Unlike in advanced and highly developed countries where the richest men and women accumulate wealth through ownership and control of the forces of economic production and distribution, most of the wealthiest Liberians do not derive their fortune from the real economy because they are not involved with economic production – a realm dominated by multinational corporations as well as Lebanese and Indian merchants.
Instead, the Liberian elites source their wealth mainly from the state apparatus, public service, or their grip on the levers of political power.
While the owners of the forces of production – Lebanese, Indians, and multinational corporations largely do not concern themselves with who occupies the three branches of government as they are very aware their interest will be safeguarded regardless, the Liberian elites are obsessed with political power. For them, power is not a means to govern and promote national progress; it is instead the principal driver of their wealth.
They accumulate through political corruption – bumper salary and benefits, kickbacks, budget manipulation, bogus contracts, concession agreements, procurement of goods and services, etc. Their wealth is tied to the intricate web of the state bureaucracy.
So, just as organized labor poses a threat to the profits of the capitalist class, the loss of political power or very influential public service position undermines the Liberian politicos’ ability to amass wealth, fuelling a climate of political desperation.
This political culture reveals a very disturbing paradox – power is not used as a tool for effective governance and service to the people but as a vehicle for unhindered primitive accumulation, internalizing a tendency where the state serves the ambition of a few while the masses of people live on the margins of society, feeling the pains of the social and economic crises.
To fully grasp this dynamic is to grasp the unending political crisis on Capitol Hill, a crisis that has devolved into political huggers where a camp allegedly hired the service of a few lumpen elements to set the administrative office of the Legislature ablaze.
Frankly, the arson that reduced the joint chamber of the Capitol to rubble does not require the conclusion of forensic investigators; it is glaringly the handiwork of those who are not having their way in this political brouhaha.
That these people would go to the extreme of burning down the Legislature over the fight for the Speakership shows the staggering level of political desperation within the Liberian political class.
They proclaim, “Give us the speakership or Liberia burns: there is no third way!”. Never in recent times have we witnessed such political barbarism in other stable African democracies, despite the inherent contradictions that characterize their political systems. It is a shame!
