Liberia: True or Not True

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this commentary are solely of the author and do not necessarily represent that of the Daily Observer newspaper.

It is true that not every news that comes out in the local media or global media is true. There are some true news and some not true news or fake news. How can one tell the difference between true news and fake news? When someone says that a house is burning and you can see and you do see the house burning, then the person is telling the truth.

But when you can see and you do not see the house burning, then the person is not telling the truth. Let us use this way of finding out the truth to tell what is true and what is not true as we try to present solutions to Liberia's burning problems.

There is a house called Liberia that has been burning for 175 years, since the founding of Liberia in 1847. But the burning of Liberia continues. The burning of Liberia is in the form of the longstanding and widespread poverty that has become the pretext, the reason, for violence, including coup d'etat and civil war. Is this true or not true?

It is true because people who know Liberia and the people of Liberia say that nearly all Liberians are living below the globally accepted poverty line of L$300 a day. The few remaining Liberians who are not poor include National Legislators of Liberia who have access to at least L$150,000 a day and their foreign partners, in the commercial sector alone, have access to at least L$300,000,000 a day.

Did people of Liberia get killed as the result of the Civil War in Liberia? When one sees the killings of people and their bodies thrown into the bushes to rot openly, then they are telling true stories about the killings of Liberian people during the Civil War in Liberia. From careful checking on what happened during the Civil War in Liberia, it became known that at least 300,000 people died, billions of dollars worth of infrastructure got damaged and the economy of Liberia was left unrecovered at its pre-war level. It is this experience of the Civil War that convinced the people of Liberia to conclude that they prefer Peace to War, as heard in their chant: We Want Peace!!! No More War!!!

There is a lot of talk about keeping the peace. It is not possible to keep something that does not exist. The truth is that there is no peace in Liberia because the system of injustice prevails in Liberia. Peace is not the absence of war!!! Peace is the presence of Justice!!! There is injustice systemically because persons who were elected to represent the people are getting richer while the masses of the peple are getting poorer.

The poor are getting poorer while the local rich persons wait for the sanction command from the global rich persons before a few of the local corrupt persons can get suspended officially but their benefits of public offices keep rolling on. Ironically, the global commanders give the sanction orders but continue to support the local corrupt system, expecting that the sanction command will  generate a regime change outcome for the global commanders to get the level of profit from the poverty-generating system of the production of raw materials for export without the prioritization of Value Addition.

Some people are saying that the raising of awareness thing iss not working because they see business going on as usual. Well, let these people know that they are wrong because the raisjng awareness thing is working well. Witness what happened in the 52nd and 53rd National Legislatures. In these Legislatures, the Legislators who stood for re-election were not re-elected because the voters became more aware of the bad records of the Legislators. The Legislators with bad records who are standing up to be re-elected in the up-coming election will not be re-elected. Even the candidates for the up-coming election whose records are bad are not likely to be elected.

How does this poverty generation system get changed into the poverty alleviation system? The poverty generation system can get changed only through the use of the Truth to raise awareness to motivate people to work together non-violently to transform the UNFAIR electoral system into the FAIR electoral system. When the FAIR electoral system is operating, then persons with good records will get elected to take actions that bring Justice, the only ingredient for Peace and Progress in any Country. 

Raising awareness thing is working well in Liberia. Let us continue to examine the records of persons in State power and persons seeking State power before making decisions. After the examination, let our decisions, as voters, be the election of persons with good records, records of helping people to help themselves. The best way to help any hungry person is not to give the person fish but to help the person to know how to fish. Let us work together to help people to know how to fish because this is the Way that makes Liberia better for All.