EVEN BEFORE THE OUSTING of Speaker Alex Tyler in September, the Legislature had long been engulfed in a legitimacy crisis, one that dates as far back as the Transitional Legislative Assembly of the National Transition Government of Liberia.
THE BATTLE TO UNSEAT SPEAKER Tyler lasted for at least three months of hauling and pulling. Tyler insisted that he had done no wrong as he had not been found guilty for the allegation against him over the Sable Mining bribery scandal, involving him and other government officials.
MAJORITY OF THE HOUSE OF Representatives, including Deputy Speaker Hans Barchue and Representative Emmanuel Nuquay—both of whom are vying for the speakership—demanded that he recused himself. Their argument was that even his indictment in the Sable Mining saga was enough to drag that august body into public disrepute.
BUT THE PRESSURE PROVED TOO insurmountable for Tyler. Chants of condemnation of power greed outweighed his defense that he was being a victim of conspiracy involving President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
NO EMPATHY FILTERED FOR Tyler and it seemed that the ardor to remove him was more than just a sense of sympathy. There was quick reminiscing of Tyler’s conspiracy of Representative Edwin Snowe back in 2007, just one sitting of his speakership.
SNOWE WAS ACCUSED OF ENGAGING into carving a diplomatic relations with Taiwan in violation of Liberia’s One-China Policy, as well as engaging in the foreign policy conduct when the Constitution squarely places that in the power of the President.
IT HAS BEEN NEARLY A DECADE since Snowe’s ousting and just months since Tyler, but the political struggle at the Legislature ensues. It even gets tenser by the day with new dimensions and versions.
DESPITE TWO SEPARATE WRITS of prohibition by Tyler and Representative Adolph Lawrence to halt the Speaker election, the House of Representatives on Wednesday voted Representative Nuquay on a white ballot, leaving Deputy Speaker Hans Barchue in the cold.
BUT ALL THAT HAS BEEN happening epitomizes Liberian politics in general. The True Whig Party ruled for more than a century and was dethroned in a bloody coup d’état in April 14, 1980. Then the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) was ousted when President Samuel K. Doe, who led that bloody overthrow of President William R. Tolbert, died at the hands of rebels in September 1990.
PRESIDENT CHARLES TAYLOR, who, too, had led the biggest faction against the Doe regime, had to go into exile to end the Liberian civil war in 2003 and his National Patriotic Party (NPP) made to live in the shadow of its past.
IN A NUTSHELL, JUST AS ONE President was overthrown by another in those tense days of our nation’s history, so has been the political battle at the House of Representatives and even at the Senate some point in time.
THERE IS A SHARP VARIANCE between the two. There isn’t any bloodshed at the Legislature, unlike the horrid national struggle for power in the 1980s to the early 2000s. However, there isn’t any major difference. The eagerness at the Legislature for power has not fallen short of the same uncontrollable zest wealth, power and fame due to which Liberian suffered for more than a decade.
IN FACT, THE LEGISLATIVE POWER struggle exposes the egoism of Capitol Hill politicians, even at the expense of the very people they supposed to represent. With important hearings tabled due to their struggle, the Liberian people have been ensnarled in an endless pit of self-aggrandizement. Former Justice of the Supreme Court was not wrong: Selfish lawmakers should be voted out for the prosperity of Liberia. We need agenda-centered lawmakers at that august body.