Collaborating Political Parties (CPP): Can They Truly Avoid A Disastrous Ending?

One of the most fundamental ingredients of democracy is the establishment of a political party or parties from the thoughts and philosophical policies of their founding fathers who are commonly referred to as “vision bearers.” These hard truths still hold constant for Hon. Cummings, the ANC’s vision bearer; Hon. Bookie, the UP’s proxy vision bearer; Hon Urey, the ALP’s vision bearer, and Madam Kanga the LP’s proxy vision bearer. Each of the above mentioned iconic political personalities sees him/herself as a potential President, Head of State, and a Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia in waiting.

The CPP’s preeminent proclaimed to the Liberian populace as well as their stewards and their indispensable die-hard constituencies that they have finally formed a political a collaboration, that was barricaded by all positive legal instrument and had vehemently obtained the hard blessings of NEC.

These political personalities in the eyes of their followers, are few among equals who should administer the affairs of state not in the too distant future according to them. The CPP is considered by their huge fans and political admirers as being among few of the finest political minds who are the best political scientists from all intents and purposes to govern the nation, Liberia by all accounts. But Political Hot-Fire is very mindful to suggest that political alliances, togetherness, and collaborations are often submerged in a disastrous ending, except if the all-powerful CPP can disprove such a political dilemma that befell scores of other political institutions in Liberia.

There is an interesting South East-Asian maxim that says “politics is like a cookie jar—politicians are not interested in the jar that hosts the cookie, they are interested in the cookie itself because it is the cookie that is attracted to the eyes of the politicians and not the jar because the jar possesses no special attractions but to simply accommodates the cookie.” This maxim speaks volumes of the greediness of politicians who hide behind politics and so-called multipartyism to rub their people in the name of representation through the vehicle of political parties.

It is highly thinkable that from the inception of Liberia as a nation-state in the early 1800s, the idea of multipartyism was conspicuously absent in Liberia especially between July 26, 1847, up to the dark era of April 12, 1980, when a bloody period witnessed the final nail penetrating the once golden coffin of a one-party rule of the TWP being the only front runner in all of the political dramas held in Liberia.

The chief difference between a so-called one-party system and multipartyism system has not changed much, except that the mushrooming of political parties in Liberia had not yielded any better or tangible dividends, because most of the so-called multipartyism political institutions in Liberia have potentially developed the characteristics of a one-party sociocultural and traditional approach to politics that is “grab the resources and go.”

This is because Liberian political parties both registered and nonregistered ones netting about 45 in number are directly personality-based, with weak political structures, ineffectual capacities, economically poor, family-oriented, personality-centered, perpetual hold to party leadership, lifetime chairmanship, lifetime presidential hopefuls’ trends, poorly managed party’s structures, no visible financial statements, the institutionalization of party structures, slowly dying parties, no party convention, poor membership-based party, constant membership swung from one party to another, most political parties are directly and indirectly fragmented and politically weak in Liberia.

It is incumbent on these unavoidable political trends and notable deficiencies which have greatly undercut and undermine the strengths and capabilities of most political parties in Liberia since the 80s. These deficiencies have often then none compared most, if not all political parties in Liberia to urgently side with the concept of either a collaboration, merger and or alliance which stands as a terrible political embarrassment beyond the control of each party’s leadership. Political Hot-Fire is 100% convinced that no one political can comfortably negotiate the future of their party into an uncertain political collaborate, merge, or an alliance, but it is often done out of untimely political necessities and political poverty, where no one party can ever take over state power except they merger as one unity, which often proves to be politically futile for so many hidden facts. Firstly, no one political party can outrightly win 50+1 masses votes in a given election in Liberia that will pave the way for that party to enforce a state mandate of its voters.

The irony is that each political party in Liberia has its political philosophies, standing constitutions, and bye-laws, national and international platform/projects, platform for the party and the nation, each has a set of different political value systems, leadership structures/styles, different funding mechanisms, strategic membership-based; different sets of national and international contacts; fundraising strategies and many other embedded political values.

They do not have any value in common, therefore, political parties come and the political party goes. Collaborations, mergers, and alliances are unusual and unfamiliar territories that can often entangle the survivability of most political parties in Liberia. Most political parties are often unable to obtain the voting capability to run the nation. They, therefore, find another alternative through the political backdoor at least to have a piece of the national pie when they collaborate or build a very weak alliance to succeed in taking political power and administer the affairs of the nation. Because this political trek can be difficult to accomplish, they join forces and sometimes share the pies unconditionally.

It, therefore, becomes practically impossible for a political party that comes from a different diverse socio-cultural background to survive in a collaboration, or alliance basically because of so many computing socio-economic and political interests that are often at stake in these types of political engagements and arrangements. A weak political house build by one or more Liberian political parties can fall on itself due to political greed in-conjunction with huge uncontrollable political ambitions and its holistic objectives.

RECOMMENDATION: In politics, comments are one thing, and the results of commitments are another. The only way forward for the CPP to survive in the 2023 presidential elections is basically through the power of an unambiguous political amalgamation or merger. No single political party can win a presidential election convincingly with 50 +1 votes in Liberia easily in modern democratic time. CPP will, therefore, need to merge now and not later to maintain one constitution, one platform, and one membership but anything short of these specimens, a house build by the CPP can fall on itself if……..