Amos Sawyer's "Pathological Liar" Public Outburst Not a Winner Of Two Soccer Legends

Tuesday, September 30, 2008    

           By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

     The cheapest way to untangle oneself out of a crisis that could potentially destroy an image supposedly built around populism and progressive politics is to call the other person who accused you of possible wrongdoing during a national hearing intended to bring peace to a dying nation, a “pathological liar.”

     That’s the Sawyer doctrine I guess, meaning, engage the accuser aggressively and publicly in a disrespectful way by suggesting possible jail time if he is found to have perjured himself, and question his integrity before he ever gains any traction in a debate about alleged political corruption that occurred during the civil war that could possibly undermine the battered image of Amos Sawyer, who already is not seen as a credible person in Liberia these days after the end of his interim presidency.

                                           Amos C. Sawyer

    Calling another person a “pathological liar” is what one expects to hear from a tongue-tied person, an overbearing bully, or a cantankerous neighbor who will not cooperate on anything regarding the neighborhood the both of you share, but is bent on discrediting you for boldly exposing the individual for what he or she is and what the person did behind closed doors when you were friends.     

     For Amos Claudius Sawyer to be any of the above is unbelievable because when he was his old self he often exudes confidence in public settings, coupled with an awesome encyclopedic mind, admirable analytical skills, and eloquence that sets him apart from the rest in a crowd, especially when he’s at his game explaining the intricacies of a problem.

    However, for Mr. Sawyer to shortcut himself with these very convenient, questionable, conflicting and unfortunate explanation that disputes a transaction done with the then rebel leader, but then again went on to say that the more than $8 million in question was used to print bank notes made the buffoonery “Field Marshall” turned Senator Prince Y. Johnson, who together with the rest of the former warlords should have joined Charles Taylor in jail in the Hague today, believable.

     So where did Mr. Sawyer and his interim team get the $8m in question from? Did he get it from the looters or from Prince Y. Johnson as he alleges? Another explanation given by Mr. Sawyer during the hearing reportedly went like this: “the only transaction with Mr. Johnson was the change of the banknotes that rendered what they (looters) had useless.” 

     Amos Sawyer, the educator and former political activist shot his way to fame and perhaps fortune because of his then-famous spellbinding populist professorial political narratives about oppression, inequality and disenfranchisement of a group of people whose plight he once championed, and whose lives still remains the same years after he left dissident politics to be on the greener side of political power.

     Mr. Sawyer, unbelievably was in a defensive mode during the TRC hearings, and even appeared clownish when he conveniently dance around the issue at hand only to later talk his way into recommending to the commissioners that witnesses who lied under oath should be prosecuted, which is not the way to explain one’s way out of trouble. 

     “For the sake of justice and to ensure a sound basis for reconciliation, it is important that you commissioners ensure that people who take oath here and fabricate their own realities are sent for war crimes prosecution,” Sawyer said.

      Is Mr. Sawyer suggesting that Liberians be charged with war crimes and dispatched to The Hague for trial for lying under oath? Remember now that this guy, Sawyer, was once a pro-democracy advocate; and calling for war crimes prosecution against his own people for lying under oath says a whole lot about Amos Claudius Sawyer's Biblical Saul-like conversion that drastically transformed him from the progressive dissident he once was in the past to the political manipulator and opportunistic figure he is today.

      Prince Y. Johnson, formerly of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), claimed to have given then-interim president, Amos Sawyer over $8 million from the bank account of the late president Samuel Kanyon Doe, to print new bank notes, which according to Mr. Johnson was “fraught with corruption.”

     How did Mr. Doe acquired such huge amount in a country where presidents hardly earn that kind of money, where children often go to bed hungry daily, and where children cannot even tell a verb from an adjective is another story that also needs to be investigated thoroughly by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

     Mr. Johnson’s public testimony that he gave Amos Sawyer over $8 million out of the bank account of the late former president Samuel Kanyon Doe, during Sawyer’s interim presidency seemed to hold truth and made an impression on most Liberians because of his directness and calmness under pressure, and because of the calculative time line Johnson put forward during the national hearings that pits him against the formidable Sawyer, who would have easily devour Johnson like a piece of meat had it being the old days when Sawyer was a popular dissident politician.

     Amos Sawyer owe the Liberian people an explanation on this issue and on many other issues he hasn’t fully explained, because the Liberian people certainly deserve answers from him and other political figures, who used their time in government to quietly enrich themselves at the expense of the poor in a country where most Liberians find it difficult to get out of poverty and live a decent life.

     It is true the once squeaky clean image Amos Sawyer once projected has taken a beating over the years, and that he will not win any credibility award for the many unexplained lucrative political ‘hats’ of convenience he has worn since the end of his interim presidency, which exposed the man and his chameleon politics for what it is, and also gave Liberians many reasons not to trust their politicians whom they believe got the country into the mess it is in today.

     When Sawyer was on the other side of the political spectrum in his other life he was known as an advocate of democratic change, transparency and effective government, and proudly carried with him a broom during his mayoral campaign decades ago that symbolizes an ambitious desire to sweep corruption into non-existent.

     That famous broom has since retired or has been corrupted, is not sweeping anymore, and is leaving behind dirt in Sawyer's life and the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration, where the once populist Sawyer is conveniently employed as Chairman of the quasi, independent, and unaccomplished Governance (Reform) Commission, which pays him thousands of U.S. dollars monthly with no accountability, whatsoever to do little or nothing.

     With all that is going on in the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration in terms of “Knucklesgate,” rampant corruption, legislative greed, official malfeasance, crimes, hardship, hunger and inequality, one would think Amos Claudius Sawyer’s famous broom would come out of retirement to sweep away the dirt before our eyes.

     Unfortunately, the good ol’ professor is content with life, is not talking anymore, and does not have a position on any major issue of the day in Liberia.