When news broke out that four major opposition political parties ( the Unity Party, the Liberty Party, Alternative National Congress and the All Liberian Party) that participated in the 2017 Legislative and Presidential Elections in Liberia agreed to collaborate in order to demand reform in Liberia, by pressuring the ruling coalition government to entrenched governance; some pundits heralded the formation of this collaboration as a new beginning for our nascent democracy, while others embraced such news with skepticism because of the undesirable history of political collaboration, coalition and merger in Liberia.
By Atty. Alvin Yelloway, Contributing Writer
While the collaborating political parties’ roadmap and vision are opaque in the midst of daunting economic and governance challenges in the post-conflict nation; their political agenda is inspired by one single objective which is to feature a single candidate in every election in each county and district, win more legislative seats and eventually sweep State power in the 2023 presidential elections. This is a mammoth task in the midst of a new collaboration forged by the ruling coalition (Congress for Democratic Change, National Patriotic Party, Liberia People Democratic Party) government with the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction Party of Prince Y. Johnson, a former warlord and the new Kingmaker in Liberia, since 2011.
The opposition collaborating political parties are enfolded in elitism, exclusivism, promotion of people with atrocious human rights record, and lack a comprehensive roadmap and strategy to address the present governance challenges in Liberia. By decolonization, we mean that the opposition political parties must emancipate themselves from these colonial principles and embrace a more progressive, democratic and people centered collaboration which will wreak the maximum political and economic benefits for all Liberians.
Collaborating Parties Enveloped in Elitism and Exclusivism
In this 21st Century, one wonders why political affiliation and collaboration will be forged on economic status and exclusion? These measures are to the detriment of grassroots political movements and would further plummet Liberians to the rock bottom of the political and economic ladder.
The Unity Party (UP) is the immediate past ruling party in Liberia that governed for 12 consecutive years. It’s political leader, Joseph Nyumah Boakai, served those 12 years as Vice President of Liberia and had his fair share of the terrible governance situation in the country. The Liberty Party (LP) of Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, a successful Corporate and Constitutional Lawyer has amassed wealth from his lucrative profession for over three decades. On the other hand, the Alternative National Congress (ANC) of Alexander B. Cummings, a former Vice President of the Global Coca-Cola Company in the United States of America acquired his wealth through hard work. The All Liberian Party (ALP) of Benoni Urey, a businessman was described in a 2017 Forbes Magazine’s article as a multimillionaire in Liberia.
In their elite political club, they ostracized other grassroots political parties, movements and the downtrodden; simply because they possess greater wealth, education, and technical capacity. This is complete insolence to the impoverished majority. They have also used the results of the 2017 presidential elections as a basis for the formation of such collaboration. From all indications, they need the masses, the electorates and impoverished people to democratically seize State power in 2023.
Progressive Step, but Regressive Results
While we commend the opposition for such collaboration which is also guaranteed by constitutional dictates, the paramount inspiration for the formation of this collaboration is based on figures from the first round of the 2017 presidential elections. Though, they fractured themselves in those elections, but they accumulated 732, 524 votes out of 1,641, 922 total votes as announced by the National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia. The UP recorded 446, 716 votes, while the LP recorded 149, 495 votes, ANC 112,067 and the ALP recorded 24,246 votes. Armed with these statistics, in their finite wisdoms, they formed a collaboration to win nearly all elections in the country.
While elections’ results are more dynamic and not static and electorates are swayed by current realities and other factors; their political calculation seems to be built on faulty political theories and wishful political thinking. Twittering the results of four by-elections in the country since 2018, the results have been devastating for the collaborating opposition political parties.
In the July 2018 Montserrado County Senatorial by-law election, where their early collaboration started by supporting a UP candidate, the opposition collaborating party failed to impress and the ruling coalition won the elections with a total of 67,793 votes out of 125,374 total votes as announced by the NEC. Conversely, in the Bong County Senatorial by-election, the collaborating political parties supported an ALP candidate and they succumbed to an independent candidate who won with 27,806 votes out 60, 463 total votes.
The opposition collaborating parties dismally failed to win another representative by-election in November 2018 held in Montserrado County Electoral District:13. They crumbled to an independent candidate, who won with 5,310 votes out of 15, 634 total votes. The opposition collaborating parties failed to feature a candidate in the November 2018 Sinoe County Senatorial by-election, but the ruling coalition won with 5,806 votes out of 16,477 total votes. Interestingly, three small grassroots parties that contested individually; impressed and accumulated a total of 10,250 votes as stipulated in the results of the Sinoe County Senatorial by-election.
The opposition collaborating parties did not only perform dismally in early by-elections, but also gravely failed to influence major political decisions in the country. One of such decision was the removal of Kabineh Mohammed Ja’neh, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia.
Though, the public was bitterly divided on a political decision by the Legislature to impeach the Associate Justice; but from all indications, the permutations in the Senate favored the collaborating political parties. Out of 29 Senators, 14 of them were from the bloc of the collaborating parties. Interestingly, the opposition collaborating parties had earlier condemned the entire impeachment proceedings and described it as illegal. As the decisive vote was taken, the Associate Justice was impeached. 18 Senators voted guilty, 8 Senators voted not guilty and 3 Senators abstained on one of the counts (the Constance Land Case) which eventually impeached the associate justice. The result of the impeachment was again another major political defeat for the collaborating political parties and makes one to conclude that they were complicit in the removal of the Associate Justice, since they could never convince their party officials and Senators to vote against the impeachment; despite commanding lion share of the Senators in the Senate.
Collaborating Parties Disguised as Council of Patriots
Since the ascendancy of George Oppong Weah to the Presidency of Liberia in January 2018, there has been criticism of his administration by the opposition collaborating political parties from governance, to the state of the economy and his political decision-making. While constructive criticisms are very germane for our nascent democracy, it is as well absolutely indispensable in opening the political space and consolidating our democracy.
From a political and legal analyses of Weah’s 18 months in office, Weah has failed to charm the Liberian people by openly declaring his asset and compelling his officials to do same in line with our transparency laws. He has failed to develop a legal framework for setting-up of a Specialized Court to prosecute former warlords. Weah has also failed to take substantial legal and administrative actions in the aftermath of two investigations involving the printing of 16 billion Liberian Dollars and 25 million United States Dollars intended to stabilize the Liberian Economy.
Armed with these early missteps and inactions in Weah’s administration, Liberians demanded reform and threatened to protest if substantive actions were not taken in the soonest possible time. To our utmost surprise, stalwarts and eminent officials of the opposition collaborating political parties were the organizers of the protest. This made pundits to conclude that the elite political club has metamorphosed into the Council of Patriots (COP) to lead the protest, instead of the poverty stricken Liberians.
While we have always argued that the constitutional rights of protesters must be upheld, but the decision for the collaborating parties to transform to the COP was ill-advised and was a politically misguided decision. They did not only fail to present their grievances to the President and members of the International Community when they were given the opportunity on the first occasion (on May 14, 2019 – Unification Day in Liberia), but also failed to present their petition to the Liberian leader delegation and the world on June 7, 2019 when they held their protest.
This poor judgment, which extends to the collaborating parties is unthinkable and has caused cracks within the COP. The COP has been described has an ‘extension of Urey’s Farm’. This has led to the establishment of an Independent Council of Patriot (ICOP). Another grassroots movement, the Economic Freedom Fighters of Liberia (EFFL) has pulled out of the COP citing allegations of corruption, hidden political agenda, elitism, and monopoly of power.
Promotion of People with Atrocious Human Rights Records
Pundits cannot imagine a nexus between the objectives of the elite political club and the promotion of individuals with questionable human rights record. The current Chairperson of the club and political leader of the All Liberian Party, Benoni Urey has a human rights bankruptcy. Urey was recommended for prosecution by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia for his role in looting and siphoning the resources of the State under the eyes of a renowned war criminal and former President of Liberia, Charles Ghankay Taylor.
One wonders, whether Urey actually intents to save the State in 2019 or he wants to make amends for his past actions? He worked with a brutal dictator, exploited the State and raced Liberia to the bottom. He was then sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States of America Treasury Department for being a danger to the peace and stability of Liberia.
Using a human rights lens, for this elite political club to partner with Yekeh Kolubah, Sando Johnson and Oscar Cooper as advisors of the COP is not just unthinkable and myopic, but it is a hara-kiri. These are individuals with appalling human rights records, who committed extra-judicial killings, tortured peaceful citizens and pillaged the resources of the State. They have no moral ground to save the State, because years ago they devastated the Liberian State by their deeds and they must face justice before a tribunal.
Lack of a Comprehensive Strategy and Negative Criticism
We have argued that the collaborating political parties’ roadmap and vision for Liberia is opaque in the midst of daunting economic and governance challenges in the post-conflict nation. Their priorities are misplaced and they are involved in negative criticisms, fake news and to some extent hate messages. In our opinion, they are described as press release and social media live opposition.
Peeping into the history of negative criticisms in Liberia, it has never produced substantive results, rather regressive results for oppositions and politicians. In the aftermath of 1985 Elections, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf engaged in virulent criticism of President Samuel K. Doe’s administration. In 1997 presidential elections, the electorates gave her a no vote and elected a dictator (Charles G. Taylor). Though, she made a historic comeback in the 2005 presidential elections. The Liberty Party and its political leader became a poisonous critic of the Johnson-Sirleaf’s administration between 2006 – 2011. The Liberian people out rightly rejected its Standard Bearer in the 2011 Elections and voted a warlord over a learned Counsellor-at-Law and the warlord went on to become a kingmaker in the 2011 runoff elections.
Finally, while we are yet to see a comprehensive strategy from the opposition and they are colonized in elitism and promotion of individuals with atrocious human rights record, we see a huge leadership deficit in the country. This leadership deficit within the opposition collaborating parties needs to be repaired in the midst of the current economic and political situations in Liberia; since the opposition anticipates to seize power in 2023. As it stands, we are of the opinion that the ruling coalition government and the collaborating opposition political parties are all playing in the non-league, while the citizenry crave for them to step up their efforts to play in the mini-league; least to say the premier league. It is only by entrenching good governance and the implementation of robust policies, which will economically benefit the ordinary Liberian would see them in the premier league.