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Season's
Greetings and Happy New Year
Sunday,
December 30, 2007
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
About
five years ago, October 2002, The Liberian Dialogue
embarked on a journey to be the other voice, the real
analytical voice that speaks to the heart of the
social, political and economic issues that continues
to plague the Liberian nation and people without ever being
afraid of doing what we thought was the right thing to
do.
We did not join the crowded field of Internet
political journals just to be another wannabe web site
that occupies a space for the sake of occupying a
space, but came in with whole lot of ideas,
convictions, dogged independence, and worked extremely
hard to separate our personal relationships from our
political relationships, which made us beholden to no
political power in Liberia and elsewhere for which we
are very proud of ourselves.
It has never been easy operating The Liberian
Dialogue from one’s own meager financial resources.
With no financial assistance from a single source to
help run the web site, we have been able to compete
pound for pound, toe-to-toe and intellectually with
all other web sites and with much success. The idea
that The Liberian Dialogue is still around this long
is evident of that resolve to keep the issues on the
front burner of our national political debate.
Un-bought, un-bossed and unafraid to discuss
those penetrating national issues we all care about
but some would rather touch with half-truths and
hypocrisy, because their hands are often extended into
the deep pockets of government officials or the other
way around, The Liberian Dialogue is proud to be fair
and above partisan politics, because we strongly
believe that in this business, one has to be above the
fray to be seen as credible. That’s because when
credibility is not part of one’s arsenal, the
individual is in trouble, will not be taken seriously,
needs to stop perpetrating as a political
writer/analyst, must stop playing with the lives of an
entire population and must find another line of work.
There is nothing wrong with knowing people in
government, and there is nothing wrong with having
friends in government, either. In fact, the best way
to get first-hand information about what’s happening
in government is through those established
friendships.
However, the line should be drawn between
one’s friendship with government officials and the
individual’s profession and his or her integrity,
because when that friendship is being used to
undermine independent coverage and analysis, and is
also being used to defend the official by writing
favorably of that government official in return for
money and free travels, it crosses the line of being
independent, fair and balanced and undermines the
aspirations of the population.
That kind of behavior – survivalist
journalism has been around for a long period of time
in our country’s history, and most recently has been
given renewed life since President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf came to power with many of our so-called
political writers and “intellectuals” toting the
government’s line for a chance to travel with her,
and as some have suggested also gives them the opportunity
to be on her unofficial domestic and overseas payroll.
If we truly are going to rebuild Liberia from
scratch, we have to rebuild not only its crumbling
infrastructure, but rebuild our ways of doing things
and get away from the so-called “Liberian way,”
which is not helping us but takes us back to square
one. My friends, the Liberian way is patriotism and
doing the right thing for Liberia and the Liberian
people. The Liberian way is being our brother’s and
sister’s keepers and speaking truth to power even
in the face of mounting criticism and danger.
I want to thank our many dedicated readers,
contributors and writers in the United States, the
Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia, who hung in there
with us from day one even when the armchair
intellectuals doubted what we could do with the mighty
pen and the written words.
We strongly believe we are not writing for
ourselves to be “glorified” today or tomorrow, but
are doing what we are doing for the Liberian people
whose painful struggles to survive as human beings
inspires and strengthens us daily, and to whom we hold our loyalty
and survival.
As the New Year approaches, Liberians
everywhere should learn to go from the old ways of
doing things to the new ways by drastically changing
their attitudes, and not play the old friendship thing
by ignoring hypocrisy from those they called friends
whose hands are covertly undermining development and
progress. Liberians, who are aware of such dishonest
friends and practices, ought to expose the individuals
for what they truly are and not allow such behavior to
continue at the expense of the Liberian people.
The Liberian Dialogue and its 'family' of
writers and contributors wish you and your family a
happy and prosperous New Year, 2008. Good Luck!
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