An opinion by Cecil L. Kiatama, Jr.
The naming and shaming of three sitting Liberian government officials by the United States Department of Treasury on allegations of corruption and abuse of public trust is not as cool as others may think. It sinks deep into the very peace and stability of this country which is still nursing the pains of a horrible civil war. Currently, the entire country is embroiled in cantankerous debates not necessarily on the merit of the allegations as levied by the Treasury Department but merely along political polarization fueled by impending general and presidential elections.
What most of the debaters are not asking for in all their exchanges is evidence to support claims by the US Treasury Department. Briberies. Where is the evidence? Money laundering. Where is the evidence? Public corruption. Where is the evidence? Organized warlords to intimate political opponents? Where is the evidence? Hinder investigations and block the prosecution of corruption cases involving members of the government? Where are the facts? Orchestrated the diversion of $1.5 million in vessel storage fee funds. Where is the evidence?
Interestingly, the US Treasury’s barrage of allegations are not different from what some talk-show hosts, newspaper writers, civil society activists have overly reported, similarly and commonly without basis, without evidence. Or is the US Treasury merely regurgitating hovering, unsubstantiated platitudes that it may have been fed with from raging public perceptions and hearsays in Liberia?
The United States of America and its institutions thereof that pride themselves for being paragons of accountability and transparency in the world should live above public gossips and mere party politics. The United States, assumed to be sophisticated and morally pontifical, must live above public innuendoes in dealing with serious matters to which the life and safety of people and nations are concerned. They must do the right thing.
It would be no surprise that some self-styled analysts would shout and say, “Shout your mouth, you novice; the great US will not and cannot issue such a damning report without evidence.” Granted. But where is the evidence. The question is, does the statement from the US Treasury unveil any tested and empirical evidence to back the weird and wild allegations made? The question is, can the report, as it stands, pass any logical let alone legal scrutiny?
Or is it that the US Departure of Treasury withholding the evidence for another day? If so, what are they afraid of? Liberia or the accused persons? Does the Treasury Department realize that the release of such a weird barrage of allegations have the propensity to cause insurrection and lead to the toppling of a democratically elected government? Or is the Treasury Department waiting for such a catastrophe to occur—when mobs have unleashed their venoms on the accused—before doing the right the thing.
Let it be repeated here: The report is a stimulant for insurrection. By the very nature and coining of the allegations, and by virtue of the stature of the targeted victims, US Departure of Treasury has already instigated the demolishment of the Liberian government, and very sadly in the absence of empirical evidence; how the accused persons perpetrated the acts as levied.
The United States Department of Treasury must be courageous enough to demonstrated probity, fairness and transparency by making public its evidence. Except it does, the fate of the postwar nation is once again in the hands of the United States, Uncle Same, who is along suspected to have caused the ruin of past political administrations and at times the death of leaders like William R. Tolbert and Samuel K. Doe.
And President Weah needs to take this very serious. It would be prudent for this government, mainly the President, to demand evidence from the US Treasury Department and the United States Government on such serious allegations.
The instant suspension of his three officials implicated may be necessary, perhaps to send out the impression that they acted alone and their supposed misdeeds were not sanctioned. But the question is how many officials of this government must be suspended before we know exactly what they did. Or what if such report, as widely speculated by naysayers, draws in the Chief Executive into the maze?
Certainly all this can be settled—and Liberia’s peace and stability left intact—if the Treasury Department does the honorable and decent thing of backing their allegations with evidence or if this Government strongly demanded the evidence or simply openly dismisses the report until the requested evidence is availed.
