PHOTO: Judge George W. Smith, Jr.
FISH TOWN, Liberia- The Orator of this Year’s National Flag Day and Resident Judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit Court in the southeastern River Gee County, George W. Smith, Jr. has cautioned President George Mannah Weah not to abuse the power entrusted to him by the Liberian People, as Garmah Never Lomo reports.
Judge Smith stressed the need for President Weah’s policies and actions to be taken in line with the rule of law, which he said is synonymous to what an American statesman John Adams called: “A Government [indeed a country] of laws and not of men.”
The veteran Liberian Jurist spoke on the topic: “Liberians, We Must All Respect Adherence to the Rule of Law: A Prerequisite for Investment, Economic Development & Prosperity.”
According to him, the rule of law is applicable to all – the government and the governed.
“The rule of law, not the rule of men, puts restriction on the arbitrary exercise of powers by subordinating those powers to the rule of law – those well-defined and established laws set by the State. I thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of this year’s National Flag Day Orator Selection Committee, River Gee County, for my preferment. In 1978, my father Cllr. Frank W. Smith (deceased), the then Resident Circuit Judge of Grand Gedeh County, was selected as Orator for that year’s National Flag Day Program,” said the Judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit Court.
The River Gee Resident circuit court Judge lamented that Our failure to respect adherence to the rule of law undermines economic investment, national development and prosperity in our country; for, lawlessness discourages investors to do business in Liberia. In order for our Country, Liberia, our National Flag to develop economically, there must be an enabling and friendly business climate for the ease of doing business in Liberia to attract and encourage investors to do business in our Country and thus promoting national economic development and prosperity.
“Therefore, we must all adhere to the rule of law and the principle of judicial independence, especially since research has shown that weakness in our justice institution, such as judicial corruption, was one of the main factors that caused the Liberian war, and that long years of very low remunerations of judges and poor working conditions of judicial officers are attributable to judicial corruption.”
Going back into history, he recalled that at the time River Gee County today was called lower Grand Gedeh, was part of Grand Gedeh County. But Today he has fallen into his father’s shoes, given the fact that his late father, Cllr. George W. Smith, Sr) was coincidentally a legal practitioner in the area.
“The rule of law, as applied to the Government, means that we judges for example, must apply the law independently and impartially without external influences, such as interference from the other two branches of government, the Legislature and the Executive; and that judges must apply the law also without internal influences, such as interference from other judges especially their superior, and internal influences such as judicial corruption, like briberies.
“Our National Flag symbolizes our dear Country, Liberia. Liberia comprises the geographic boundaries of the nation and its people. So, our National Flag is synonymous with Liberia and Liberians,” Judge Smith added.
The Flag Day Orator in River Gee County reminded Liberians that the National Flag which was adopted and unfurled to the public for the first time on August 24, 1847, about a month after July 26, 1847, the date of our Independence Day. On that day, August 24, 1847.
According to Judge Smith, during the 14-year Liberian war while we as a people were disgracefully destroying our Country, killing ourselves, inflecting other harms on fellow human beings and destroying hundreds of million dollars of public and private properties, ironically our Lone Star, the Republic of Liberia, our National Flag and Pride represented by His Excellency George Oppong Weah, was out there at the international world raising high the morale of Liberians such that our Country, the Republic of Liberia, that Lone Star of ours, the Liberian National Flag, our Pride, became recipient of several international accolades in the football arena and thereby mitigating the shame on our faces.
The eleven (11) red and white stripes of the nation’s flag represent the eleven (11) signers of Liberia’s declaration of independence; while the red and white colors symbolize courage and moral excellence; and the white star symbolizes the first and only independent republic in Africa at the time.
Our National Flag, our Country Liberia set a historic and enviable record of having been the first independent republic in Africa and the second black republic in the world, the first black republic being the Republic of Haiti.
The Liberian National Flag, the Republic of Liberia, our Lone Star, is an original and a founding member of the League of Nations and the United Nations and signatory to their respective charters and other instruments.
Our National Flag, Liberia, he said is a great exponent of gender quality. Liberia produced its first female Associate Justice of the Honorable Supreme Court of Liberia in 1977, again, in Her Honor Cllr. Angie Brooks-Randall, a precedent that was followed by our dear Mother, the Great United States of America when President Ronald Reagan appointed United States’ first female Associate Justice, Judge Sandra Day O’Conner, in 1981.
Liberia, our National Flag and Pride, exceeds the United States regarding the number of female justices appointed to both countries’ respectively the Supreme Courts.
This number will increase to three in the event Justice Sie-A-Nyene Youh, just nominate yesterday, is confirmed. The US, our mother, has yet to produce a female Chief Justice. Liberia is proud of three former females Ministers of Justice & Attorneys General.
Judge Smith said the United States, that great democracy, can boast of only one. Our country, our National Flag and Pride, has produced a female President in Her Excellency Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first female President, while other countries like the great United States are struggling to follow our example. We, Liberians – the National Flag – have elected a female Vice President in 2017, in Her Excellency, Honorable Counsellor-at-law, Chief Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor. Our mother, that great world power, the United States, followed Liberia’s precedent by electing its first female Vice President in 2021, the Honorable Attorney-at-law Kamala Devi Harris.
Despite these achievements of our Country, Judge Smith noted that the Liberian people “have lagged behind as regards, I believe, the most important issue of adherence to the rule of law.”