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Reliving
the 1979 Rice crisis
Monday, September 04, 2006
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
Twenty-seven
years ago (April 14,
1979), Liberians took to the streets to protest
the increase in the price of rice in a country whose
president, it is believed paid a fatal price a year
later when it was hinted by his political foes that he
was responsible for the increase in the staple of the
Liberian people.
The price of rice sharply increased from a
painful $22.00 for a 100-pound bag of rice to an
unbelievable $30 within the same period, adding to the
outrage and distrust the people had for the national
government of President R. Tolbert Jr.
Olubanke
Akelere King
George Haddad
Presidential biographer Willie A. Givens who
worked for the Tolbert administration at the time, and
now works for the current government of President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, quickly joined the other side
after the coup and wrote “Liberia: The Road Toward
Democracy” in 1986, for then-Master Sergeant Samuel
Kanyon Doe after Mr. Doe seized and consolidated
power.
Mr. Givens tried to explain the military
government’s rice policy this way in this excerpt:
“The rice situation has also been of major
concern to us. At one time, our country was
self-sufficient in food production. We produced enough
rice to feed ourselves.
Today, this trend has reversed so drastically
that the country spends about $30 million a year on
the importation of rice alone, which is our staple
food.
Because we want to keep the price of this
commodity no higher than $20 a bag, Government has had
to spend large sums of money to maintain this low
price. In most cases, rice is imported into the
country for between $3 and $5.
Since April 12, 1980, the Government of the
People’s Redemption Council has spent a total of
$2,111,000 for 960,000 bags of rice. Of this amount,
$1,370,000 was a direct subsidy by Government, just to
keep the price of rice at $20 a bag.”
Willie A. Givens penned those lines 20 years
ago. And twenty years later since Givens’ assertion,
the new government of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is back to
square one struggling to address the same rice issue
by sparking a public feud that pits Commerce Minister
Olubanke Akelere King against longtime Lebanese
businessman George Haddad and his Bridgeway
Corporation.
At the center of the controversy is once again
the high cost for a bag of rice charged by the major
importers, namely, Bridgeway Corporation, K&K
Trading Corporation, Africa Impex, and Fouta
Corporation.
On the opposite side are the Commerce Minister
and other officials of government all of whom appeared
before the Liberian Legislature to make their case
about why the price of rice should be or should not be
increased.
Bridgeway Corporation and George Haddad,
according to reports unilaterally imported rice into
the country without the consent of the Liberian
government, which they sold at a wholesale price of
$19.00, and at a retail price of $21.00.
It is also reported that Mr. Haddad complied
with the ministry’s directives to sell the same bag
of rice at a wholesale price of $22.00, and retailed
at $24.89, while another corporation, K&K agreed
to sell at $19 wholesale, and at a retail price of
$21.
As this is being played before our eyes, the
government of Liberia and George Haddad threw punches
and counter punches accusing the other of tax evasion
and failure to make payment.
It is believed Mr. Haddad allegedly owed the
government of Liberia $3m, according to the
government’s claim. Mr. Haddad also accuses the
government of owing him $90,000. All of this is
happening at a time the Liberian people are finding it
very difficult to buy an empty (salmon) cup of rice or
buy a bag of rice for consumption.
The government has an upper hand in this matter
and can flex its muscles mightily at any time as it
has shown when it was disclosed later by the
government that a Liberian-owned business, Sinkor
Trading Company and a foreign business, “OLAM, (not
George Haddad’s Bridgeway Corporation) “are being
favored to import rice into the country.
While I am tempted to join the chorus and
support the Minister of Commerce’s attempt to turn
this into a “us versus them” (Liberianization)
policy intended to put the Liberian people first in
doing business in their own country, I want to also
say that businessman Haddad who’s capitalizing on
our national complacency, and exploited our appetite for
rice and the weakness of a national government cannot be blamed for the failed rice policy of this
government.
Because these foreign business owners are not
in the compassion business, but are in the
money-making business and will capitalize on the
weakness of any government – a paralyzed one like
the current Liberian government that does not seem to
understand the needs of its people, and does not
understand how to feed its people, and is rehashing
the failed rice policy of its predecessors as a remedy
to an age-old crisis.
It is not patriotic when the Liberian
government has to continue to import rice to feed its
people in the midst of arable land and bountiful
rainfall suitable for planting and growing enough food
to feed all of Liberia.
What's wrong with the mass distribution of rice seeds
to Liberian farmers so that they can plant all they
can to feed the Liberian people? And if the farmers
are provided the rice seeds, they also need to be
given tax breaks, subsidies and incentives so that
they will be able to mass produce enough rice for the
entire country. Can this happen in my lifetime? If
not, then I have good reasons to question the
existence and the role of the Ministry of Agriculture.
That's because Liberian governments of the past went through
this same rice issue when its failed policies and the
high cost of rice caused a national crisis decades
ago.
The administration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
must develop a sound agricultural (rice) policy to
feed the Liberian people, even as the government works on
its Liberianization policy meant to empower Liberian
business owners to have an equal playing field.
The savvy George Haddad has experience and
longevity on his side in the rice importation
business, and is playing hardball because he knows
very well, (and we all know) that with his huge bank
account and political ties he will most definitely
prevail when this is no longer an issue in the news.
The government of Liberia can blame George
Haddad and others all they can, and the Press Union of
Liberia can have all the “public interactive
forums” they can.
However, the rice issue will never go away
until there is a sound, practical and effective rice
policy in place to address this lingering national
nightmare.
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