A Patriot’s Diary with Ekena Wesley
Make no mistake! Surely, Nobody is stupid here. What could they have been thinking? Well, For the ruling CDC, protest, is an obsession. It is ingrained in the movement’s DNA. They carried caskets for 12 years – protesting bad governance under the UP-led administration. Indeed, UP did not run a perfect government. They made considerable progress, especially from a failed state to one of hope. UP bulldozed from emergency to recovery and set the country on a reconstruction trajectory.
The UP worked hard to cancel over $ 4 billion in foreign debts. It helped to regain international lending confidence. Initiated reforms and breathed life into a dysfunctional government system.
Quite grotesquely, the freedom fighters of yesterday have become the oppressors of today. The mass protests gang of yesteryears seem not to condone any form of dissent amid the locus shift in power. The system that was rotten yesterday remains even worse under their watch. The mirage called ‘Change for Hope’ simply died on arrival. The new leaders have taken corruption through the skies.
The masses have become hopeless! Jobs are hard to come by. Faith in the icon once presumed and chided as ‘patriotic’ or perhaps ‘loves the country’ has become a bundle of frustration as looting eats into the fabric of a worthless administration.
So when our partners who have selected to stand firmly by the downtrodden to punish corrupt government officials act, the guilty chose to go into action. They looted enough. Mind you, the same people they denied an opportunity for a better living are unfortunately being used as pawns to protest out of stupidity. So why the noise about a state-sponsored protest against the U.S. Ambassador?
This is not up for debate. When students of the Vanguard Student Unification Party (SUP) staged a protest against the recent July 26 celebrations to call attention to massive corruption; the CDC-led government in broad daylight organized a counter-protest. The result proved catastrophic! State-sponsored terrorists descended on amid an orgy of mayhem to brutalize several defenseless students. The outcome of a baseless investigation is far-fetched.
Amid such a track record, the CDC as a violent-incensed entity has chosen to canonize the blatant looting and pillaging of state resources. So what is the U.S. Ambassador’s crime? Responding to Monrovia’s filth, Ambassador Michael McCarthy did not mince his words. He asked Liberians, what would J.J. Roberts have to say about the mounting garbage that is engulfing the oldest capital of Africa’s oldest independent republic.
Rather than address the dirt-ridden menace on the horizon, pro-government stooges went into action ferociously. The CDC-led government had missed the point. While it did not have to take a stranger to remind us about a dirty capital city, commonsense precludes that keeping the seat of government tidy should not take a worrying voice of a foreign guest.
When the U.S. Treasury Department slapped three senior government officials with sanctions for their unapologetic looting of the national treasury; Ambassador McCarthy held a major press conference a little over three months ago. When sanctioned officials sought to take the Americans for granted, Ambassador Michael McCarthy – again held another news conference to reiterate that those doing business with sanctioned officials risk being sanctioned.
On the heels of Ambassador McCarthy’s latest and strongly-worded statement, a faction within the CDC issued a statement. What could they be up to? They threatened to protest the forced departure of Ambassador Michael McCarthy. Strange, isn’t it? Only in George Weah’s banana republic though.
In the wake of such embarrassment, the government issued a press statement – distancing itself from such untoward action by a somewhat reneged group although acknowledging the rights of people to protest peacefully. Lest we forget, the SUP militants who assembled peacefully were treated as common criminals by the Monrovia City Mayor-backed vigilante group who terrorized, maimed, and visited a craze of extreme barbarism on innocent protesters.
Chairman Mulbah Morlue of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), also released a statement dissociating the CDC from any such planned protest let alone the group. Call it “Khaki no be leather…” Nobody is stupid here! Bamboo surely knows where to rub its arse as it were. Frivolously, the government and party hierarchy were forced to realize that it would be foolhardy to support a group of lawless protesters who seek to support corrupt leaders. It was not in their best interest to do the unthinkable! It was inimical, barbaric, and insane if your may.
Whatever the face-saving counter-statements, it is anybody’s guess the proposed protest was a machination or orchestration of elements within the CDC close to the three recently sanctioned corrupt government officials. McGill, Tweahway, and Cephas would be suffering from dementia to mobilize thugs to stage a protest against Ambassador Michael McCarthy. Public sentiments against them are at an all-time high. They committed unpardonable sins for which they must pay heavily. Stage-managing shenanigans in the name of a futile protest against a sitting U.S. Ambassador was a brainwave of stupidity. A clueless government sought to cover its treacherous tracks before the shit hits the fence.
