Liberia: ‘Casting Pearls to Swine’

Montserrado county District #4 Representative, Rustonlyn Suacoco Dennis says the open letter to President George Manneh Weah by Alexander B. Cummings was like “throwing pearls before swine”.

Dennis borrowed the phrase from the Christian scripture, Matthew 7:6, in which Jesus Christ says: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”  By this, she simply meant that the letter by Cummings, the political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), had no significance for the President. 

“Swine and dogs know no good,” she explained in her own words, “as the soon coming King meant in his diction, according to the Holy Book of Matthew. As such, anything worthy given to them will be trampled upon and they will rend (tear) upon you. Similarly, your highly constructive criticism was treated in said manner,” the lawmaker added. 

Dennis noted that, in the passage, Jesus was not literally referring to dogs and swine, but used the reference as a metaphor to describe those whose attitudes are cognate with those animals.

In his recent letter, Cummings accused Weah of failing to take strong action against Nathaniel McGill, minister of state for presidential affairs, Sayma Syrenius Cephus, Liberia’s solicitor general and chief prosecutor and Bill Twehway, managing director of Liberia’s National Port Authority, who were sanctioned by the U.S Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). 

The Weah-led administration has allegedly failed to combat corruption and improve the lives of low-income Liberians, according to Cummings.   

McGill was sanctioned for a variety of corruption schemes, including directing warlords to threaten political rivals, bribery, and the misappropriation of state assets, while Cephus, was accused of shielding suspected criminals, blocking investigations into government corruption, and interfering with evidence to ensure the conviction of political rivals. Twehway is accused of funneling money from the port into private accounts.

Responding to Cummings, Weah said without a doubt that the expressed action by the US to impose sanctions on three officials of his government is a matter of grave concern that carries a lot of weight.  He then defended the suspension of the sanctioned officials, reminding Cummings that the very US Government that he referenced has called for due process and the application of Liberian law as was stated by its envoy to Liberia.

“It is also disappointing to note your reference to a vote by the Liberian Senate to change elections magistrates, and your call on me to veto this decision by the Liberian Senate,” Weah said. “A vote by the Senate requires concurrence by the House of Representatives before it is submitted to the Office of the President for his signature or veto.”

”The continuous fear-mongering by you and others in the  opposition, seeking to prematurely cast aspersions on the sanctity of our electoral process, in the face of the excellent track record of the number of free, transparent, and fair elections which have been held since my incumbency; many won by candidates of the very opposition, is duplicitous and dishonest.”

Cummings also scolded the President's continued silence on district #7 Representative Solomon George, a CDC partisan, requested to be Police Director “so that he can use that office to cause the disappearance” of Liberians known to be in opposition to your administration.  

In response, Weah  accused Cummings of  hypocrisy on grounds that he  dined and wined in the very system he (Weah) is working “so hard to fix — yet he wants the public to believe that he has morphed into an advocate of the people — “the same ones you neglected during the years of civil upheaval.”

This exchange, according to Dennis, reminisced the historical scenario between Albert Porte and former President William VS Tubman, wherein Porte tried to advise Tubman not to venture into luxury by purchasing a yacht for 150k USD at that time, but should invest the money into infrastructure.

But, Dennis noted, Tubman responded by defending his action as well as turning port concern into personal attacks and vulgarity.

“As Tubman was hailed by limited people yesterday for a situation that had caught up with us today and we are infra-structurally behind , similarly it is happening in modern times between Cummings and Weah,” the lawmaker said. 

According to her, Liberians, including founding members of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), are fully aware that Weah cannot govern them — therefore, it is meaningless to advise him.

“The business community knows this. The religious community knows this. The international partners know this,”  Dennis said. “ECOWAS is aware of poor governance and lack of respect for the rule of law. The only people who don’t know are Jorwean Weahcian.”