By Hun-Bu Tulay
“The Truth is what we all are after, and the truth never harms us. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.” Unknown writer
Liberia as a country has been in existence for 176 years and we do not go out to find the truth. The people, particularly the politicians, live in self-deceit, and ignorance and this is the major reason why the country cannot develop. For many of our past presidents and even the current one, the country is a plantation, where they come and mismanage the resources, abuse power, and get the glory/fame. But let’s reflect on what Rev. Dr. Harmon Browne said 13 years ago in Sanniquelle during the 163rd Independence Anniversary of the country; he served as the Guest Speaker for the Intercessory Service. We were at that service.
Dr. Browne started by telling us what the prophets of old communicated to the rulers. “They spoke directly to the rulers,” he said, “and the result was they were executed.” He continued, “Next, they spoke to the advisers of the rulers with the hope that they will adequately advise the rulers. But they were again executed. They then decided to speak to the people directly and again they were executed.” Finally, he then asked the audience this question, “To whom do you think I should speak today?” The audience did not answer the question; he went on to say that the THEME of his SERMON would be THE POWER, THE KINGDOM, AND THE GLORY.”
He told the audience that all Power belongs to God and He God shares the Power to the political leaders of countries around the world and if they misuse and abuse it, He God takes it from them. He further said the Kingdom, meaning the country and all its resources, belongs to GOD and He gives the authority to the leaders to manage the land and the resources for the benefit of the people, if they mismanage and abuse them, He God, takes authority from them. Finally, he told us that all Glory belongs to God, and He shares it with the leaders, if they become tyrants, He God will take from them.
Reflecting on the sermon of the Rev. Dr. Browne thirteen years ago, we do believe that he was right. The results of these elections in 2023 will show exactly what Dr. Browne spoke about. Look at the preliminary elections results, many of the incumbent political actors are losing, but they persist in self-deceit and arrogance. They are really harming themselves and run the risk of becoming irrelevant in future elections in this country. Today, these political actors have engaged in rumors-mongering. Those who spread rumors are haters and those who receive and accept rumors without asking questions do themselves and the country a great disservice. Our country today is infested by haters and so many gullible people. We should be careful what we write and say in public because these crucible people will react negatively, if they do not see or hear what we have written. We should all work together to neutralize their influence in our body politics.
As we reflect on what they are posting on social media, they are preparing their supporters to respond to the election results as Donald Trump’s supporters did in America. They cannot believe they are losing. For six years we have lied to our political leaders, and we continue to do so even today. Unfortunately, some of these political leaders continue to believe us because some political leaders are intellectually limited socially, academically, and politically.
No party should be claiming that it won 11 of the 15 counties, when only 6.5% of the total presidential votes have tallied. What will happen if the National Election Commission announces results that do not reflect what the party has posted? Definitely there will be CHAOS and many people might get injured or killed as was in America on January 6th, 2021. We do not want a January 6th in Liberia as was done in America. We are already mourning the pre-elections murders; we do want post-election murders.
As we close, we want you to reflect for a minute on what happened in our country over the past 176 years of existence as a democratic country and specially look at three periods during which elections were rigged. The periods are as follows:
- The 1872 election was alleged to be rigged. President Edward James Royce was overthrown and killed.
- The 1927 election was allegedly rigged by President King. In fact, this election is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most rigged election in the world. Because of the rigging of the election, the opposition leader Thomas J. R. Faulkner filed a complaint to the League of Nations accusing the president of forced labor exported to Fernando. King was investigated by a special commission headed by C. Christy. The commission found President King guilty. King was forced to resign. If the election was not rigged, the opposition leader would not have filed the complaint.
- 1985 election: it was alleged that the election was rigged. That dispute ultimately resulted in the Civil War that cost the lives of about 250,000 people.
Let us reflect on the impacts on the above-mentioned elections and avoid rigging the elections of 2023.
On Wednesday, October 11, 2023, a man who claimed to be a political and economic advisor to a political party said on Spoon Talk Show, “We will challenge the results of these elections in the courts because we know we have won.” Again, we say such statement is not good in a crucible country like Liberia. We call on the Supreme Court to prepare herself for possible cases on election results from Representative to Senatorial to the presidential candidates. These cases might go beyond January 2024. If this happens, we ask the question, WHAT WILL HAPPEN? Your answer is as good as mine. Some political leaders will not accept defeat at the ballot box. Some of these leaders are on a mission. That mission is to deny the winners in these elections. And they will use any means possible to achieve their objective, even if it means lying. The greatest enemy of Democracy is LIE. We all must allow DEMOCRACY TO WIN. LIBERIA MUST AND SHOULD WIN. THE LIBERIAN PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. When the Americans voted in 2021, they spoke, and the American Institutions supported them, and their votes were respected. We expect our institutions to respect the people’s votes.
We wish to leave with the words of Soren Kierkogard “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t truth; the other is to refuse to believe what is truth.” Some political leaders have been fooled because they believe what isn’t true and they refuse to believe what is truth.
LONG LIVE LIBERIA!