By D. Wah Hneh
Politics in Liberia and the concepts of political parties are amazingly different from its supposedly mentor country, the USA.
From the constitutional arrangement of the state to the governance strategies and structures, there are variances so deep and contradictive that we need to stop referring to the USA as our political mentor country.
Though we fly a resemblance of flags and shaped our constitution in like manner as the USA, the forms of government are distinctly different and so are our political concepts, perceptions and governance practices.
Until 1870, Liberia’s political space for participation was narrow, giving room to only the Liberia Party and its elites led by Joseph Jenkins Roberts which later metamorphosed to the Republican Party.
This seemingly non-amalgamation or non-assimilation of citizens outside its league of superior class led to a constructed gulf between the majority and minority.
States affairs was concentrated in the hands of the minority. The vexing conditions ushered in a revolutionary party, the True Whig Party, whose agenda favored the majority and swallowed-up the minority elites in a democratic show down in the 1870 elections.
The concept of opposition political party was introduced by the loser (Republican Party) which did everything possible to make the country ungovernable for the TWP Government.
Their strategies and deceptive methods employed were the reasons that led to the first coup and the murdered of President Roye within 25 years of existence of the Republic on trumped up charges, thus bringing back former President Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the Patriarch of the Republic who opposed President Roye’s Absorption and Open Door Policies as President once more.
Nevertheless, the majority who constituted the TWP remained favored in the political space, leading to the demise of the Republican Party and 130 years long stay in power of the TWP.
Until 1980, after unsuccessful trials of other political parties to enter the space, the political environment accommodated only a single political party, the TWP which made its entrance in the political space as a revolutionary party.
Though the Liberia political atmosphere had experienced a radical change between 1847 and 1870, it became more dramatic and chaotic between 1976 and1980.
Also between 1984 and 1990, the atmosphere permanently birthed the ideology of “opposition parties” with intent to create hostile environments for sitting government and if possible threats to impress their worth and strength in an effort to be recognized and given state power.
Between 2005 and now, the political atmospheres of Liberia have continued to increased its hostilities with opposition and government creating conditions that suggest that Liberians have become two nations – one Liberia for the Government and another Liberia for opposition parties.
But the Constitution of Liberia refers to political parties as associations that advocate the opinions of the people.
In reality, political parties are governments in waiting and as such, should not be adopting the nomenclature of opposition parties, but partners of the people to assure that their mandates are executed and development takes place. Political Parties should therefore act as intermediaries between the People and the Government.
Governments in waiting and the Government in power must create the atmosphere to regularly discuss the common good, share their thoughts and consider the Republic as the prime focus and the people as their priority.
Building unity despite diverse political philosophies must be a key deliverable of both Government and Opposition.
Unfortunately, there is a shift from the people and the state to the selfish desires and wants on the basis of partisanships to take leadership and narrow participation, development and governance only to those they feel obligated to and not generally the people.
In order to achieve this quest, political parties called themselves opposition parties to oppose the electorate choice and everything their elected government stands for – whether good.
And so, the strategies adopted are to make the state ungovernable by provoking strikes, demonstrations, protests and hate related propaganda as were done in the E. J. Roye case in 1870-1871.
On the other hand, governments which gain power from that same culture, devises all means to put the opposition out of existence by use of incumbent power to prevent the use of their own strategies against them.
In nearly all the cases, the roots of democracy which are the people, are uprooted, leaving behind trails of bitterness, division, confusion and tension like what is obtaining between the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) and the UP Government.
In the process, the serious business and purpose of government are laid aside unlike the USA whose practices and political and social doctrines and cultures we claimed to imbibed.
The Liberia People Democratic Party says it is adopting a new approach – not an opposition approach – but an approach as a Government in Waiting. It believes constructive engagement is political maturity and respecting the choice of the electorate is democracy.
The LPDP says it is poised to ensuring that conversation and dialogue becomes its strategy of engagement with other political parties and government.
Unless our strategies and perceptions are changed as Government, politicians or political parties, the nation will experience slow development, division, intermittent crisis, failed policies, and unachievable development goals.
