Hits Back At Independence Day Orator, Robtel Pailey, Calls For The Dismissal Of Foreign Minister
PHOTO: (L-R) Atty. Isaac Jackson and Dr. Robtel N. Pailey
On the issue of the national oratory, I have absolutely no doubt it was wholly and entirely unwise for the National Orator to use the national podium to pillory and denigrate US/Liberia relations!
Given this sensitive diplomatic matter, President Boakai’s administration has demonstrated its lack of sound leadership judgment when, led by his foreign minister, selected a relatively inexperienced academic firebrand who used the national platform to generate and spread poison against the government and people of the United States – forgetting that it was the US Government that sent its military to contain and beat back Ebola when Liberia was declared the epicentre of the worst Ebola epidemic.
To ameliorate this situation, I suggest the foreign minister should be made to walk the plank – because she bears the greatest responsibility for the entire debacle – having failed to review what this disrespectful academic firebrand had planned to spew against our important ally, the US – in the presence of China and Russia.
The orator’s demeanour and body language described who she really is in terms of character and outlook – absolutely nothing to do being a junior PhD holder; why was she wagging her speech and screaming at her audience with intense hostility?
Going forward, in protection of its academic brand, I trust that the LSE will want to have a say when the likes of Ms Dr. Robtel Pailey happens to be invited to a major event similar to Liberia’s July Twenty-six anniversary.
Mind you, while our people were dying like flies with American soldiers making frantic efforts to beat back Ebola by building treatment centres, setting up mobile labs as well as helping to train local health workers, Boakai as Vice President was still collecting his actual full salary. So, how dare Boakai and his minions denigrate the US like they did?
It is important to note that whenever the megaphone phone is used to address historical grievances, diplomacy always walks out of the room. So, I take issue with those who say the Americans were wrong for walking out of the national program. In as much as Dr. Robtel Pailey relished her right to free speech, the Americans exercised their right to free movement.
Finally, the Liberian Government’s position that Robtel is a lone wolf and that her position doesn’t reflect that of the government is laughably absurd. Before according this lady the national podium, at least, the government should have known her position. The strategy being deployed by the Boakai administration was also used by Charles Taylor when he sent Cyril Allen to rain insult on US ambassador Bismark Myrick.
I think if there are historical grievances to be addressed, we need to use reliable diplomatic backchannels; with astute diplomats, well-versed in diplomatic mannerisms to communicate our grievances, not an outburst from a firebrand academic and some of the flunkies Boakai named as presidential envoys. By the way, with the outburst from Dr. Pailey, will the Americans now come galloping to our every need?