LIKE TOLBERT LIKE SIRLEAF Although President Sirleaf was very critical of Tolbert durring his administration, many say she is his exact political replica. And there is alot of truth to this if you look closely. Tolbert like Sirleaf came to power suceeding autocratic presidents. Tolbert Suceeded Tubman and Sirleaf suceeded Taylor. Like Tolbert president Sirleaf promised and purposed to deliver change, a “new Liberia even”. In President Sirleaf’s case, she was going to bring to an end the “imperial presidency”, fight corruption and bring social justice but eight years after being sworn in, the reviews are mixed and the people are demanding what they were promised. But back to the tale of the two presidents. Sirleaf like Tolbert have found that it is easier said than done. The free press she protected has been used by her critics to showcase her failures and self contradictions. Again Like Tolbert President Sirleaf has a soft spot for nepotism. She has three of her sons in top level positions in Government (Robert, Fumba and Charlse Sirleaf) and have vowed never to remove them even though it contradicts her principles stated durring the Tolbert years. With Messiah fast turning into the enemy of the people, Sirleaf has turned manipulating the press and in some cases outright bribery to mentain her image and hold on credibility. She has turned the state broadcaster ELBC into “Radio Sirleaf” and the Ministry of Information into her personal public relations firm. The assertive, credible and confident opposition leader the world and Liberia once knew has sadly become narcissist requiring people to put her pictures every where and praise her or risk being kick out of business, government or off air. Today we hear the popular radio talk show- the COSTA SHOW has been ordered off air. Where is all this going? Well lets return to the manwhose book Sirleaf appears to be playing from- Tolbert. When Tolbert came under serious attack from the Progressives and the media who gave freedom to in the 70s, he reacted in the following ways: 1. He saw them as imatured young people he could educate and tried to do that but it only worsened matters as those who went on scholarships came back and demanded their rights even more strongly. 2. He tried the “devil’s tool box” : with arrests, initmidation, long and expensive civil law suits to deter a critical press and imprisonment to stop the agitators the Tolbert administration sought to use fear to stop the political tide against him but it failed and created political martyrs that mobilized the people against him and 3. With foriegn troops he sought to protect himself from a military coup de’ tat but that backfired as it infiorated the AFL who felt the president undervalued them. Reading the above responses of President Tolbert to his political misfortune one can see clear re-plays in the Sirleaf senario today she response to public anger in the same ways. She distribute scholarships through her son Robert Sirleaf to try and make him popular and it backfires as more sophesticated graduates are harder to please, she seeks to use civil law suits to silence the press like in the case of the New Broom and (although through subtle moves) Frontpage Africa, She is also relying on UNMIL for security like Tolbert relied on troops from Giunea. She has also tried the intimidation route as well but it is all playing out the same way it did for Tolbert. HIS UNFINISHED BUSINESS FINISHED HIM, WILL THE SAME FATE VISIT HER? As if the plots were written by a Hollywood master stroke, President Sirleaf is in the same cornner as Tolbert in 1979. There is a global financail crisis, there is high unemployment and protests everywhere just like it was in 1979. To complicate Sirleaf’s problems she also have an unfinished issue of police shooting protesters in the streets just like Tolbert had in the case of the rice riot senario. It was established that there was murder at the CDC October 2011 elections protests but 2 years on there has been no indictment and no one has recieved a prison sentence. The sister Browne Report like the Brownell commission report has been left to collect dust. For Sirleaf though this brings to two- the reports on rights violations that she has failed to act on once you add the TRC report. The jury is out on how Sirleaf’s political misfortunes will climax but for the sake of Liberia I call on the president to avoid the things that might bring her Tolberts end.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:12:58 +0000
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