Public Not Private

Guest Editorial by Togba-Nah Tipoteh

There is still plenty talk about the Declaration of Assets but such Declaration is kept private rather than made public. Most of the past State managers did not declare assets. Where assets were declared, they were not made public. Assets were kept private in the minds of the State managers or in the office of the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC). The same situation is happening today. This is why there is much public outcry against the privacy of the assets of public officials.

Keeping private what should be made public is promoting corruption rather than eradicating corruption. It is impossible to eradicate corruption without the public having information about where State managers get their monies from. Let us remember that 26 political parties signed the Farmington Declaration that included a declaration to eradicate corruption. But that Declaration has been violated by all of the signatories because the public does not have information about where they got their monies from.

Now there is plenty talk about assets recovery. It is not possible to recover assets when it is not publicly known where State officials get their monies from. State officials are talking plenty but they do not Walk The Talk. You walk the talk against corruption when you declare your assets and make such declaration public. When you are a public official, there is nothing private about you in the public space. Assets are not being declared publicly because State officials do not want the public to know where they, the State officials, got their monies from. This is the same reason that the signatories to the Farmington Declaration have for not making public  any Declaration of their Assets. 

What is most important to realize here in trying to solve a societal problem is that any money-driven person is driven by the source of the person's money. The source of the money-driven person's money in Liberia is the production of raw materials for export system. This is why Liberia has  over 200 of the best log species in the world while our children sit on the bare ground in schools. Liberians who work to change this bad system are called trouble makers by the powers that be, the money-driven State managers.

Although the powers that be continue to work hard to keep the dominant system, people who love Liberia are also working hard to change this bad system. This work to change the bad system is working well, as seen in the non-re-election of nearly all members of the National Legislature of Liberia who wanted to be re-elected during the October 10, 2023 Election. Some persons with bad records got re-elected but they were few and they will be put out during the next election, as the raising of awareness continues. The non-re-election trend will continue in the ensuing elections.

The best and only way for the prevailing bad system to be transformed into the enduring good system is through the transformation of the bad electoral process into the good electoral process. This transformation will take place as the awareness raising continues, within the Rule of Law, to get persons with good records elected to the National Legislature so that they can bring in the system of Justice, the indispensable ingredient for Peace and Progress in Liberia and in any other country.