By Henry Fallah Charyoe

13 May  04

I sometimes pause in my daily activities in the United States and use my retrospection that takes me far back in the mid-seventies, when Liberian Politicians introduced and began to preach different levels of politics in our country.  One such group of politicians used as an issue, the Parboiled Rice ( konwn in Liberia as Pusawa) to gain favor and almost a nationalistic support of many young Liberian men and women, especially young students.  The situation resulted in a disorderly demonstration that claimed many lives of our citizens and millions of dollars of destruction of properties in and around Monrovia.  Those same politicians eventually got top governmental recognition after the 1980 Military coup, but failed to deliver the pledges made to the Liberian People even about the very rice issue that was the center of their political campaign.  They unpatriotically settled to remove national hut taxes, settled for false free education system in Liberia, raised civil servants' salaries to over 100% across the board, and mislead the Liberian people that there was only $5 million dollars in our national coffer, among others.  In fact, your government became no different in corruptible acts than the previous ones you accused.  You even brought back the dictatorship over the Liberian people.

 
When an excellent opportunity came in the mid-eighties to innovate a concrete and veritable foundation of political system for our country, you politicians retracted that call to invest in the political future of Liberia.  Instead of allowing the reasonable democratic call of Article 77 of the Revised Constitution of Liberia to organize political parties that will function for our national interest, you all manipulated and misunderstood the consequential call of multi parties system.  You began to organized political parties as if anyone who attended the Arthur A. Grimes School of Law or did Political Science at the University of Liberia must organize his/her own political party.  Today, our less populated and torn-apart country has about 18 registered political parties.  Nowadays, even people who have committed the highest atrocities upon our citizens have the constitutional right to form political parties.  One quick question many of us are struggling with as we see your 18 parties and more to come is that; "Is this a political nonsense in our country or a multi party system that Article 77 of our constitution provided?"

 

As I struggle for answers on the daily basis, I still believe that politicians should rethink their role about Liberia and cautiously put our nationalistic interest a priority.   You must suppress the political confusion in the country through using our political provision of multi party system as a stepping stone.  Furthermore, I believe politicians should not compute the problems of our country base on the amount of political parties available.  We all must come together, citizens and politicians alike, to focus on the nationalistic fight to accumulate and make Liberia what she ought to be democratically and politically.  We must also strive to learn lessons from the regimes of Presidents Charles D. B. King, Arthur Barclay, Edwin Barclay, William V. S. Tubman, Samuel K. Doe, and Charles Taylor who failed us when our country had opportunities for development as the oldest republic of Africa.  Today, we are one of the poorest nations of Africa, if not the world, torn-apart by over 14 year of civil war, rampant corruption at all levels.  Over 250,000 of our fellow citizens were sent to their early graves, hundreds of thousands internally and externally displaced, and our economy in shambles.

 

As we are on the road of reconciliation instituted by the international community, we all must give in something to support this cause.  Our citizens who have suffered innocently have given their best - their lives.   Many  lost their properties, but are still willing to reconcile in whatever way to rebuild our nation.  When Charles Taylor and other rebel leaders brought war upon our citizens, many of you politicians departed from the country while our poor people were left in the vast ocean of suffering and dying for problems you all created.  Before Charles Taylor came to power as Africa's most wicked president, our citizens sang a song of reconciliation, "You killed my mother and father, but I will vote for you." This was a total solidarity and a painful sacrifice for peace demonstrated by our citizens.  On the contrary, for you to unite as politicians and consolidate your parties into few inorder to take back our country from the rebels who continue to kill our citizens, you refused categorically again to invest in the political system of the country like you did in the 80's.  In fact, you created even more parties to demonstrate disunity.  Today, Liberia has 14 political subdivisions (counties) with 18 registered political parties and more to come. Is this not a political nonsense, a political disaster for our country created by you? The voters will have to spread themselves thinner and thinner amongst you and narrowing their potential to choose a true leader for the nation. 

 

What perplexed me most is that,  many of you come to the united States to preach  politics, calling for a democratic system for our nation, but none amongst you wants to practice the politics of America and other civilized nations of the world.  These other nations have fewer parties and better political systems.  Don't you think these nations are capable of forming 18 parties like you?  You must be willing to learn from others as your policies continue to fail you and create hardship and death on the Liberian masses.

 

As I close this letter, please answer these few questions for me;

 

1. How many more political parties do you need to rebuild Liberia?

2. What are the major differences that distant you from each other when it comes to rebuilding  Liberia politically?

3. Why have you not learned the fact that politically, you have spread yourselves too thin for the work of our nation?

4. Why do you think the South Africans did not form 18 political parties after many years of struggle against aparthied?

 

As we search  daily for answers to these questions and many more, we the citizens have sacrificed a lot more for our national reconciliation, national reconstruction, and for a sound and genuine political system for Liberia. what have you given in this process as  politicians?  So far, you have created more political  parties that might breed instability. 

 

Few political parties mean a genuine and sound political system, but more political parties mean more political nonsense for us all.  Therefore, which way politicians for the sake of the nation?

 

Sincerely yours,

Henry Fallah Charyoe

Concerned citizen of Liberia