Thanks FPA, for it was nice seeing my colleague Journalist Rodney Sieh in person at the Brumskine Town Hall meeting in Philadelphia.
This brother has been on the firing line in Liberia; even going to jail for his work as a journalist, stuff that some of us take for granted, and it is hats off to him for keeping us in the Diaspora constantly informed. And now to Mr. Charles Brumskine, leader of the Liberty Party in Liberia and a Presidential candidate.
For me 8000 miles away from home, I pray for an opportunity for a one-on-one interview with Mr. Brumskine who was engaged in self-adulation and facing an audience with little knowledge of his role in the political mayhem from his collusion with Charles Taylor. Mr. Charles Brumskine was Senate ProTempo in the rubber-stamp Taylor-controlled Senate and House.
But Brumskine bragged about his so-called leadership of the Senate and what he termed as an “independent” body that was not under the influence of the Taylor’s Executive Branch. And Brumskine literally got away with murder because we were limited to asking him, but one question each, if not?
If not, why did he and others who were born in the corrupt True Whig Party leave the TWP, which would have been unthinkable prior to 1980? Thank God for Samuel Doe and the PRC that paved the way for multi-party politics in Liberia today.
If not, I would have loved to ask him many more questions when the Senate was conspicuously silent as Taylor embarked on a killing spree including the gruesome murder of Brumskine’s Senate colleague, Sam Dokie of Nimba County.
Did Senator Brumskine call for a Senate independent investigation into Doris murder? Brumskine saw no evil, heard no evil and spoke no evil then of Taylor’s crimes. Yet, here he was in Philadelphia preaching and pontificating on his altar of political righteousness, and at times evoking the name of God. God have mercy!
Thus, with me limited to just one question, I told him how he was born with a silver spoon in his month in the era of the repressive one-party regime of the True Whig Party of the Congua that ostracized native voices. “Where were you Mr. Brumskine before 1980 when Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh, Dr. Henry Boimah Fahnbulleh Jr and others were in the forefront for equality? You were an adult then.
I watched him closely as he took notes before answering my question. A feisty Brumskine came storming from behind the table he was sitting toward me ranting about how he and his family survived on breadfruit fufu. Did he know what the natives were surviving on too? We natives were and are still literally eating sand in Liberia but he failed to address his pre-1980 silence of congua marginalization of natives.
I would have wanted to ask him about the reported support and funding of Ellen to his campaign which no doubt he would have probably denied. He thus didn’t address my concern for accountability, prosecution and justice for corruption, let alone his position on the need for a Liberia War and Economic Crimes Court to hold Ellen and others accountable for their confessed funding of the Liberian 14-year genocide. But he spoke of his 4-Rs that did not include holding people accountable for war crimes.
Asked by Human Rights Activist Vandalark Patricks about his role as a lawyer for the Arcelor Mittal Mining giant that is listed by Global Witness and other NGOs for exploiting the country’s natural resources?
Brumskine bragged how he made so much money with Mittal as his most money ever earned working in Liberia, and said the lawyers that drew up the contract agreements for these rogue companies should be blamed. Wow, is this patriotism for a company that is sucking away our resources with nothing in return to the people but to talk of making your most money ever on that job?
But Brumskine acknowledged that while we in the Diaspora will not vote in Liberia, he realizes that many of us have a sway over our voting family members in Liberia because of our great financial support to them back home which will have indirect impact on the elections outcome. And he is right because for me, my more than 50 family members and friends that I can influence, they always look up to me before casting their ballots. So, yes, Diaspora Liberians should not be counted out in this election.
As for Charles Brumskine who could not pack the half-empty hall, I think he has a high hill to climb and with the Ellen support baggage that will weigh him down. I think he was not smart enough to tag on to a failed President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. But good luck so far Mr. Brumskine and good meeting my colleague Rodney Sieh.
Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator
Washington, DC, USA