Philadelphia – Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, the political leader of the opposition Liberty Party says Liberia is not ready for a continuation of ruling Unity Party government in power.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
The incumbent Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is not qualified to contest for a third term but has expressed confidence in her vice President Joseph Boakai to carry on her legacy. The President won elections in 2005 and was re-elected in 2011.
She is in the final year of her presidency.
Addressing Diaspora Liberians at a town hall gathering here Sunday, Cllr. Brumskine said the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf-led government has failed to tackle the issue of corruption and also failed to reconcile the post-war nation.
“Sirleaf and Boakai administration has admitted that it accomplished a few things over the last eleven, twelve years.
But the two things they have said to us that they are unable to do – to reconcile our people and to manage corruption. I did not come to the United States to criticize our President. I’m only saying to you what she said when she reported to us as a nation. There is no space for continuity of that government because we must be reconciled.”
Trumpeting Christian-Muslim Unity
The LP leader spoke on a day when the party welcomed two defectors from the Congress for Democratic Change and the United People’s Party.
Varfley Dorley, a former CDC vice chair and Peter Dahn, an influential UPP official and a disciple of the late Gabriel Baccus Matthews.
“We believe that nothing will be suitable in our country unless we are reconciled as a people. Whether you are a Muslim Varfley Dorley and I am a born-again Christian, whether you are educated and I am not, whether you are rich and I am poor, whether you are of a high social status and I am a lowly humble person we all are a common denominator called Liberia that binds us together. We must understand that unless the laws of Liberia affects us equally, not of us will be secured in our persons. What is good for one must be good for the other.”
Slamming Archaic Tubman Policies
Part of the problem, the Liberty Party leader averred is that every administration after reign of President William V.S. Tubman has practiced what he termed Tubman economics.
During his reign, Tubman established the Open-Door Policy aimed at attracting foreign investment, mainly from Liberia’s traditional partners, the United States of America.
Between 1944 and 1970, the value of foreign investments, mainly from the United States, increased by 200%. From 1950 to 1960, Liberia experienced an average annual growth of 11.5%.
The policy led to increased in revenues for the government to construct and modernize infrastructure and public sanitation systems. Several thousand kilometers of roads were built, as was a railway line to connect the iron mines to the coast for transport of this commodity for export.
Tubman also transformed the Port of Monrovia into a free port in a bid to encourage trade.
But on Sunday, Brumskine suggested the Tubman policy continued by the Sirleaf-Boakai-led government has outlived its time.
“The economic policies including the Sirleaf-Boakai administration have been dependent on the extractive industries, over which we have no control. When China decided not to buy iron ore, the price dropped, Liberia economy suffers, the price of rubber drops, Liberia economy suffers. We need and we will diversify our economy,”
The LP leader said for too long, Liberia has required people to leave what they know best to go somewhere else to make a livelihood.
“You take the man from the subsistence farming and put him to go and do iron ore work or to work on the rubber plantation and by sixty percent maybe sixty five percent of Liberians today make their livelihood from subsistence farming.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, government need to create the environment that will enhance the activity, help them to transition from subsistent to commercial farmers. Let them grow more crops, let them make more money, that’s the way to empower them.
The fact that the man or the woman is a farmer he or she doesn’t necessarily want to do business, they should not be compelled to sell their produce on the market.
The Liberty Party government will work with the private sector both Liberians and foreigners to ensure that corporate vehicles are established that will connect farm to market.
The farmer can simply grow their product, bring them the farm gate and somebody come and buy them and take them to the market. We will do it until we get to the place where domestic supply exceed demand and we can begin to care and process and export.”
Cllr. Brumskine said the issue has been on his mind a lot and is confident that Liberty Party is the most prepared to tackle the challenge of repairing the damaged economy of the current administration.
“I speak to you not because I learned this thing in school but because I thought about all this. I have spent sleepless nights not why we’re not doing it but how can do it and how it can be done. I believe it’s easy to be done.”
Added Cllr. Brumskine: “I believe it’s easy to be done. We need the vision which Liberty Party has, we need the plan of action which we are putting together we need the political will which I have demonstrated as a politician that I have.”
Trumpeting a Rare Exit from Taylor
The LP leader said when he served in the Liberian Senate for the first time in many years, maybe since Tubman became President, the body became independent of the executive branch of government and he resisted attempts to gain wealth for the love of country.
“There was opportunity to accumulate wealth, that’s not what I was about. I believe you want to make you make it in the private sector, not in the public sector.”
Cllr. Brumskine explained that he remains the only politician to walk away from a government on principle.
“One -time came I was one of the only politicians who had left government because he was different from the government in which he served.
This time around, we will not hear any politician say “I told the old ma but she didn’t listen”. Why didn’t you leave the job? What can you tell you can fight corruption when the President already said you failed on corruption?”
He explained that none of the twenty people running for the presidency today dared to stand before former President Taylor.
“I was in this country, I was practicing law in Washington, DC. I’m licensed to practice law in DC, I’m licensed to practice law in New York, one of few Africans who practice law before the Supreme Court of the United States. I left it all to go home for the sake of the country. You know if I did it then when you did not know me, you can depend on me tomorrow.”
He said the Liberty Party has a plan to create jobs because education and job creation must be a priority of the next government or else they would remain sources of instability in our country.
He took aim at the Sirleaf-Boakai leadership for failing to restore the Agriculture Cooperative Development Bank and said it will be top on the list of his agenda when he is elected President.
“That’s one of the first thing we will do. Because we believe the thrust of our economic recovery is the agriculture sector.”
“We have to recapitalize Agriculture Cooperative Development Bank so that farmers can get loan, to buy seeds, to buy fertilizers and we will have university graduates seconded to each of our farmers to help them, to encourage them to make bigger farms and make Liberia better.”
Cllr. Brumskine said Liberia will not develop unless the middle class is. “No country can develop the middle class as long as trade and commerce remain in the hands of non-Liberians.”
The LP leader said his administration will establish an institution called Small Business Institute, that will source funding at low-interest rates for the Liberian people to be able to do business.
“You see what happens in Liberia today, you go to the bank to get money if you do not have a house, a deed to collateralize, they are not going to give you to loan to begin with. If they give you the loan your interest rate will be as high as twenty percent.
The Liberian businesses will go to China to buy goods and come back to Liberia to sell.
The profit margin will be a five to seven percent, that’s a formula for failure. You cannot make a five to seven percent profit and expect to pay a loan when the interest rate is about twenty percent.
So, the SBI must source funding at zero percent for Liberian small and medium size businesses to be able to do business. The other thing will be to help Liberian people to develop capacity.”
He averred that a lot of the developments carried out by Tubman are now been refurbished.
“Tubman built the road from Monrovia to Kakata, we had to reconstruct that road a few years ago, Tubman built the road from Cotton Tree to Buchanan, we had to reconstruct that road a few years ago.
Money that should have been used on health and education went to reconstruction because we destroyed those things. Why did we allow those infrastructures to be destroyed? Because we never learned to live together as brothers and sisters, we were never reconciled.”
Still Transitioning from ‘Negative Peace’
Cllr. Brumskine said Liberia is now at a stage where the book people call negative peace.
“A place where we still have to transition from negative peace. By negative peace we mean simply an absence of hostilities.”
“But we haven’t learnt how to sit around the table and disagree and sort our differences and move forward – that we must do. But it requires a leader, a national leader with the moral authority that must be able to say to you, I love you – even if you didn’t know me 2003.”
He asked the town hall gathering what Liberians are looking for in their leaders and those eyeing the presidency.
“There will be many candidates. Are you looking for someone who loves Liberia- and ultimate loves you?
Are you looking for someone who has the requisite qualification, competence, relevant experience?
Are you looking for someone who has the integrity? Are you looking for a political party that has a platform upon which our country can be built?”
A Firm Hand on Graft
A lot he said will have to change when a new government is ushered in. “Do I have the requisite qualification to lead our country?
Do I have the relevant experience? I’m not leaving America as a Washington, DC lawyer to go and say I want to be President, I’ve been leader of the Liberian Senate at the most difficult time in the history of our country.
When others were getting rich and becoming millionaires, I remember what my father said to me: A good name is better than riches. I left it because I knew today would come and I would come before you and boast that I never stole a cent of our money before.
Can I deal with corruption? It’s not a matter of talk, I can deal with corruption, I’ve dealt with it before when I was President of the Liberian Senate. Our policy was zero tolerance on corruption, we did not only punished the janitors and cleaners or the secretary when something goes wrong.”
Cllr. Brumskine said a senator was suspended for misappropriation of Senate money during his reign, suggesting that he will be tough on graft.
“Eventually he was expelled from the Liberian Senate under my leadership, we know. I learnt more from the time I spent in the Liberian Senate than I would have from any academic program.
Can I help you as you President to raise your children? I guess I can. I raised three of my own biological kids, they all happened to be lawyers and I can tell you I didn’t influence them at all, they made their own decision.
If my kids were on the street smoking dope of course you wouldn’t trust me.
Can I discuss family values as your leader? Of course, I’ve been married for 42 years – to one woman, the most beautiful woman in the world – and guess what? She’s still in love with me. That means I’ve got to be doing something right, right?”
Brumskine’s Diaspora rants come just days after he welcomed Harrison Karnwea, the head of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and a prominent son of Nimba County to the Liberty Party.
Karnwea is said to be high on the candidate’s choice of a potential vice President listing. The crossover has not gone well within the ruling party with some partisans questioning President Sirleaf’s support for Vice President Boakai.
Some members of the ruling Unity Party (UP) have been wary over what they consider as lukewarm posture of the President toward Boakai the Presidential ambition of Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai. The President, in their view, has not demonstrated much support to strengthen and pave the way for Boakai who has served her as Vice President for the past 11 years.
In contrast, some opposition forces have accused Brumskine of being a regime collaborator.
Sirleaf’s office was forced to address the matter recently, urging supporters of the vice President to stop bringing up the issue during her travels.
“Followers of the President Sirleaf and Vice President Boakai should note and recognize that it serves the interest neither the President nor the Vice President to keep writing and saying baseless and unfounded things that create tension and disharmony between them, this is no better way of showing support and loyalty; this has to stop,” the Mansion said recently.