Sirleaf Administration Lazy, Lacks Vision

22 July 2011

The Standard-bearer of the National Democratic Coalition (NDC), Amb. Dew Tuan-Wleh Mayson, has accused the Sirleaf Administration of laziness and of lacking the necessary vision to reconstruct Liberia.

He blamed the administration’s perceived failure to rebuild or repair the nation’s damaged infrastructure and dysfunctional economy within its first six years in power on what he called ‘intellectual sclerosis’ and ‘ intellectual laziness’.

The prospective NDC presidential candidate made the claims during a tête-à-tête he held with reporters yesterday at the party’s Sinkor headquarters. The tête-à-tête was intended to reveal NDC’s platform for Liberia’s reconstruction and recovery.

“To lead is to have a vision for your people. Have you heard any vision from this government? Maybe you are too young, but Tolbert at least had programs called ‘Mats to Mattresses’ and ‘Total Involvement’, which you could see was at least a sort of strategy for development. On the other hand, this Government only talks about poverty reduction, which, as Senator Prince Johnson has reminded us, means that ‘poverty will never go away, only bits and pieces will be removed. But listen my Liberian people: to reduce poverty, give our people jobs and they will reduce their own poverty,” the ambassador said.

According to him, part of the government’s problem, besides the lack of political will, was that it was doing very little to study the underlining cause of the nation’s challenges and design appropriate programs to deal with them because it lacked the required vision to do so.

“All we have in this government here is intellectual laziness and intellectual paralysis. Where is the vision of this government for the Liberian people? I do not see any vision. The Bible says, “Without vision, the people will perish!” said Amb. Mayson noted further.

Mr. Mayson said in all his adult life, he has not seen a government that was contented with an “80% unemployment rate” in a country that was in dire need of economic recovery and reconstruction, following a drawn-out civil war.

Mr. Mayson, who is also a businessman, told the press gathering that an NDC government would concentrate on job creation, as part of efforts to empower the Liberian people and ‘end their poverty’.

He said the party would not find it difficult to create jobs because, as a successful entrepreneur and employer for many years, he understood what it meant to create jobs.

The chain of tuition-free computer schools he has established, which were not providing training for many Liberians, he said, testified to what the Liberian government would achieve with him at the helm.

As president, he said, he would promote indigenous businesses by making sure that the government’s procurement agencies prioritize Liberian made products and services. For instance, he said, government agencies would only purchase furniture from Liberian manufacturers.

“As a business man, I see the possibilities for job creation very clearly. Job creation is fundamental but it requires the government to be creative,” he said.

He pledged that his administration would provide tools and other equipment to assist local farmers with planting and harvesting their crops.

“You cannot have a country developing without its people developing. This is why we will put the Liberian people at the fulcrum of our development initiatives,” Ambassador Mayson said.

In addition, he said, the NDC government would initiate plans to end illiteracy in Liberia through a national literacy program that would provide training for high school students, who would in turn, conduct literacy programs across the country.

“Such a program was successfully conducted in Rwanda in only 3 to 4 years and we too can accomplish that here in Liberia,” he said.

Meantime, Mr. Mayson has denied media reports that the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) and the National Patriotic Party (NPP) have withdrawn their membership from the NDC. He however noted that NDC was aware of the rumors, and that it has launched investigation.

“We too are following the story regarding the purported withdrawal of the NDPL and the NPP from the coalition. The truth of the matter is that we have no official information on this matter,” he said.

Insisting that it was unlikely for the two parties to defect from the coalition, Ambassador Mayson disclosed that a number of unnamed registered parties have expressed their interests in joining the NDC.

The two parties reportedly withdrew their membership because of failure on the party of the leadership of the coalition to make good on its promise to reimburse the expenses they had incurred during the formation of the NDC. There was no information on the amount in question.

The ambassador used the occasion to deny allegations that bribed his way back into the leadership of the New Deal Movement after the party suspended him recently.

“The New Deal Movement is a vanguard party and not such a party where you can pay off people to go along with you. We had some differences, and we have since resolved them. It was all, as they say, just storm brewing in a teacup,” he said.

Regarding the August 23 referendum, Ambassador Mayson said it was certain that voters would defeat it because the proposed changes, coming barely a month before the national presidential and legislative elections, were not in the interest of the country and its citizens.

He said the Sirleaf Administration designed the proposed amendments to suit its and the interests and its associates. He did now say in what way the referendum would benefit the administration.

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