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Remembering
Gabriel Baccus Matthews
Monday,
September 10,, 2007
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
He
arrived in Liberia from the United States in the late
1970s, not with guns and bullets but with few
dedicated men and mere words - the spoken words about
the need for multiparty democracy in Liberia, and
helped to change the political dynamics and landscape
of an entire country.
Gabriel
Baccus Matthews
1948 - 2007
Gabriel Baccus Matthews, the idealist who died
on September 7, of prostate cancer in the country he
sacrificed for and loved dearly wasn’t supposed to
live to reach age 59 years, because he was a dead man
on arrival the day he boldly uttered the D-word to a
sympathetic but defiant president who was often pulled
from all sides by his True Whig Party partisans to
either exterminate Matthews completely or send him to
jail forever because of his call for political change
in Liberia.
With sheer determination to see political
change in Liberia, G. Baccus Matthews, undeterred by
the power of the state’s security forces, and with
his own life and that of others on the line thrived by
successfully playing into the unpopularity of a
repressive political system and wisely took the fight
for democratic change directly to the people and a
vulnerable president who could no longer resist
change, but had to do what he thought was right for
the country and its people.
Baccus Matthews did what he felt he had to do
and at times did it with courage, at a time when the
nation needed a courageous person to lead. His arrival
on the political scene in Liberia and the arrival of
others brought many Liberians into politics.
The
body of the late G. Baccus Matthews lies in state at
the Centennial Pavilion
Because he spoke from his heart and with
convictions at the time, his message of optimism
resonated with the Liberian people whom were willing
to put their lives on the line to help bring about the
change Baccus wanted in a memorable but tragic way in
1979, when they heeded to Matthews’ call for a
peaceful protest that led to a riot dubbed the “rice
riot.”
At the heart of his popularity, Gabriel Baccus
Matthews was the most recognizable and feared
politician in the country. It was even reported at the
time that Liberian women who admired the political
leader even named their newborn after him.
With a daring spirit that offered hope to
Liberians yearning for political change, he showed
contempt for the one-party system, since replaced with
multiparty democracy. He was sent to prison; was
ridiculed and called bad names by both friends and
foes alike for what those Liberians thought he should
or shouldn’t have done after he left these shores of
the United States, only to later thrust a peaceful
nation into a crisis that dragged on from the 1979
rice riot to a fatal coup d’ tat that took the life
of President William R. Tolbert Jr.
To those Liberians, Baccus Matthews committed a
treasonable offense, which is unforgivable. However,
like a leader who gets no respect in his or her home
and is blamed for everything bad, Baccus did not get
any respect from his people in and out of his own
country, later traveling the rugged and lonely road to
nowhere all by himself.
Love him or hate him, G. Baccus Matthews was a
towering figure in Liberian politics, whose towering
contributions will always be cited by historians and
non-historians for its significance, and also for its
insignificance. Even though Baccus Matthews helped
paved the way for other would-be “progressive”
politicians to follow, and also helped paved the way
for the multiparty democracy we are now enjoying to be
a reality, his name became synonymous with
revolutionary change and a rallying point for the
politically disillusioned to hate Matthews for the
sake of hating Matthews.
Like most Liberian politicians who are dirt
poor and have to forge a convenient and politically
expedient relationship with the ruling party (the
president) to survive, Gabriel Baccus Matthews was a
victim of the conditions he advocated that afflicted
the poor. When he couldn’t be president, the
ambitious Matthews conveniently left his opposition
role he was known for to accept employment from the
government he had on his opposition radar. At the end,
he paid a huge price that
would later damage his credibility and diminish his
standing in the eyes of many Liberians.
At the end, the lights went out on G. Baccus
Matthews making him somewhat politically irrelevant to
Liberians and those in his own political party, the
United People’s Party (UPP), who saw him as just
another “opportunistic politician” who will say
and do whatever he believes the people wanted to hear.
Gabriel Baccus Matthews held many high profile
positions in government twice serving as Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Director of Cabinet and chairman of
the political party he co-founded, yet, when he became
ill this year, it is believed his partisans had to
come up with the funds to transport him to Ghana to
seek medical treatment.
One regret I am sure G. Baccus Matthews took
with him to the grave was that he never got to be
elected President of Liberia. He did not die a rich
politician, either, but sacrificed a lot - his life
and family for the country he love dearly.
His wife and ten children survived him.
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