In American Politics, it is the famously dubbed October Surprise that leads to dramatic twists in the November elections. Supporters of both major parties always await this period to land hard punches and for the most part, solid punches are indeed landed in October. Hillary Clinton’s October Surprise was the Comey’s letter and we know how it ended.
Unlike America, there are no “knowns” in Liberia. However, some moments do dump candidates and it seems the Liberty Party Political Leader’s moment has already arrived.
In a damning February 3, 1998 letter in the possession of Front Page Africa, former Senator Bedell Fahn is seen complaining Cllr. Brumskine, then Pro-tempore of the Liberian Senate to the President of the Senate, Enoch Dogolea.
In Fahn’s letter, Cllr. Brumskine is accused of making the following comments; “Who is a Fahn to deny a Townsend from traveling? Your native people killed her husband in 1980 and you; too, a native man is denying her the chance to travel…”
Since the unveiling of the letter on social media, there has been an outpouring of criticisms and immense verbal altercations between opponents of Cllr. Brumskine and his supporters. Sadly, not a single Liberty Party operative has questioned the authenticity of the letter. All they’ve done over the last thirty hours is refute the claims attributed to their political leader.
The closest evidence is a Facebook Post made by one of the surviving witnesses mentioned in the letter, Mr. David Wiles, then Administrative Assistant to Senator Fahn;
“I, David Wiles, was called into Hon. Brumskine’s Office (Go ask one Ms. Katumu – a short Bassa lady who was working in the Pro-temp’s office) and told to turn the keys of the Office over because they have decided that one Mohammed Dukuly who was another friend of Senator Brumskine was now serving as Chairman on Ways, Means, Finance and Maritime.
I made my position clear that all senators were equal and the best thing to do was to wait for Senator Fahn to come from the USA. The very hour I left Senator Brumskine’s Office, I told the staff that I was leaving the building because I was sensing danger… The letter you see is real and authentic…”
The comments attributed to the Political Leader have deeply fallen into the Country versus Congau narrative that is now the center of the pre-campaign debate and appears to validate arguments made mainly by presumed sympathizers of VP Boakai’s candidacy for the need for a native President.
Besides, the letter reignites several tribal-laden comments Brumskine has made on several occasions in his failed bids to woo his kinsmen from Grand Bassa County.
In a separate scenario, there is an audio recording of Cllr. Brumskine making some unkind comments that play in the same toxic tribal narrative. “Bassa people were tired of making other people President and it was time for a Bassa President…” he is heard on the tape. Like this one, public condemnations were swift as the country was far removed from the messy tribal politics that dwarfed the country for many years and took the lives of 250,000 Liberians.
As the Presidential elections draw nearer, it has become even more important and critical to examine the records and positions of the candidates who are vying for the most important position in the country. Though it seems that the war is over, we can all agree that the country is not fully reconciled and so electing the right person makes all the difference in terms of whether the country moves forward or relapses into conflict.
It is a known fact that country has endured a lot and has been struggling with overcoming the legacies of the past when it comes to the country-congau divide that many believe was largely responsible for the coup and then the civil war that destroyed the country.
The political history of the country shows that for more than 133 years, the minority ‘Congau’ ruled the majority “country”. More despicable is the notion that the ‘congau’ considered themselves superior to the ‘country’ and this has not gone down well with the ‘country’ class.
Now with the drumbeat of ‘congau’ vs ‘country’ featuring in these elections, there are accusations and counter-accusations but to have in our possession a complaint that was filed against Cllr. Brumskine as far back as 1998 about exhibiting the same tendency that is believed to have been the cause of the civil war speaks a lot about what his inner thinking is.
Critics suggest that unless Cllr. Brumskine can prove that he has fully repented and/or no longer feels that way about “country” people, it is difficult to see how he can be a suitable person to win the hearts and minds of the majority “country “folks.
Henry Flomo, Contributing Writer
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