Liberia: Bad Omen of Chaotic Elections Looms

16 May 2011

One needs no consultation with soothsayer to predict the heat and fire that are in store as the nation cruises towards the crucial 2011 general and presidential elections, the second since the cessation of military hostilities in 2003. Even before the most hilarious period of campaign, temperatures of emotions and impulses are apparently exceeding boiling points, as the thermometer on the political landscape is telling from verbal changes flaring between and amongst political contenders. The Analyst reflects on what appears to troubling signs on the horizon as serious inter-party politics kick off ahead of poll later this year.

The vow by officials at the Ministry of Information, Cultural and Tourism to take national political discourse “in the gutters” did not come from the clear blue sky, however strayed and widely condemned the statement.

Perhaps irked by consistent tough talks and censures from opposition political figures, particularly against President Sirleaf, Information Minister Cletus Sieh threatened to take “politics in the gutter” if critics of his boss, Madam Sirleaf, don’t cease their unruly characterization of the President.

Sieh’s declaration comes in wake of the acute deterioration of emotions and political talks in the last few months which saw various political figures employing vituperations and curses in public statements as they addressed each other on national political issues.

The situation has got so bad and messy that radio talk shows and public forums often leave listeners and audiences turning off their ears and shutting their eyes to evade verbal obscenities of speakers.

Messy Discourses

Though verbal hostilities are bound to flare up during any serious electoral period, this year’s scale is reaching obscene proportions against which pundits have begun to predict a more chaotic campaign period.

While opposition elements on the one hand engaged in spree of demonization and evil characterization of the Unity Party and its standard-bearer, President Sirleaf, both the President and her party haven’t been taking the affront lying down.

Last year, the President in response to criticisms against her person and her government, taunted opposition elements saying they needed to see psychiatrist as heal the mental disorders.

She was heavily criticized by many opposition elements for summarily dismissing her entire cabinet, even though she later recalled them with just few exemptions.

Asked how she would respond to the mounting criticisms against her on the decision taken, President Sirleaf said critics were out of their heads and needed to see psychiatrists for mental recovery.

But the President was not the first to spark the spree of indecent discourse pervading the political landscape; other politicians, particularly those in opposition, have irked the President and her party with crude language.

Even on her pronouncement to announce her second term bid while she was delivering the State of the Nation Address in 2009, some politicians described the action as “ludicrous” and that she had “desecrated the seat of the Liberian presidency.”

Also, the President’s admittance at the public hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that she contributed US$10,000 as humanitarian contribution to the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, coupled with deep-running suspicion that she was in support of various subversive activities, gives many critics, particularly the opposition, gut to brand her as “war monger”, “blood-sting hands”, who needs to face charges of war crimes.

Besides those strong appellations, critics have also increased the fervor of their verbal attacks on the President and the Government’s deportment in the fight against corruption and poverty.

“Government of rascals and crooks;” “thieves and scoundrels,” and the attacks against the government keep coming by the day.

Those characterizations, which continue to grow in volume and intensity, are crudely responded to by the President and her supporters, particularly government spokespersons, who think critics have “lost their sights and minds” for not seeing what the government has done.

Instead of sticking to the issues, correcting where the critics go wrong and highlighting the achievements of Government, government spokespersons and Madam Sirleaf herself often unleash vituperations and odd characterizations of the opposition.

The Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism has taken the front row in the waves of verbal obscenities visited upon critics and the opposition.

In the last few months, the Ministry’s officials continue to trigger loud public outrage and ire by their unleashing of verbal obscenities on opposition politicians and critics of President Sirleaf and the Unity Party government.

The belligerence of the Ministry has forced some citizens to begin to demand its dissolution and turn it into a propaganda cell of the ruling Unity Party, since its posture portrays it as not a public tax-sponsored agency of government.

Some analysts are presaging that verbal clashes between the Ministry and the Unity Party on the one hand and critics and opposition politicians on the other, are clear signs that ensuing 2011 elections will be marred by verbal fireworks, if not physical violence.

“If our politicians are cursing and insulting each other in these earlier days of elections, then one wonders what the case would be when electoral campaigns begin,” University lecturer James C. Tiaklan, Jr. said in an interview. “Reading from the emotional outbursts of the politicians, without not a single one is exempted, and it is safe to say that our politics is now poisoned and except something is done and quickly, this country’s democratization process could be derailed”.

In the development of our democratic culture, Tiaklan said, we need not lose sight of the need to remain civil and sane in our discourse, because rough talks breed anger and anger breeds violence.

It is nothing less cowardice if a professed intellectual abandons the substantive issues of an argument and resort to offensive words, he opined.

With barrages crude languages from the top of society and the top of political blocs, it is not known who is qualified to call for truce as the nation moves towards the most chaos-oriented period of political campaign.

The nation is waiting to see.

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