OPINION By Sam T.I. Grimes
Master Candidate, Development Practice, Laney Graduate School, Emory University
I present to you my respect and honor of your respective offices Mr. President, George M. Weah; Madam Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor; Mr. President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, Albert Chie, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bhofal Chambers and Your Honor Francis Korkpor, Chief Justice of the Republic of Liberia.
I have come to call your attention to the current state of affairs in Liberia that leaves fear on the minds of many Liberians and foreigners alike. Public indecency believed to have contributed to the reasons of the civil war has largely been reintroduced in different ways today.
The government and the governed need to pay attention to the prevailing danger to peace and mitigate same for the common good of the nation.
Needless to recount the wanton destruction the barrels of the guns brought to Liberia. In 14 years 250,000 were killed, the only electricity source was smashed into pieces and thousands of women and children were abused. Seventeen (17) have gone by but this poor nation still suffers recuperating from the madness of the war.
To say the least, Monrovia, the Capital does not have stable electricity supply, because fighting forces burned down the Mount Coffey Hydro Power Plant. Curable diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and measles are the causes of infant deaths in the nation. The effects of the civil war still suppress and threaten the livelihood of the people of Liberia, yet peace does not seem to be cherished by the sitting government as the rest of the nation keeps cool.
Peace is significantly undermined in Liberia today, despite the price paid by Liberians themselves and the foreign peacekeepers. In order to have peace, the nation had to suspend its constitution to simply accommodate the unqualified to occupy position of public trust. Just to restore peace, foreign soldiers had to lay down their lives, leaving vacuums and injuries in their families. Below are some of the misfortunes that led us to war; unfortunately, they are robustly resurfacing:
Twisting Justice:
Selective justice is one of the undermining tenants against peace. When injustice and shielding become the order of the day, the obvious is public distrust in the court system, leading to the aggrieved taking the rule of law in his own hands. Supreme Court Justice Kabineh M. Ja’neh was disgracefully and unconstitutionally booted out of his tenured seat, because handful of President Weah’s confidants saw the sitting government uncomfortable to have Justice Ja’neh at the highest court of the land. Today, the argument of unconstitutionally removing Justice Ja’neh is validated by the ECOWAS Court.
The rights of women and children sexually abused hang in the balance with no tangle redress to justice as President Weah excused himself from accepting public partition from women activists. Pretrial detainees have flooded prison facilities in the country because of ineffective court system. Monrovia Central Prison built for 300 prisoners now hosts 1200 prisoners, mostly pretrial detainees who spend more than 3 months without accessing justice. Of course justice delay is justice denied.
The latest of injustice has hit integrity institutions and their quality professionals. Auditors related to government accounts mysteriously died with no investigation outcomes up to their burials. Justice brings order and deters potential perpetrators from coming into conflict with the law, because they know that true justice respects no man but the one who respects and lives in confine of the law. On the other hand, injustice is a license given to criminals to go ahead and commit more crimes as there is no intent for accountability. In the words of James Marshall, “peace isn’t merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice. I, therefore, call on state actors to act in the confines of the law”.
Rampant Corruption In Government:
Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had her way of shielding her beloved government officials by publicly declaring, “I put my head of chopping board…” preventing public reaction and persecution against her favorites. Her son messed up a public corporation, the National Oil Company and led it to wreck only to be left off the hook by her mother, the sitting president claiming responsibility by words of mouth only.
President George Weah came to power and proved himself worse by developing his private properties and restoring himself to the luxury associated to stardom. No sooner, containers of monies went missing (LD 16 million and US25 million) as his Finance Minister chartered first class apartments of aircrafts to and from developed countries. Today, wealth shows up flamboyantly in government officials once desperately poor and half educated.
Favoritism & Nepotism in Government:
Merit system hardly fates for a benchmark in present day Liberia. In most cases, unqualified with strong partisans are appointed in government compared to the technicians, qualified and competent ones. We give credit to the few qualified and experienced ones serving in government, but they are too small in number to cover-up for the unqualified. The direct consequence of ignoring the merit system is unproductivity and inefficiency which are common output deficiency.
The Melting Point:
The risk and threat to peace can be curbed with timely willingness on the part of the President and his government. As a matter of fact, I submit that threat to peace MUST be drastically eliminated in the Liberian society, for fact that the nation has suffered too much because of war or instability.
All Liberians in and out of government should offer themselves as agent of peace. The role of an agent of peace is to recognize and promote peace by fighting against everything that undermines peace and stability.
The government is the custodian of national peace, which means the government must lawfully protect the rights and security of all Liberians including women and children who are considered as the most vulnerable. As the custodian, the government must ensure, vices that fueled the Liberian civil wars should be always minimized, if not eliminated first in the governance system and the general society. The government should prove itself right for the rule of law by ensuring government officials comply at all times to the rule of law. The government must prove, from the president to the directors, its anti-corruption stance by prosecuting all corruption allegations impartially. The government must prove itself right that all citizens and residents alike are equal and remain protected within the borders of the country.
Yes, we all must function as agent of peace. Even civil society including the media as the watchdog of society needs to act balanced, credible and trusted. The religious community is added to civil society to enlighten government through approach, reproach and counsel. Bringing government to book helps a long way in preserving the peace, compared to favoring government in its wrongdoing against the common good of the nation. We need to pledge our best loyalty to our nation and not individuals.
Finally, I call on all Liberians to stand up and promote himself or herself to the position of Agent of Peace.
This position comes from no man but you, not even the president. We must recognize and resist all anti-peace elements by upholding the rule of law, condemning corruption and promoting the merit system as a motivation to quality education.