James Sirleaf Bawls at Government Critics

4 July 2011

The Sirleaf Administration, now in its dying days, is patting itself on the back for resuscitating the nation, redeeming its lost image broad, and restoring it to its rightful place within the comity of nations. Not that the administration’s critics are not acknowledging these feats; they are arguing that it has not moved fast enough, as time and opportunity allow, in implementing relevant reforms and fighting corruption. One critic, former TRC chairman Cllr. Jerome Verdier, even suggested last week that the administration is playing with fire by pushing constitutional changes through the Legislature – which process it branded “backdoor”.  But the son of President Ellen Johnson, Mr. James Sirleaf, thinks he is taking his distraction over the cliff. The Analyst, reports.

“Any inference that this Government is not working in the interest of this nation is a falsehood.”

This assertion summarizes the position of James Sirleaf who is also General Manager of the First International Bank (FiBank), in his weekend riposte titled, “Where Were You When the Lights Went Out In November 1985?”

The riposte was in apparent reaction to this paper’s Friday, July 01, 2011, lead article titled, “Meddling with the Constitution Illegally? The Sirleaf Administration Stands Accused”.

The article quoted former TRC chairman and longtime human and civil rights advocate, Cllr. Jerome Verdier, as saying that the Sirleaf Administration was illegally toying with the people’s desire for constitutional reforms and for the rule of the law in postwar Liberia.

“The plans of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Government to legislate the election of superintendents is a political gimmick intended to endear the President to the people of Liberia ahead of the 2011 General and Presidential Elections and portray this government as being progressive and populist, when in reality it is elitist and self-serving,” Verdier had said.

The observation was contained in Verdier’s press statement titled, “The Burden of History”, which he issued last Wednesday.

In response to the story, the FiBank general manager wondered where Mr. Verdier and his likes were at the time this nation was virtually on its knees – when corruption was rampant, when the rule of law was only a dream, and when politicians  and their cohorts ruled the nation at the dictates of their perverted consciences.

He said the breach of the constitution was the strangest political allegation and argument he has heard in decades and wondered why such vain confrontation was necessary, now that the government was not only sensitive to the needs of the people, but was  also going all out to institute relevant legal, political, and economic reforms.

Mr. Sirleaf, who described himself as “a taxpayer who pays monthly personal income tax”, believes Mr. Verdier’s assessment of the administration’s reforms agenda, and the criticism he derived from it, were grossly unfair.

Not only was Cllr. Verdier taking the national debate over the cliff, according to him, but he was also selling the Sirleaf Administration short in order to maintain his own relevance to the unfolding electioneering process and the reforms debate.

He said the Liberian people have already had “enough… with Jerome Verdier” and that they therefore preferred to be left alone to reconcile, nurse wounds inflicted on them by war and past totalitarian regimes, and restore their nation to vibrancy by reasoning together, rather than having so-called legal pundits breathing over their shoulders and dictating to them.

He said under the laws of Liberia, there was no Liberian, not least the government of Liberia, who does not have the right to petition for the changing of the laws governing the nation, if that Liberian adhered to the precepts of the law.

The banker said he therefore saw no wrongdoing on the part of the Sirleaf Administration to introduce a bill in parliament that will devolve the power and rights of the president, to constitute local government administrations, to the people through universal suffrage.

Anyone thinking otherwise therefore, according to him, was doing so out of ulterior motives propelled by a conspiracy to distract the administration and Liberia from the true national trajectory.

“The Administration has a right to put reforms through the Legislature and those reforms may become law, if subsequently passed, in accordance with the code of law. Any inference that this Government is not working in the interest of this nation is a falsehood,” he said.

According to him, there was no point locking horns in legal technicalities and vain pursuit of justice and, in the process, excluding other Liberians from the political process.

“In fact, we would be unjustly creating more anxiety in this society for restricting any candidate to run for political office. This would actually trigger more regression and lack of respect for governance and the rule of law. At this very early stage in our development of any lasting democracy, we can ill afford to close any doors on purpose. All who desire should be allowed to canvass and run for public office in Liberia,” he said.

He did not say what triggered such response, but observers believe the banker might have been indicating his support for the proposed amendment of the “residency clause” in next month’s National Constitutional Referendum. (The proposed change seeks to reduce the residency requirement for president and vice president candidates from ten to five years.)

In addition, they believe that he might have been referring to the TRC recommendation summarily barring 50 politicians, including President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, from running for public office on allegation of bankrolling the 1989-1996 and 1998-2003 civil wars, on various sides.

Mr. Sirleaf said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which Cllr. Verdier headed, lost its relevance to the cause for peace and reconciliation in Liberia when it deviated from proposing measures for peace and national recovery and, instead, plopped punitive sanctions on perceived enemies of society.

“The TRC or no other Group constitutes enough authority to make the ‘charge-less’ ‘charged-for’. The TRC however should not be used as a medium to make belligerent judgments other than to establish the peace between us. There are so many people who have been ill affected by tension and war in this country since 1980,” Mr. Sirleaf said.

He recalled his unwarranted detention and “humiliation” to near death at the hands of thugs of former Justice Minister, Jenkins Scott, in 1985, and noted that while he has the right to seek personal revenge or justice, he was prepared to let bygone be bygone for the sake of peace.

Many other Liberians, he said, were prepared to forgive and forget if those, who claim to be advocates of justice, guided them through a safer path rather a path of confrontation as Verdier’s TRC was recommending.

“I have a lot to hate for. I would have been one of those that would have wanted to take up the gun to take revenge on anyone part of that late administration. However, we are simply not that kind of people. Where does that road and attitude lead to?” the FiBank manager wondered.

Rather than dwelling on the past, peddling blames, and basing political decisions on it, Mr. Sirleaf said, there was so much upon which the Liberian people could put their hopes.

For instance, he said, the Sirleaf Administration has been working since 2006 to contain the “monstrous levels of corruption” it inherited from the Doe and Taylor administrations with relative success.

“Over the past 3 years, there has been a virtual turnaround in public finance and nation development. Things would not be rosy perfect…just yet…mainly because of the many years of destruction of life, of culture, infrastructure and so forth,” he said.

He however noted that judging from the depths from which Liberia had climbed in so relative a short period of time, the Liberian people, in a short while, would begin reaping the benefits of those efforts.

Mr. Sirleaf said this was why it was important that the Liberian people reelect President Sirleaf for another six-year term, so that she will complete what she had begun.

This was also why he is calling on those who are bent on unjustifiably linking President Sirleaf to “the iniquitous elements such as the former warlords in Liberia, to immediately desist”.

AllAfrica – All the Time