Dear Mr. President:
SUBJECT: REVISIT INTENDED DIPLOMATIC ALIGNMENT WITH RUSSIA
I have the honor to present my compliments to you most respectfully and to join patriotic Liberians in wishing you success as you navigate this ship of state through dangerous shoals and under portentous dark clouds.
I am indeed humbled to have a conversation with you through this public medium and to sincerely apologize for using this open channel to have this conversation instead of a face to face meeting which should be the best protocol. However, I have had no choice as accessibility to the least channel is a major problem due to the red tape bureaucracy around you.
Mr. President, by way of introduction, I am a citizen of Pleebo Sodoken District of Maryland County with no authority to speak on behalf of the District.
I am therefore not speaking their minds on the issues contained in this communication nor am I writing as a member of any political party or opposition group. Most importantly I am not opposed to your government as you were elected by the People of Liberia and I respect the mandate of the electorate.
The views contained in this communication are solely my personal views as a concerned citizen of the Republic of Liberia and I wish to perform my patriotic duty.
Mr. President, you are the chief architect of Liberia’s foreign policy and I strongly believe you have the best interests of Liberia in mind for each foreign policy crafted and each foreign policy decision you take or wish to take.
Foreign policy, I am persuaded, is an offspring of domestic policies which express the need to build external relationships based on needs and compatibilities as well as shared interests.
Mr. President, I have read in newspapers and listened to talkshows about Liberia’s romantic overtures with Russia for reasons and objectives that are not so clear to me. Nevertheless I quite understand that Liberians are undergoing tough economic times, including me, and your administration is doing all within its power to attract new or past friends to help us.
This, I believe, might be the leading reason to your administration alleged intent to reopen diplomatic ties with Russia. I appreciate your efforts.
While this pursuit may be for good reasons Mr. President, I recommend that we take our time to conduct thorough research so that the outcomes if that decision is finally made, may not be disadvantageous to your government or disastrous to us, the people of Liberia, but be most rewarding.
Mr. President, I recalled after the death of President Tubman in 1971, the late President Tolbert who became Tubman’s successor became engulfed in reshaping Liberia’s domestic and foreign policies.
On the domestic front, major policies and programs that kept Liberia peaceful were abolished and complicated ones adopted and that led to internal issues which drifted to revolutionary activities and struggles in the cause of the people.
On the foreign policy front, strategic policies which kept Liberia stable were reversed or changed. One of the major foreign policy decisions Tolbert altered was keeping at a distance communist and socialist nations.
He took the liberal decision of building diplomatic relationships with the communist and socialist blocs at the height of the Cold War and the brewing of internal distrust. The nations that made up those blocs were China, Yugoslavia, Romania, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics amongst others with Russia as its reverent capital and power.
President Tolbert was making his mark radically perhaps to pull Liberia out of the Tubman’s shadow to create his own, or to enforce Liberia’s sovereign rights to freely choose its own friends and to free Liberia from the influence of the USA and its unfair treatments towards Liberia dating from the outcome of World War I in which it compelled Liberia to join the Allied Forces against Germany – its only viable economic partner without reconstruction benefits after the war, the unfair loan agreements, loss of territories without America’s help when requested and the cursed Firestone Concession that placed much of Liberia’s sovereign rights in the hands of Firestone at the time and snatched away lands from the indigenes.
President Tolbert was further hailed by socialist nations such as Libya when he proceeded to the extreme of initiating a nonalignment foreign policy.
His move was political and consistent with sovereign rights of nations under the United Nations Charter. But analytically and strategically, the timing was wrong, the diplomatic marriages were incompatible, and the competing forces were mightier than a Liberia or a Tolbert Government could contain.
President Tolbert found himself caught between superpowers cold war and the scramble for control of Africa just as Somalia President Siad Barre also played games with the superpowers. The ends were disastrous for both President Tolbert and President Barre.
Mr. President, there is no doubt that you have the constitutional right to design and direct Liberia’s foreign policies.
But I am strongly cogitating on the timing of the intended alignment with Russia and the compatibilities and contest of various interests and alignments to which Liberia is tied. Perhaps Mr. President we may want to consider Liberia’s role as a member of the UN and its current position regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the escalation of the war. Perhaps we should consider the middle east wars and super powers alignments.
Perhaps we may want to review sanctions placed on Russia by the UN, USA, Great Britain, the EU and key states and organizations that are Liberia’s benefactors for grants, aids, financing, defense, and investments. Importantly, we may want to introspect the consequences of Liberia playing between superpowers in these troubling times.
In case of the predictable, where will Liberia stand without being hurtfully entangled? Already our China policies have become thoughts provoking and threatening relationship with the West.
Mr. President, I may not know the details of the presumed romance with Russia or the decision you may likely make, but I am of the thought that so much is going wrong domestically that needs to attract national focus rather than delving into more complexities and complications.
The nation is evidently divided and as a consequence, there is now a looming constitutional crisis that is paralyzing state institutions and the ability of the Government to deliver on its promises.
I recalled that in the 1970s, the nation was divided between believers of capitalism and socialism and in the midst of that division and tense political atmosphere such as we are having today that late President Tolbert caused a radical shift in Liberia foreign policy to bring in the communists and socialists who turned the tables against him.
Mr. President, it is strategically important that we slow down or table radically actions that would have the propensity of turning the tables against you and the People of Liberia. We cannot afford crisis of such magnitude like we faced for 14 years.
I am pleading with you to consider building unity, reconciling differences that are overheating Liberia and assuring Liberians that your government is the people’s government despite who voted you and who did not vote you and despite which political party you are a member of.
Let your government make Liberia greater than political alignments. Unity. Peace and Reconciliation should be our national priority. You are the Government and you represent all. You lead all.
In my view, it is prudent to win adversaries over rather than entrenched their opposition which might turn out to be a disadvantage or a disaster. This is my take Mr. President and as the late Albert Porte wrote President Tubman I write as well that this, “ letter will be taken in the right democratic spirit”.
Kindest Regards,
Respectfully Yours,
- Wa Hne, Jr.
Concerned Citizen of Liberia from Pleebo Sodoken District, Maryland County
