Editorial: Who Could Be?

A few weeks ago we published a number of stories on some of Liberia’s Presidential aspirants for next year’s presidential and Legislative elections. In those articles, we presented eleven aspirants who are in desperate need of the Liberian Presidency, so much so that without that job, there’s no other that they could do to help the process of national growth and development.

The publications, under the banner headline: “Who’s Better?”, briefly analyzed each of the eleven aspirants, including the incumbent, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and the activities over the years.

Since those publications, we continue to listen to barrage of condemnations and criticism against the present administration. From the opposition, mainly the Liberty Party and proposed Democratic Alliance.

Surely enough, we do believe in some of these condemnations and criticisms, most especially  the inability of the present administration to deal with the issue of corruption, mass unemployment, as well as the impact of the Poverty Reduction Strategy or PRS on the majority of the people of Liberia.

While it is true that the government may have some problems, there is an urgent need for the Liberian opposition to tell or explain to the Liberian people their achievements nation-wide since the 2005 presidential and legislative elections. We are very cognizant of the fact that the economic strength of the opposition cannot be measured with the ruling Unity Party-that’s the absolute fact.

We do believe that despite the fact that no comparison can be made between the two, we expect that Liberian opposition should have been engaged in micro projects in strategic parts of the country, especially in areas where the population is hugely concentrated except for Dr. Tipoteh.

We are also fully aware that since 2005, almost all of the presidential candidates are yet to visit the rest of the country to express gratitude to the electorates even though they did not win the election.

We see this as the highest degree of ingratitude on their part, except for Bishop George Kiadii of the National Vision Party and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of the Unity Party. Five years have gone and by the beginning of 2011, our opposition leaders expect our people to welcome them with open arms.

If the opposition could treat the electorates the way they did for five years, why should the people place their trust into their hands in 2011?

We do believe that our brothers and sisters in the opposition have no moral and political ground to question the ruling party because they themselves will make no difference when given the opportunity-they may even be worst than we believe those in power presently are. This is why it’s good to constructively criticize, but not to undermine as has been done to past administrations in Liberia.

We are aware of politicians and other individuals in Liberia, including most of those in the present government who have been very instrumental and successful in undermining past governments/administrations, making live very unbearable for the ordinary citizens of Liberia.

Today, we still see a repetition of almost all that they accused previous administrations of. That’s why, from our own assessments in most counties, it would be very difficult for the electorates to trust politicians for 2011.

While some Liberians are opting for a democratic change of the present regime, others believe that they would prefer living with the “devil” they know well, other than the angel they’ve never known.

Even those in the middle are wondering as to who could be the best for Liberia, considering what’s presently obtaining politically in our country.