In The Unfolding Political Dispensation
ANALYSIS by Tom P. Gorgla
The clock is already rolling, ominously in a nail biting count down to the senatorial elections in December this year.
The forthcoming elections will, by all accounts, be an exercise that is set to define the level of political maturity of all players on all sides of Liberia’s convoluted political divide.
The much talked about senatorial elections will also provide an opportunity to all Liberians at home and in the diaspora, as well as to our friends in the international community, to enable them make informed assessment if the ruling CDC governance strategy.
Already, the road ahead to December 2020 is showing signs of being fraught with avoidable administrative complications and a puerile grandstanding by key players in and out of the current administration.
Sovereign countries including African countries in particular, have always endeavored, all-be-it, half-heartedly, to weed out convoluted elements in the administrative machinery that has been entrusted with the herculean task of overseeing elections at the national level.
In this Republic we call Liberia, we have yet to understand and embrace – fully – this cardinal requirement.
The embattled NEC, our own sacred institution that has the country’s constitutional mandate to conduct statutory elections, including presidential elections, is beginning to exhibit operational symptoms of an undisciplined and intoxicated driver, hell bent on driving up the wrong way on a one way street.
On the other side of the political coin, the heads of the Collaborating Political Parties – the CPP – under the aegis of ANCs Alexander Cummings need to exercise that most important of all human virtues, tolerance.
The CPP leadership and the myriad supporters all must share in the awesome responsibility in maintaining the fragile peace that all Liberians and the numerous friends of Liberia are enjoying at the moment.
Underpinning peace in any country is not the sole undertaking of the government of the day. Every single inhabitant of that country has role to play to honestly safeguard and underpin that peace.
For starters, the road ahead to the December elections is becoming increasingly toxic.
The previous District # 15 debacle; the recent ugly fracas in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh and the subsequent bellicose pronouncements by the ‘aggrieved’ politicians coupled with the ongoing militarization of the CDC cadres are at best worrisome.
The disingenuous wearing of black or red berets by Political operatives of the CDC exhibiting para-military grand standing has no place in our political discourse as we try to put over ten years of gruesome civil uprising in this troubled country behind us.
All prospective candidates vying for relevance in the coming elections must bear in mind that they owe it to this country, and her ever struggling populace to reign in their unruly supporters on the campaign trail and around their various offices scattered around the country.
Political provocation has the propensity to degenerate into an unintended fracas with far reaching dire consequences.
If by any chance you have decided to seek elected office in today’s Liberia, please be honest and respectful to yourself and strive to do the right thing for the sake of this our common patrimony.
Indeed, all the political parties, their candidates and their supporters must embrace the much needed political maturity and prove it at the ballot box.