Editorial:Too Unwarranted Winston Tubman!

Congress for Democratic Change Standard Bearer Cllr. Winston Tubman, has been talking. He has repeated inciting statements from his political leader and Vice Standard Bearer, football star-turned politician George Weah, that the only way the CDC could be defeated in next month’s elections is when they are cheated at the polls.

“The only way we will not win is if we are cheated,” Tubman fumed during a political rally in Ganta, Nimba County recently. The Tubman-Weah inciting comments clearly insinuate that there is no need for Liberians to embark on the democratic path in choosing the next President for our country because they have dampened the true essence of the political contest.

It is unfortunate; that at the time well meaning Liberians are praying for peaceful elections, Cllr. Tubman and his likes would be inciting sympathizers to gear up for post electoral violence should they be defeated at the ballot box.

It is very foolhardy for Tubman to want Liberians to believe that no other political party in the race stand a chance of winning the elections other than the Congress for Democratic Change purely on the illusion  that the crowd at its campaign rallies contain hundred percent registered voters  to deliver the presidency at its doorstep.

Such statements coming from the learned Counselor, who has time and again, paraded himself as a true reconciler, and which is why he says he has joined the CDC in the first place to quiet tension should there be post electoral violence here is seriously contradicting. It speaks volumes about how the greed to ascend to state power can blind politicians’ sense of judgment.

With his background as a lawyer and former UN diplomat, it is expected that Tubman should be at the helm of preaching peace rather than instigating post electoral violence that could plunge Liberia into another round of chaos.

It is totally unthinkable for one to claim victory in a contest that is yet to be held and tell supporters to reject any results other than the one that would go your way. This is an attempt to underestimate the intelligence of the Liberian people, and Tubman and the CDC should abandon this path because it will not help them in their desperate quest for power. 

We at the New Dawn strongly hold the view that If Tubman is truly a man of peace as he has claimed over the years, now is the time to demonstrate such attribute rather than trying to undo the hard earned peace that have provided him and all Liberians the opportunity to responsibly exercise the democratic franchise we have craved for over the years.

But what does, Tubman cares to lose here anyway, with no tangible investment or real estate to protect as an interest, having spent all his years abroad only to return after retirement with empty hands, desperately grieving to become president.

We hold nothing personal against Tubman or the CDC as political institution, but they should be reminded that all Liberians have a common stake in the future stability of our nation, given the experiences of the 14-year civil war when the youth were drugged, armed and misled into butchering their fathers, mothers,  brothers, sisters in the name of revolution.

Therefore, the New Dawn demands nothing less than politically matured and responsible politicking during these elections to preserve the hard won peace.