Liberia: CPP Says Mass Protest a Must

According to Pope Francis, God gives the suffering a ‘right’ to protest, adding in a May 18, sermon at the Vatican that suffering is such a mystery - and God himself inspires a kind of right to protest.

Though this is in reference to the book of Job in the Bible with context to human sufferings in Christendom, some Liberians seem to be inspired by this divine ordinance as thousands plan to converge in a mass protest against the ‘suffering’ they and their compatriots are enduring.

“Liberians are suffering, and some are going through unbearable conditions. It is against these conditions that we are rallying the nation to make a clarion call to our government,” Ambassador Lewis G. Brown, one of the architects of the pending rally has said.

The organizers of the anticipated December 17,  rally, held under the caption: “We Tiya [tired] Suffering” say the mass citizens’ action is on course and that no number of threats from the regime and its supporters can cower organizers into submission. The protest is being organized under the auspices of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP).

Brown, who is a former Minister of Information and former Liberian Ambassador to the United Nations, noted that tens of thousands will converge outside the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) Sports Complex and other parts of greater Monrovia on December 17, to demonstrate against President George Weah and his government’s insensitivity to the plight of the Liberian people.

“The Weah led government has become very unpopular due to its incompetence and rampant nature,” he told Spoon Talk, a popular online TV show over the weekend.

“What we have seen from the people in the past few years and months is a vote of no confidence in this regime and this protest is meant to validate or solidify that stance by our people,” said Brown, who now serves as chairperson for Team Alexander B. Cummings presidential campaign. 

Cummings is a consistent critic of incumbent President Weah and the CDC regime.

“We are in a difficult time, and for many Liberians, it is becoming only worse, and this peaceful rally is meant to call the attention of the government to the high cost of living and alarming poverty in the country,” he said.

Amb Brown said the rally is organized under the caption “We Tired Suffering’’ because it’s unfair to see what people are living through every day.

The venue of the rally, the SKD Sports Complex, has since been secured but the government has backtracked on the agreement — calling on organizers to pick up their money as the facility can no longer be used as it is poised to undergo renovation.

Youth and Sports Minister, Zeogar Wilson, who oversees the management of the complex, told Spoon Talk that the ministry has rescinded its decision to allow the rally to take place at that venue.

However, former Deputy Information Minister, Eugene Fahngon, who was also a panelist on the show, noted that he supports the rally because it is the right of Liberians as guaranteed by Article 17 of the constitution and only one who wants to stand in the way of the will of the people will be met with stiff resistance.

The organizers have already met the requirements to hold the rally. They have written to the Ministry of Justice and the police to inform them about their pending action and thereby invoking the protection of the state.

Keff Hassan, who is a fanatic of the President and a panelist on the Spoon Talk show, noted that the government won’t stop the rally from going ahead as many are fearing.

But, he noted that many of the people leading the civil action are disingenuous.

“We cannot have people who have brought massive suffering on our people in the past be acting like they are the saviors now,” Hassan said. 

The government has refused to see the protests as a political warning signal, but as a blame game by the opposition to score political points — though some perceive the government’s response as a blind eye to the increasingly irritable mood among the population.

The newly elected Secretary General of the ruling Coalition for Democratic (CDC), Jefferson Koijee, said at a press conference last week that the planned rally won’t be peaceful and is only meant to undermine the country’s peace.

“Gone are the days when people like Brown and his likes used those tactics to cause conflict in the country.

According to Koijee, Liberians are not prepared anymore to go back to the dark days of conflict that brought untold suffering upon the citizens.

He alleged that the CDC maintained the peace of this country for 12 years while it was in the opposition.

He therefore called on Cummings’ party, the Alternative National Congress (ANC) to also maintain the peace.

In an apparent reaction to Koijee, who is also the City Mayor of Monrovia, Brown said that rally will be very peaceful but warned the CDC regime that what its supporters did to peaceful students from the University of Liberia will not happen this time.

“Tell little Koijee that the foolishness they did on July 26 against peaceful students to move others to go assault young Liberians that were protesting, not this time, not this rally,” he said. 

“You can call it all kinds of names, but we will move across the streets of Monrovia and gather outside the Samuel K. Doe Sports Complex and speak loudly and clearly for Koijee and others to hear because they have been deaf too long.”

“I don’t need little Koijee to tell me how to organize a peaceful rally. Little Koijee has no pedigree, experience and capacity to tell anyone,” Brown declared.

“What little Koijee has proven that he has is the capacity to disrupt and I dare him on that day.”

Amb. Brown alleged that the CDC tries to spread fear and intimidation, accusing the ruling party of being deceptive.

“Little Koijee should look at his own bodyguards that he is walking with. They are tired and suffering and if they are not afraid, they will be in the rally,” Brown alleged.