By John Stewart
The US has finally spoken and made it clear that it is prepared to support the establishment of a war and economic crimes court for Liberia.
It must have been a heartbreaking moment for President Sirleaf who since the release of the TRC Report has been doing all within her power to quash the Report in order to render it useless and irrelevant to the ongoing discourse on accountability.
From the moment the Report was released, President Sirleaf went into overdrive contacting influential figures around the globe to condemn it. Thanks to God and the spirits of the ancestors who have made hers a rather impossible task.
Today, the TRC Report remains the most credible and acceptable mechanism for coming to terms with our past. But President Sirleaf did not stop there. She went on to fiddle with the elections to ensure that George Weah would succeed her.
And she succeeded in her crafty schemes. When George Weah became President, he openly declared that his primary objective was to protect her and her interests.
And he has done so effectively although there have been times when falling out had appeared apparent but did not happen. For example, the US$8m that her son stole from NOCAL for which she accepted responsibility, was never repaid. And George Weah has never questioned nor demanded accountability for her.
Now she has since realized that the Weah regime has shot itself in the leg and stands very slim chances of being reelected, she has been pushing her surrogate Alexander Cummings as the successor to George Weah.
Take a look at the Cummings Team and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is written all over it. It includes a mixed- of bag of former NPFL rebels,(Lewis Brown, Toga Mcintosh) alleged Gboyos,(H Dan Morais) petty thieves(Wadei Powell, sacked by Ellen for corruption), and a cast of political nonentities-political grasshoppers one may call them.
And it includes the likes of Isaac Jackson, a loud mouth and horn-blower for the late Counsellor Charles Brumskine and then shortly thereafter a horn-blower for President Sirleaf and now for Alexander Cummings.
But just where Mr. Cummings believes he is going with such a mixed bag of unprincipled characters is the question on everyone’s mind.
The head of his team whom he proudly introduced to the world, Dr. Toga Mcintosh, a seasoned economist but illegal seller of Liberian diplomatic passports and commissions.
This is what the undercover journalist Matts Brugger reported. As you can see, even the authorities in the Central African Republic were referring to the journalist as Consul of Liberia, an appointment he bought from Foreign Minister Toga Macintosh :
“I left all my diamonds behind. Which was good because when I flew out of Bangui the mining police were waiting for me in the customs area of the airport and greeted me by shouting, “Good morning, consul of Liberia, how many carats do you carry?” They didn´t open my hard-top case though. So, in theory, I could have taken them out of the country”.
Thus the question once again is just where does Mr. Alexander Cummings believe he is headed with such a mixed bag of unsavory elements?
The stakes have been recently raised by the US Ambassador when she flagged the TRC report and the government’s apparent indifference to the recommendations contained in that report
Mr. Lewis Brown, one of the star elements in the Alexander Cummings road show is listed in the TRC report as accused of committing economic crimes. Equally so is Mr. Horatio Dan Morais who is also listed in the TRC report for the commission of war crimes.
During our field investigations in River Gee county, we were informed about how Dan Morais played a pivotal and commanding role in that County during the war.
We were even told that he commanded a bulldozer with a cable in a nearly successful attempt to remove the bridge linking River Gee County to Maryland County.
He was at the time superintendent of Maryland county but was active in River Gee effectively replacing the authority of Superintendent Christian Chea. For the benefit of public information, Christian Chea is still alive and is in Liberia.
It was alleged during the TRC hearings that he pointed a pistol to the head of Christian Chea and opened fire repeatedly but nothing happened to Chea. There were suggestions that he was linked to the Glaro Massacre in which over 400 persons were slaughtered by forces allegedly of Charles Taylor’s Anti-Terrorist Unit(ATU)
Dan Morais was also reported to have been very actively involved with former Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, recruiting mercenaries and forcibly recruiting local youths into vigilante formations.
And in Maryland County where Dan Morais hails from, he according to informed sources is known as a “Gboyo” meaning a “Heartman” hunting down victims for ritual murder purposes.
Just what then is Cummings doing with Dan Morais? Is he looking for strong Juju to make him President by all means necessary? Is he that desperate?
Then there is Madame “Tee Fee Tee Fee, jan koleeko”, Wadei Powell, sacked for corruption by Ellen Sirleaf and has been reportedly involved in corrupt practices everywhere in Liberia where she has worked since her arrival and resettlement in Liberia.
She is now ensconced in the bosom of Musa Bility’s, Sheik Rahim Import Export(SRIMEX) and only God in Heaven knows how long she is going to last in that outfit given the character of the man himself.
Admittedly, Mr. Cummings is rich by honest labor and not by stealing other people’s money or stealing from the state. So just why has he chosen to ally himself with the likes of unsavory characters who have stolen from the state, murdered innocent people, etc?
On the issue of the corrupt NEC Board of Commissioners, Alexander Cummings has remained mute and non-critical of that body headed by corrupt Davidetta Brown Lansanah for obvious reasons. But we shall deal with that later in another article.
Mr. Alexander Cummings once stated that he was opposed to the implementation of the TRC Report which, in his opinion, would have reopened old wounds. This was of course a repeat of Madame Sirleaf’s position.
Later when he realized that he was at odds with popular opinion he flipped-flopped and changed his story saying that he supports the TRC Report.
The question now is how far is he prepared to go to defend the likes of Lewis Brown, Toga Macintosh and Dan Morais who are listed in the TRC Report? Can he be trusted to deliver them into the arms of justice? I do not think so.
Mr. Cummings ought to realize the predicament he is in and cut his losses before it is too late. He is obviously spending a lot of cash, paying seasoned opportunists like Isaac Jackson and crooks like Lewis Brown huge sums of money, buying cars for journalists, vehicles and motorbikes for party functionaries, etc.
He is clearly spending a lot of money but to what ends because he is simply just not electable at least not at this time. But what can I say to my classmate to convince him that he is on the wrong path especially in the kind of company he is keeping to propel him to the Presidency?
Alexander Cummings maintains that he is indeed Mr. CLEAN but what excuse can he give for climbing into bed with seasoned crooks and political opportunists. But as they say “birds of the same feathers always flock together”
Well we can only leave that to time, the greatest arbiter and predictor of our fortunes. In short, Time will Tell and everything will be made clear in the fullness of Time.
Once again, I must express my heartfelt appreciation for the US government who through its Ambassador Beth Van Schaackat-Large for Global Criminal Justice has given renewed hope to the Liberian people for justice and an end to the deeply rooted culture of Impunity.
We have not lost sight of the fact that 5 American Catholic nuns, and 2 Hare Krishna devotees were murdered right here in Liberia. The remains of the nuns were retrieved by the Catholic Church and given a befitting burial.
Unfortunately and very sadly the remains of the 2 Hare Krishna devotees murdered by Prince Johnson were dumped into the St. Paul River and lost forever.
Their families and those of all those killed in the bloody senseless conflict are still grieving and have been crying out for JUSTICE for so long.
US Ambassador Beth Van Schaack through her government of the United States of America has restored our hopes and that Justice and the hour of Reckoning is now just moments away.
Thank You, Ambassador Beth Van Schaack!
