PHOTO: Cllr. Gongloe addressing Reporters on Monday
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- The President of the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA), Cllr. Tiawon S. Gongloe has launched a veil criticism of the way the Judiciary has handled protests by aggrieved staffers over unpaid salaries and benefits, in the wake of the action by a workers leader to set himself ablaze.
Speaking to Judicial Reporters after Archie Ponpon set himself on fire on the grounds of the Temple of Justice on Monday, November 2, 2020. The Bar President asserted that there should be no punishment for an individual after demonstration, because it the right of an individual’s right.
In clear reference to officials of the Judiciary without specifically mentioning the leadership of the Supreme Court, Cllr. Gongloe said when you are in public office, the issue of protest, demonstration, and statement against you are all part of your work and doesn’t need any action against the individuals who stage the protest or demonstration.
Ponpon and several other aggrieved Judicial staffers were said to have been suspended recently.
If there is any punishment after demonstration or protest, the Bar President pointed out that it usually leads to serious consequences like the case of Mr. Archie Ponpon.
Mr. Ponpon is in critical condition at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia’s Sinkor suburb, after being severely burned.
According to Cllr. Gongloe, one thing Liberia has struggled with over the past years is that the public always suspect that government is not living by what it says, adding that the rule of law shouldn’t be selective but rather it should be done at the general level.
The human rights lawyer and LNBA President claimed that government selectively applies laws, decisions and regulations, something he said was one of the causes leading people to take the laws into their own hands.
“When you are public servant, you should live beyond the suspicion of corruption and in so doing, people respect what you say,” Cllr. Gongloe added.
He also spoke strongly against the issue of Corruption, which he said is bothering Liberia today with the three branches of government and it’s officials largely suspected of corruption by the public.
The Bar President said it was on this basis that people don’t believe what the government says and if people are not believing what the government says, it becomes risky and dangerous, something he said that led to the situation of Archie Ponpon on Monday Cllr. Gongloe narrated.
Cllr. Gongloe revealed that people respond to uneven application in different ways, adding that people have the right to free expression and not to be punished.
The Bar Association President however, said when he was Labour Minister, some workers pointed spear and cutlasses at him and they even threatened to burn his car. But according to him, he responded in a way that would help resolve problems.
Cllr. Gongloe told Journalists that the Liberian people are still traumatized and they have not been de-traumatized since the country’s 14 years civil war, which officially ended in 2003.
Meanwhile, the Bar Association President has said that the issue of Mr. Ponpon needs serious and critical examination, because it is the first of its kind to happen in Liberian history.