n a few weeks, Liberians go to the polls to select a president and legislators in what are possibly the most contentious elections in the country’s post war history. More than 20 presidential candidates and 783 aspiring representatives have been certified to run in the 2017 elections.
Since 2005, the country’s democratic process has undergone several challenges, with alignment, realignment and misalignment. As the political class dominates the economy with limited private sector opportunities, most of the contention in this year’s elections is due to the fear of potential losers being denied access to power, wealth and prestige.
Moreover, those who control the body polity in personification of the president and her officials are worried that their surrender of power to an incoming administration may expose them to legal jeopardy for perceived or evidence based wrong doing.
Clearly, most opposition politicians and their followers feel marginalized and are desperate to participate in the very rewarding patronage and crony society that Liberia has been since its founding.
Politics in Liberia is not about philosophy or governance ideals.
There is no philosophical left, center or right on the country’s political spectrum. In fact there is no political spectrum.
Only “gobarchop”. Most of the parties are bereft of ideas on how to pursue a development agenda that can overcome the basic challenges of the Liberian people.
The elections are purely about survival, but they should be about reconciliation and building a divided and very poor country. Here is how we can reconcile and build a divided nation.
We can begin by recognizing that no one man, woman or political party has the human or material resources to overcome the challenges of nation-building. We must recognize the achievements of the current administration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, no matter the limited magnitude of the human progress made.
We must guarantee that President Sirleaf and all her administration officials will be not be witch hunted for perceived or imagined transgressions.
We must also recognize that Liberia’s modest progress over the last 12 years has been shepherded by the president with her immense contacts within the international system, which brought billions in official development assistance (ODA).
In the post-election building process, the president can provide guidance and serve as a goodwill ambassador for the country to the international community.
But the President must also play a part in supporting the transition.
Here is how she can: She must play the role of an elder stateswoman and avoid the partisan wrangling that is consuming the election process. She must be seen as above the fray despite her partisan political interests. She can begin to dialogue with all political parties to discuss the requirements of national reconciliation and reconstruction.
She must admit the failures and governance lapses of the past 12 years.
She must support a national development agenda that is not based on the narrow interests of a privileged few. Finally, she must play the role of chief reconciler and political godmother to all the disparate interests and forgive those who trespass against her as they also forgive her.
Liberia is in the throes of a massive economic reversal of fortunes. The country’s economy has not grown for four years. There are signs that the structural defects of the Liberian economy including its over reliance on the extractive industry and narrow productive capacity portend for some challenging times over the next decade. Economic growth has declined and a deepened contraction is taking hold.
The economy declined by .5 percent over the last fiscal period and I project that this year’s contraction will exceed 1.5 percent.
Liberia’s economic growth, although obstructed by structural and cyclical factors is also reeling from the straightjacket rules of the multilaterals coming on the heels of the conditionality imposed by the IMF in order to provide the country an Extended Credit Facility (ECF).
An IMF program country since the completion of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative, Liberia has lacked the fiscal and economic independence to use capital market forces to expand output.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) is below $900 million and declining. As a result of declining economic growth, poverty indices are increasing. Liberia’s human development index (HDI) declined from .430 to 427 between 2015 and 2016.
The country is the fourth poorest on the planet according to the World Bank’s Atlas Method. Nearly 85 percent of the country’s population live below the international poverty rate of 1.25 a day.
Double digit inflation is rearing its ugly head, making for potentially a socioeconomic crisis. These are the challenges of the day and not the parochial partisan political interests of the ruling elite, the opposition and their surrogates.
Liberia’s reconstruction and economic expansion to overcome the deepening poverty levels in the country require national reconciliation and a vision towards sustainable development and shared prosperity.
We can accomplish that with all hands on the deck. It would require expanding economic opportunities to make the private sector the engine of growth.
It would mean reducing the share of public employees as a percentage of the labor force. It would require decreasing the level of informality in the economy, where 77 percent of the work force toils in vulnerable employment.
All of these cannot be accomplished before the inauguration of the next president, but conversations can begin as Liberians make critical decisions over the next several weeks.
Overcoming our developmental challenges should be the overarching theme of the elections instead of pursuing current administration officials or threatening the economic survival of the opposition. And so it goes.
Samuel P. Jackson, Chief Strategist, All Liberia Party of Benoni Urey
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