Speech By Lewis Brown, Montserrado Senatorial Aspirant

My Fellow Countrymen:

Last week, as an independent candidate, I announced my intention to contest the Senatorial Seat of Montserrado County. I thank all of you for the words of encouragement and support which I have received across our dividing lines of party, tribe, gender and religion.

Today, I renew my pledge to be truthful to the country that we love and faithful to the people we serve. I pledge to stand on the side of those who stand right; on the side of causes that are right; to speak for many who cannot speak for themselves; and to inspire hope in a future that is wonderfully bright.

Over the course of this campaign, I will not pretend to be perfect nor can I pretend to be blameless. I just know that if we are to move forward, some things have to be done differently – some things have to be done right. And I also know that I will anger some; I will lose friends; and I may even lose support in my desire to faithfully represent the people of Montserrado County in the Liberian Senate and to speak the truth which is borne out of my experience and is in accordance with my conscience.

Even if I am to lose some friends which I regret – even if I am to lose some support which I need to succeed – over the course of this campaign, I do not intend to wrestle endlessly with my conscience nor do I intend to lose my principles. And so, I place my faith only in God and my trust only in the people of Montserrado County to act according to my conscience and to speak as the truth of our national experience and our reality command.

My Fellow Liberians:

In the desire we share to consolidate our young democracy; to heal and to reconcile our country; to continue to lift ourselves out of the hole into which we had fallen; over the painful journey of wars and transitions from war, I believe that we have arrived at our moment of truth. Today, here we stand – our future ahead of us and the past behind us. Here we stand – the future of our country and the future of our children critically depending on each step we will take either to go forward or to go backward.

Here we stand at our defining moment – that moment in the lives of people when sober reason must overcome naked passion; when winning an elected office must be about country and people and not only about self; when leaders must look forward and not inward; and when the piercing light of truth must guide our way from the darkness of the past to the brightness of the future. Here, my fellow Liberians, we stand poised to make perhaps the most important decision in a generation.

This, then, is also not the time to sit on the buses of our respective political parties and chant along with others who are singing the uncaring melody of beat it driver beat it; who die that their worry; who hurt that their business. No! This is not the time.

In this most important moment of decision making, some are being found wanting. Some will want to frighten us into standing still. Some will be persuading us to go back – back to where we were and what we know; back to the past. But there must also be those among us who must find the uncommon courage to urge us on – to urge us forward.

I know that to urge us forward there must be those of us who are ready, courageous and willing not to settle for a political victory which blurs our sense of judgment about what is right for our country and what is wrong for our people; which compromises the future of our country; and which returns our people to the past. And importantly, to urge us forward there must be those of us who will not settle for a political victory from which the international community will again question our humanity; and by which we will again employ ourselves in the thoughtless destruction of our country for power.

My Fellow Citizens:

This election is about our people. The sad truth is that owing to their extreme lack of capacities, many of our people have been on their knees for far too long. On their knees, they beg for bread. At this defining moment – at this time – an elected administration of our government needs to invest our resources in building the capacities of Liberians – those who believe in us, and even those who oppose us; those who are in our party and those who are in other parties – so that rather than kneel before their leaders and at the altar of our benevolences, each Liberian will be enabled to stand on their own two feet and take responsibility for improving their lives and developing their communities.

At this time – at this defining moment – the building of roads and bridges into which we must invest ought not to only connect land spaces but also to link all of our people together in an unbreakable chain that will not only testify to the true character of the Liberian nation we are capable of building but also will give each of us a sense of common purpose and shared ownership of all the power and wealth of a country we love dearly.

At a minimum, anyone desiring to lead our people ought to know that at this time – at this defining moment – the building of roads and bridges into which we must invest after these elections ought to lift our people – the old as well as the young; those who are able and those who are disabled – from being beggars for bread to makers of bread; from being people who look up to others to people who look up to themselves; from being limited by circumstances and overtaken by self-doubts to be unlimited by capacity and filled with self-belief; from being haunted by the past to being unafraid of the future; and from being only manipulated into following us today to being empowered into leading us tomorrow. This is how we meet our moment of truth. This is how we urge our people forward. And this, also, is what these elections are about. 

This is why, at this moment of truth, we cannot afford to mislead. Not only must we claim to know better, we must act to confirm that we know better. Notwithstanding the progress we have made from the years of conflict in our country; progress especially in individual freedom and in collective security, we will not advance much further if we surrendered to what is becoming the growing temptation and excitement on the part of a few to be intolerant; to be disorderly; and to be violent.

This is why, no one deserving the leadership of our country – no one claiming to want to empower our people; to strengthen the values of democracy, the promise of freedom and the consolidation of security beyond that which we have struggled for collectively, and that which the international community have assisted us into achieving – ought to feed into and excite Liberians toward intolerance, disorderliness and violence. This is not the way to lead this country. This is not the way to lead our people forward. And this is not the way to heal and to reconcile a nation that has been broken – a nation which lost its way, is struggling to find itself, and is desperate to be reconciled to its purpose. No, this is not the way.

The chance we have today – the chance to decide the future of our country – is the result of years of painful sacrifices. We must never waste this chance. We must never lose this moment. No, those who died that we may know today; those who are without limbs that we may know today; those who went to prisons that we may know today; those who have assisted us to know today; those who look up to us for direction and for hope; and those who will come after us to inherit what we will do, all of them deserve better – so much better – from all of us who are proud to call ourselves leaders of today.

My Fellow Liberians:

On Tuesday, August 23, in keeping with the schedule of the National Elections Commission, some of us participated in a referendum to possibly amend the Constitution. Already, a number of inexcusable blunders have been recorded. It goes without saying that the NEC must do more to command and to hold the confidence of the Liberian people and our international partners that Liberians can conduct our elections credibly, freely and fairly. I still believe that we can. And so, I call upon the NEC to take serious stock of the failings, and I also call on the international community to assist us with the needed support to enable the credible conduct of these important transitional elections.

There are also other important blunders which we must not easily sweep under the rug. One is the disservice which has now effectively disenfranchised many of our people. Some legislative aspirants invested in the trucking of our people to register in their constituencies in order to vote for them. Some of these aspirants did not have the money nor did they have the motivation to transport our people to vote in the referendum. What is worse, some of these aspirants did not make it through their party primaries. What this means is that a lot of our people will be denied the chance to exercise the power of their citizenship. I can only hope that we will learn from this blunder.

Disconcerting and wicked as these blunders are, I believe that they pale in comparison to the monumental blunder of the leadership of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC).  I believe history will be harsh in its judgment of the decision of the leadership of the CDC to call upon Liberians to stay at home – to not participate in the referendum, and essentially to not care about the future of the country. Truly, this is sad. To call this misjudgment on the part of the leadership of the CDC a simple miscalculation is to be extremely kind to the leadership of the party because not only is this call disrespectful to CDCians and sympathizers of the party, it is unkind to the country. It is uncaring of where we are. And it is uncaring of our infant democracy.

From Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that “[w]e will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence (emphasis mine) of the good people.” I do not want to repent for being silent. And I believe that the leadership of the CDC will have to repent and apologize to Liberians for misleading our people on this important national question.

Anyone who wants to lead us ought to know that amending the Liberian Constitution is equal to, if not more important than the election of a president, senator or representative all of whom cannot perform the duties and functions of the offices to which they have been elected unless and until they swear, at first, to uphold, to protect and to defend the Constitution which was the subject of this referendum.

Our Constitution is special. To every Liberian, at home and abroad, the Constitution is unlike any list of regulations as to what to do and what not to do. Our Constitution is the sum of all of our cherished values and beliefs; our collective hopes and dreams; our experiences and our aspirations. The Liberian Constitution defines every Liberian – it explains who we are, and it lays out the claims we share with each other, and with our State.

Our Constitution reveals where we are coming from, and it guides us to where we are travelling. Our Constitution gives us life – it gives us meaning, and it gives us a sense of purpose. Surely then, to ask Liberians essentially not to care about what happens to their Constitution – important as this single piece of document is to all Liberians – is a demonstrated lack of leadership. It is misleading our people to reverse the clock at a time when we should be moving forward.

It is an historic wrong. Here essentially is what CDCians were asked to do by their leaders. As strange as this may sound, and I know that it will be very difficult to accept, CDCians were asked to be lesser Liberians. This undermines everything that we have fought for and many CDCians have died for. For more than thirty years, literally over the lifespan of many CDCians, Liberians have struggled and died in this country so that all of us – and not only some of us – can experience the shared power of our claim to Liberian citizenship; so that all of us and not only some of us can determine together where we want to go and how we intend to get there.

Perhaps some of the leaders of the CDC ought to be reminded that what our struggles have been about – that for which many have gone to prisons; have been beaten; and have been killed – is that we – all Liberians – will meet our destiny together. We will all have a say in our country. This is not the time to forget the purpose of the struggle. This is the time to encourage each of us to have a say in our country. To have a say is not just to vote in an election for a president, senator or representative. Importantly also, it is to vote along with others so as to determine together the law under which all of us are to be governed and directed.

Let me be clearer. Over years of painful struggles and memories, we are finally accepting that we are all Liberians – that each of us holds a piece of the power that our country needs to determine its future. And so, one of the most important duties of a political party is to work so as to always reinforce this truth which we have come to painfully realize and to accept – so as to make it a part of our everyday experience; and so as to make it an enduring reality for all Liberians. This is how a democratic order is strengthened. And at its core, this is what political empowerment means – letting the people exercise the power that they have to participate in determining the future of their country.

Therefore, to strangely and selfishly ask a Liberian not to participate in the change of their Constitution – not to participate in determining the future of Liberia, is to also ask that Liberian to reduce his/her share of the power and to mislead that Liberian into self-denial of the power and value of their Liberian citizenship. And it is to deny them a place of power and decision making in a country for which many have given so much to make that experience possible. And this is historically wrong. It is sinful. And it is disrespectful of all that we have suffered to achieve.

The stubborn truth is whether CDCians stayed at home or not – whether they participated or not – a decision made for them by others is bound to affect them. We cannot continue to encourage our people to believe that they lack qualification and capacity to decide their future. And whenever our people need us to stand on their behalf – whenever they need us to help them understand the issues; to help them improve their capacities to make decisions about their future, we cannot be found wanting – we cannot let them down as the leaders of the CDC have done.

Participating empowers each Liberian to affect the national decision – to make a decision for themselves; to take ownership of their lives; and to lay just claims to the future of our country. Why would anyone – indeed, why would the leadership of the CDC seek to restrict and to mislead Liberians into beginning to deny themselves this opportunity in a democracy which is so young and needy of increased participation of our people in national decision making processes?

In my judgment, the leaders of the CDC have tricked CDCians into a YES vote to change the Constitution against the wishes of many CDCians who wanted a NO vote so that the Constitution is not changed. Really, this is sad. It reveals a lack of serious leadership on perhaps the most important question with which our generation has been faced – the most important question with which anyone desirous of leading our people ought to have a clear and progressive position about.

Now, I know that to be a leader is to get it wrong sometimes. None of us can be expected to get it right all of the time or even most of the time. And all of us know that to err is human and to forgive is divine.  But to deliberately mislead is not to err; it is to mislead deliberately. The hard truth even for me to swallow is that the leaders of the CDC are misleading CDCians – misleading Liberians at a time when we so desperately need serious leadership.

Finally, my fellow Liberians: I have argued publicly that the interpretation of Article 91 by the NEC is a wrong interpretation. But neither my public argument nor the private musings of anyone ought to cause a change in the position of the NEC, the body which has been constitutionally given the authority to conduct the referendum. To change the interpretation of the NEC requires the intervention of the courts. Without such interventions, the interpretation of the NEC stands as the procedure under which the referendum was conducted and its outcome will now be decided.

And so, to tell those who would have otherwise voted against the ratification of the propositions to stay at home and not to participate, under the guise that the results when announced by the NEC will be challenged in the courts, without exercising the option of the court to, at first, interpret the procedure under which the referendum was to be conducted and the results determined, is simply a trick – a mobilization gimmick for the YES votes to win.

If the leadership of CDC wanted to vote YES, they owed it to Liberians; they owed it to CDCians; and they owed it to history, to stand up and be counted publicly – to let Liberians and CDCians know exactly where they stand. This moment is too important for tricks.

At this defining moment, even if they do not know, this is not the time to manipulate our people – this is not the time to trick our people. At this defining moment, our people need to know where their leaders stand on national questions, and they need to know the principles upon which they stand. At this defining moment, our people need to be led by people who will convince us that they understand where the country is – that they understand from whence we have come and where we are headed. To borrow the cliché, our people need leaders who will say what they really mean and mean what they really say.

May God bless our country and give us leaders. I thank you.