| By: Jeremy J. Jallabah (September 13th 2005)
"... Without our history, we run the risk of sprawling into the dark past of coup plots, wars and rumors of war. Our history is cherished because we see it as a reservoir from which we can draw the strength needed to move into the future without charade ...." |
The virtues of democracy cannot be camouflage in political sycophancy and the misrepresentation of historical facts. Liberia today finds herself in a very delicate position, especially as we move towards general and presidential elections. The price one has to pay, for now may be seen as nominal, but the consequences of making irresolute and shortsighted decision could serve as a ghostly experience for those who think that election is about sentiments and pretense.
Lets we forget so soon, the need for a retrospective analysis on what has brought us this far is of the significance and that attempts to blur the vision of the people can be likened unto dishonesty and an act of willful hypocrisy. Let the word go far and wide, Liberians are not prepared to hastily bury the past because people with sparse pen power want them to so do. Without our history, we run the risk of sprawling into the dark past of coup plots, wars and rumors of war. Our history is cherished because we see it as a reservoir from which we can draw the strength needed to move into the future without charade.
Hence, efforts by Bartuah, in collaboration with others to dodge the issue at bay, and elect to swing Ellen into the realm of contemporary political landmarks has compel me to react to the over repetitiveness of his rejoinder to my article: Ellen where are you going? And if Bartuah, and his code of Ellenist think their mentor is going to the Executive Mansion she once ordered destroyed, I submit and in a nationalistic mood to defend my country from total destruction, I say to you Mr. Bartuah: Ellen is not going to the Mansion”.
Mr. Bartuah allegation that Ellen is going to the Mansion she once sort to destroy is illusive, deceptive, misleading and an effort to reincarnate the dreadful thoughts of war. What compass or comparative analysis have you used to indicate that Ellen is moving towards the Executive Mansion? The perceptive propaganda or the popular saying: let us try the old ma? Bartuah, you represent a class of misguided fanatics with no actual sense of reality, and I hope that you can be removed from the vague and wishful imagination that Ellen will go to the Executive Mansion in October, this year.
On the other hand, you could be correct when you boastfully asserted that she is going to the Executive Mansion. My reason for picking up this piece of analysis is hidden in the historical fact that Ellen as a warlord might elect to use a military means like she has been trying for the past 20 years to enter the Mansion. But I must hasten to soberly inform you my countryman; Liberians are tired of war and Ellen, since in fact the two are synonymous. And I hope that you, in no way see militarism or the firing of live bullets as a peaceful means of claiming state power.
By mentioning that the name Ellen has been a household name for more than 20 years does not imply that it has been one of goodness or statesmanship. Ellen as a household name has always been associated with violence; coup plots, and plans to destabilize Liberia and send people to their early graves. As a machine of war, coupled with the entrenched hatred she carried for the Doe regime, Ellen misled the late Quinwonkpa into executing an invasion in 1985. It failed. Quinwonkpa and many other Nimbaians were killed, and in the end, Ellen abandoned the family. Ellen needs to make peace with Tarloh Quinwonkpa.
As a woman of unimaginable cruelty, Ellen refused to recognize the Doe government and in so doing, she considered it as a government of idiots and fools. This statement set the basis for disrespecting the regime which she finally brought on its kneels through Taylor. In essence, the name Ellen has not been connected with political astuteness or political consistency with respect to moving Liberia in the direction of national interest, but rather, it is worth the saying that the name Ellen can better be linked to war, retribution and inconceivable hatred for the ordinary man.
If, for the sake of avoiding arguments, and the need to create a breathing space for more lines is of significance to this rejoinder, and assuming that you are correct for saying that she was a gallant Liberian, then the question that begs answer is why did Ellen resort to using an invasion to remove “a government that rigged the elections”. This is unacceptable, criminal in nature and in furtherance defeats any perceived reason why Ellen did not accept the seat in government. Which was of a lesser evil, accept the senatorial seat or wage a rebel incursion on the innocent people who voted you into power? To this end, it is levelheaded to equivocate that even some of those who voted for Ellen in the 1985 elections were victimized by the assault she masterminded in 1985.
For some of us, we had preferred to live with the hijacked results of the 1985 elections as opposed to living with the reality that Ellen, a lady of belligerency instigated a blood letting action upon the people she now wants to rule. This is impossible Mr. Bartuah for the spirits of the dead will continuously haunt Ellen until she joins them for prosecution.
Your analysis that Ellen is receiving support from the Liberian people compels me to say that you are one of those who are scornfully in the vanguard of spreading falsehood with regards to the campaign activities of Ellen. I really do not care to know as to whether you currently reside in Massachusetts or Monrovia, but the fact of the matters remains that I am not an adherent of ethnic bigotry or whatsoever you wish to consider me.
Your posted rejoinder also points to the fact that you are a double dealer and as such cannot be trusted. On the Running Africa Website, you said that you could be contacted at mailto:jmorlue@yahoo.com. On the Liberianobserver website, you then said that you could be contacted at: josephbartuah@yahoo.com. So who exactly are you, and what are you hiding from? You appear to be magical and diabolical Mr. Bartuah.
For the record, when Ellen visited Grand Gedeh during the early parts of this year, she was hustled out of the county not only because of her involvement in the chaos she has caused for thousands of Liberians, but because the organizing committee failed to put things into proper perspective. For example, the four hundred dollars that was given to the county chair was misused. There was no food to feed the handful of people that had gathered. But most importantly, when the people asked her to disembark from her car and walk with them, she refused for reasons best known to her, and it was then that the people started booing at her. The interesting thing is that Ellen nicodemously fled Grand Gedeh to the bewilderment of the County chairman and her handful of partisans.
However, the issue is not about her poor reception in Grand Gedeh, but it good to have you informed that Ellen lacks rural appeal and that her popularity is only around Monrovia. So I do not understand the validity of your openness, that Ellen is going to the Mansion. Yours can only be construed as an art of ditching the reality of the times and seeking solace in an eminent defeat.
It takes my patience to keep responding to the repetitions of Bartuah’s old stories. Apparently Mr. Bartuah, you have nothing much of an honest saying to offer about your candidate, and so you have knowingly decided to dabble with repeated analysis from different angles. Democratic movements around the world have never subscribed to the principle of war. Even though some of the rebel movements like that of the NPFL said that they were coming to redeem the Liberian people and offer democracy, but you, like many others know what the NPFL gave us during those years. Ellen was the brainchild of the NPFL and if this is what you consider as the pursuit of democracy, then you beat my imagination as a patriotic Liberian. Maybe, your dictionary is clouted with socialistic definitions and opposite meanings.
But, on the other hand, it is reasonably agreeable to subsume that your version of democratic movements also takes into serious consideration military adventurism and the sharing of innocent blood to obtain state power. Ellen fits into this analysis and on this narrow-minded interpretation of democratic movements you are correct because I am slowly detecting that the Ellen phenomenon of iniquity, vengeance, war, and coups are robbing you out of your common sense.
As we gravitate towards the elections date, it is necessary to inform our reading public that the name Ellen has never been associated with good governance, democratic practices and the respect for human values. The inconsistencies of her political career and her involvements in series of recorded upheavals and political unrest, doesn’t place her among well meaning presidential candidates in the running for the Liberian presidency.
Ellen’s political inconsistency in Ghana is a classic example of a failed and block agenda warlord turned politician. Assuming that Mrs. Sirleaf had been selected as Transitional Chairman in Ghana, what would have been the role of the likes of Bartuah and others who have now embarked upon a journey of writing disjointed, repetitive and dispirited articles to save their vulnerable choice of candidate.
I wonder if Bartuah has ever stopped to ask himself how and why Ellen took the job as Chairman of the Governance Reform Commission. Recent history informs us that the position was given to the Civil Society Organizations of Liberia but that Ellen conspired with the lame duck Transitional Chairman to seize the position from the Civil Society Organizations. Amidst persistent calls for Ellen to relinquish the post, she refused to do so. What was her motive? Was it to serve in the interest of the public or what? I guess Bartuah considers the hijacking of power against the will of the public as a democratic move.
But as I summarize this response, it is worth noting that the likes of Mr. Joseph Bartuah no longer accept the dawning reality that Liberians are prepared to make a cross over from the path of evil to that of political righteousness and enlightenment. It is also unfortunate that Bartuah will blindly elect to use foul scented perception to pass judgment on the political power point of his choice of candidate. Liberia needs men of good nature, experience in government, caring, God fearing, honest, down to earth and a good public character. And if you ask me whether Ellen fits this requirement, my honest answer to you is no.
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