me, by fooling me and others whom have
taken a different look at him from the day I thought
he spoke from his heart instead of speaking from his
lips about the problems in the country, what he
intends to do to solve those problems, and his
presidential ambitions.
Unlike the other opposition politicians (some
of whom are seasonal or part time opposition leaders),
who are playing tit-for-tat with the current president
through press releases, photo-ops and sound bites,
Charles Brumskine has so far proven to be substantive
in my opinion, in terms of the fights he and his Labor
Party often picks with the Johnson-Sirleaf
administration.
From the advocacy of fair labor practices (Mittal
Steel, Firestone, etc) that calls for putting
Liberians first in employment, decent and competitive
wages and benefits, and his party’s opposition to
the proposed Act of Legislature that would create a
powerful Governance Commission replacing the
Governance Reform Commission (GRC), according to
reports “would wield too much power while remaining
legally detached from the direct control of the
administration;” are indications he’s unafraid to
genuinely challenge this president at every turn when
the administration is not doing the right thing.
Like other presidential candidates whom I have
taken to task for incompetence, corruption, their
muddled image, their lack of courage and vision, I
have been very hard on Charles Brumskine in columns
after columns, writing critically and often
disparagingly about his alleged ‘sins’ of
supporting the devil, Taylor, at a time when Liberians
really wanted him to be on their side. Brumskine,
however, did not allow my relentless badgering of him
on this web site and other web sites to deter him from
his mission, but made himself better by going head-on
at the issues instead of running from the issues and
the Liberian people.
However, if the Liberian people, who as forgiving
as they are forgave and took a second look at
warmongers and rebel leaders such as Sekou Damate
Konneh and Prince Johnson, one of whom shamelessly ran
for president and the other shamelessly ran and got
elected to the senate; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who
helped fund the civil war was elected president,
anyway, after it was revealed that she did helped fund
the civil war; Jewel Howard Taylor, the ex-wife of the
much-hated Charles Taylor also elected to the senate,
while others of no substance are either playing
significant roles in government or in the private
sectors, then why not also forgive and take a second
look at Charles Brumskine and then listen to what he
has to say?
After all, consistency in one’s message, the
seriousness in one’s tone and demeanor, and the
experience the individual brings to the table in
politics can be a defining moment that can make or
break a would-be politician, because it is all about
first impression and when that first impression is a
tasty or sour one can leave an unforgettable
experience in the minds of a lot of people.
In the case of Charles Walker Brumskine, I
believe he has passed that sour part of his political
career to being a formidable candidate who has to be
taken seriously, because he is ticked-skinned, can
stand the heat, has name recognition, knows,
articulates and understands the Liberian issues, which
makes him the candidate to beat in 2012.
Before anyone get to attack this so-called
native Liberian writer’s commitment to progressive
causes, and before my nativeness is ever challenged
and questioned because of this article, let it be
clear that this is not about the politics of Americo-Liberians
and native-Liberians some of my colleagues often
throws around daily to poison the atmosphere, and to soil
the image of good and well-intentioned people. This is
about Liberia and the future of the Liberian people.
My
politics is not about hate but progress, fairness, the
rule of law and justice for all, which is the essence
of progressivism, meaning, I favor and advocate
change, improvement in the living conditions of the
Liberian people, and am for reform as opposed to
maintaining things as they are. Because I favor better
conditions in government and society, I prefer looking
at the best and most qualified Liberian to be
president, as opposed to spewing the politics of
ethnicity and hatred as a way to get to the Executive
Mansion.
That's because just as there are profoundly
corrupt and innately bad Americo-Liberians out there
who will quickly steal from or kill a native Liberian
to get ahead, there is equally that number of greedy,
wicked and dishonorable native Liberians out there who
will sell their souls for peanuts and will massacre
their own people to be president, as we saw in the
just concluded 14-year civil war.
This is about the issues and how to help our
people and develop our country. Let’s discuss the
issues not peripherally, not with insults and our biased
lenses but with focused lenses, to be able to have a
fair and balanced perspective of the
issues and of potential leaders – both
native-Liberian leaders and Americo-Liberian leaders
– those who have the best interests of the Liberian
people at heart and the vision to move our country
forward. This is about Liberia!
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