Tuesday November 8, 2005
By Joseph S. Sherman, Washington, DC
I could not get myself to watch the outcome of the November 8, 2005 run-off election in Liberia for one main reason. The sprouting of political prostitutes who are mortgaging their intellectualism and pride to align with a candidate whose credential for the presidency is a sham.
It is crystal clear that there is element of hypocrisy among these opportunistic politicians to shy away from reality for their selfish aggrandizement to the detriment of a failed nation like Liberia. But this is no surprise, for those who advocated for the overthrow of the legitimate government of the late President William R. Tolbert are clamoring and lending support to a candidate who they will ultimately manipulate.
Another inherent contradiction with these political prostitutes is that it serves them well to manipulate the system in their favor once they succeed in ushering a puppet government. This is natural as any given society which is not homogenous, and most certainly a system operating on the basis of opportunism, sycophancy and nepotism can lead to political prostitutes dominating over the weak.
Observe the election circus in Liberia, where political prostitutes have manipulated the youths and the ignorant to make them believe that governing a failed state like Liberia doesn’t require any element of education, instead populism is a criteria for unifying the country. Conversely, this rhetoric is tantamount to the unity which they are opting for because side-tracking the educated and injecting ethnic bigotry is sowing seeds of disunity and hatred among Liberians.
The state of affairs in Liberia to bring about rapid development, democracy and good governance cannot be seen outside the forum of education and political maturity. Liberia cannot attain development and democracy by making the youths -the future leaders of the country believe that education has no substance in governing a fragile nation like Liberia. It is only when Liberians accept the fact that they have no choice but to entrust the country to technocrats and politically mature leaders that they will be transformed from the state of dependency and failure, to that of being producers, and better producers in time, they can realize democracy and development.
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