Monrovia – One of Liberia’s leading Women Rights advocate, Hellen Siah-Sayan Momoh, has frowned on student activist Martin K. N Kollie for continuously bullying females, who she claims, are contributing immensely to Liberia’s growth.
Kollie has been accused of launching a series of social media attacks against prominent women in society some of whom are working in the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led government.
He has also been accused of vowing to continuously criticize the CDC-led government “even if it seeks the well of its people due to his apparent political affiliation,” Hellen said.
His latest outburst targeted the current Inspector General of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Liberia Josphine Davies.
He accused her of making endless grammatical errors in social media posts, which in no way undermines her job as IG of the Commerce and Industry Ministry.
In her Wednesday October 30, 2019, social media post titled “beg to differ with brother Martin K. N. Kollie”, Hellen Momoh said it is unfortunate that Martin Kollie who parade himself as a leading student activist would take to the social media to bully and insult a woman because he is not comfortable with her strong political view about national issues .
“I have suffered insults from men who have not realized that politics is not the turf of a particular gender. Such has made a lot of our female friends remain in the back for fear of being shamed. On a serious note, cyber bullying ought to stop if more women ought to get involved with politics,” Momoh said.
She asserted that “I realized feminism in Liberia knows a political party, status, and class. I thought it was a broad church of clamor for the rights of women, for social justice, and a fight against all forms of domination, including cyberbullying. Unfortunately, it has become an elite thing — us VS them”.
She said Martin Kollie should not in any way be bullying women for errors they make on social media rather encouraging them to be more participatory in national decision making on grounds that the queen’s language is a borrowed language.
“Some of us constantly review notes to gain mastery of it. Even where I sit, I struggle with grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and tenses. I am no grammar professor, and I have never pretended to be one. In society, we help build each other up when we identify flaws. I am not saying we should not politick or debate, but politics void of humanism is cruelty as with Sister Josephine Davis, whom Martin and others bullied days ago for some grammatical mistakes. They would have done so well by correcting those mistakes via her in-box with difference and love” she added.
“I have suffered insults from men who have not realized that politics is not the turf of a particular gender. Such has made a lot of our female friends remain in the back for fear of being shamed. On a serious note, cyber bullying ought to stop if more women ought to get involved with politics.”
Hellen Momoh, Women’s Right Advocate
According to Momoh, Martin Kollie wrote a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, naming some alleged violations of the Weah government. In it, she said her research discovered 87 grammatical mistakes and 36 percent plagiarism in the write-up.
“These mistakes have confirmed our thesis that all have sinned and fallen short of the proper use of grammar. Hence nobody is grammar police” she noted.
Helen Momoh a student of the prestigious Harvard University in the United States called on young people of Liberia to focus on supporting and building each other up and stop unnecessary criticism of each other, something she said many may classify as generation envy.
“Let us all know that politics must not be void of humanism. We should politick, but we should build a community and society by caring for others. Social Justice is also about recognizing the shortcomings of others and reaching out to them in the spirit of love and friendship” she concluded.
The latest post of Helen Momoh, the Executive Director of the women’s group “Book before Boys” have been greeted with mixed reactions with many condemning student activist Martin K. N. Kollie for his latest action.