Monrovia – Generally, opposition political parties present at the forum organized by the government for exchange of ideas to drive democracy and development of the country were not pleased with how discussions went, FrontPageAfrica has gathered.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
The one-day forum was proposed by President George Manneh Weah with the hope of advancing ideas that promote the spirit of national unity and political tolerance between opposition political parties and the Liberian government.
In his welcome remarks, President Weah said, “We had a peaceful election in 2017 and it’s that elections result that has brought us here today; it is overdue because we were engaged. We are happy to have this opportunity in which we all can better share ideas, as we want to receive suggestions from opposition political leaders on how we move our country forward”.
“This meeting is a frank discussion; I want everyone to freely express themselves on issues and to provide suggestions that would help us in working together in the interest of our country, Liberia.”
But the well-attended closed-door meeting, in the view of some, was stage-managed and didn’t accord them the opportunity to express their frustration over how the country is being governed under the Weah-led administration.
In fact, the chairman of the Liberty Party, Steve Zargo, who was denied from making a point during the deliberations on grounds only political leaders were to permitted to speak – and just for three minutes – believes President Weah called the gathering to paint a good image to the international community.
“Let’s be frank, it was not an organized one, there was no set agenda; it was just a generic open-ended meeting that didn’t have means and bounds. The intention was good but they didn’t organize it well. But in my mind, the intention was because he’s preparing to go the UN General Assembly so he thought to show to the international community that he has good relations with the opposition political parties,” Senator Zargo told FrontPageAfrica.
Speaking on OK FM after the forum, Darius Dillon, Jacob Jallah, and Amos Tweh all of the opposition bloc said the forum with the opposition as something that will not produce the needed expectation, due to the minimum time allotted to each opposition leader.
In their view, the call for the interactive forum with the opposition political parties was a good idea but may not make any difference primarily because of how it was conducted.
Mohammed Ali, Assistant Secretary-General of the former ruling Unity Party, said he expected a meeting that would have given the opposition parties enough time to speak on issues bordering on the survival of the country.
However, Deputy Information Minister, Eugene Fahngon blasted the opposition politicians, terming them as a group of people who do not mean well for the country. President Weah is also on the record for calling critics of his government as “enemies of the state”.
E-Mansion: ‘An Act of Goodwill’
While members of the opposition believe the government could have done better with the manner in which the forum was handled, the Executive Mansion portrayed in a statement that the President’s decision to meet with the opposition as an act of benevolence.
“Apparently, another president would have sought different means or chosen not to even consider talking with opposition leaders with less than a year in office, but some of the opposition political leaders cherished the President’s decision to reach out as early as it is,” the Executive Mansion statement noted.
The statement further noted that the one-day forum might not be enough a time to put all of the issues at stake into context and reach a workable consensus, but it elucidates the President’s call for “all hands on deck” approach to solving the country’s decadent social, political and economic imbroglios.
“It also elucidates his plea that ‘Liberians should all strive to put aside our differences and join hands in the task of nation-building,’ and that ‘we must learn how to celebrate our diversity without drawing lines of divisions in our new Liberia. We belong to Liberia first before we belong to our inherited tribes, or chosen counties’,” the statement further noted.
Issues Brought Forth
Despite dissatisfaction over ample time for the proper deliberation, several issues were laid before President Weah for consideration, which they believe if implemented would foster Liberia’s growth and development.
Mr. Benoni Urey of the All Liberian Party (ALP) who ironically sitting next to Senator Prince Y. Johnson, a former warlord, called for the establishment of war crimes court.
According to Mr. Urey, those who committed atrocities during the Liberian civil crisis must be made to face justice.
“We call for Justice, those that committed war crimes must be brought to trial, I support the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia,” he said.
“You see, in Liberia, only one person in jail, and a lot of people committed atrocities, and this is the decision that all Liberians must make if we will bring people to justice or we allow people to go with impunity,” he said.
During Taylor’s reign, Urey headed Liberia’s maritime authority and later became one of the country’s most successful businessmen.
Senator Nyonblee Kangar-Lawrence, the political leader of the Liberty Party, which has a tripartite arrangement with the Unity Party and the Alternative National Congress, called on the President to revisit past audit reports and ensure that officials found liable of corruption, are investigated and prosecuted.
In the same vein, President Weah was asked to make his declared assets public and must call on his officials of government to also declare their assets and make them public.
Giving a rundown of the discussion, the Unity Party Mohammed Ali told FrontPageAfrica said the tripartite expressed concern over the appointments to government. According to them, there’s a cause for concern that majority of the appointments in government are people from the southeastern region, while Lofa County is the less considered.
“Some of us though they say we are tribalists, but we put to the President quite bluntly that appointments he has made, the majority of them have southeastern link – its southeastern bias. We recommended that the appointments should be regionally balanced,” he said.
The three parties collectively admonished the President to refrain from witch-hunting civil servants only because they do not share the same political ideologies with the government.
In recent time, various government ministries and agencies attempted making transfer of several employees within the ministries while new employees were being brought on board for their positions. This practice was dominant at the Ministries of Finance and Gender.
“We mentioned to the President that we’re opposition but we all have the development of this country to be our priority and we are not enemies of the state and he and some of his officials grouped us – we made that point clear,” Ali said.
The parties advised President Weah to initiate an electoral reform process that would bring sanctity to the electoral system.
Ali said the tripartite arrangement emphasized the need to make the National Budget a program-based budget in order for the Liberians to have their fair share of the national cake. He added that scarce national resources would be properly managed if government tracks budget performance.