THIS IS OUR VOW!

Tarnyon Nyenon-Editor-in-Chief

Culled from IEN: The Editorial Staff of the Independent Eye News (IEN), views the electoral system of the Union of Liberian Association in the Americas (ULAA), as a national disgrace to the Diaspora Liberian Community.

ULAA, once considered a very powerful political force and an advocacy group, which played the role of the Liberian Legislature, for its checks and balances to the power of the Liberian government, has now lost its political mojo (charm).

ULAA has now been reduced to a kangaroo, self glorifying, and toothless, bulldog surviving on past glory. Its major function is now limited to promoting Political Flunkies, whose sole objective is to gain fame politically and obtain a Liberian government job at the end of the day, as a result.

ULAA’s electoral system which forbids the practice of ONE MAN, ONE VOTE, electoral system, excludes a vast majority of the Membership of the Liberian Community from the democratic process. This situation is tantamount to a political mayhem.

ULAA’s electoral system of hand picking political cronies and poodles as “DELEGATES” without allowing a popular vote to democratically elect the so-called “DELEGATES.” This kind of representation of the people, amounts to self glorification at best.

ULAA’s electoral system also makes us vulnerable as a community and leaves our fate in the hands of the highest financial bidders, who have the power to use what we term “FINANCIAL VIOLENCE,” to purchase the few “DELEGATES.”

There are also Political Vampires, ready to suck out our voting blood out of our free sense of judgment, by predetermining our votes at the national polls. As the popular saying goes, “HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER, DETERMINES THE MUSIC.”

This brings us to the question; how did these Political Flunkies and Financial Vampires who are nothing but job seekers, come up with this kind of system of selecting outside of the democratic process, rather than electing the so-called “DELEGATES?”

By what yardsticks did these Political Miscreants determine that for example, a mid western state with a very huge Liberian population as Minnesota, is entitled to only fifteen (votes) “DELEGATES?”

This kind of system amounts to governance of the governed without consent. This system also robs ULAA of any legitimacy to govern, or serve as a credible community organization.

This system of willful exclusion of majority of the Liberian Community from the decision making process, especially through the democratic process, is absolutely unacceptable and it must be condemned, eliminated in replaced.

It excludes a vast majority of the ULAA Membership, from participating in a genuine democratic electoral process. This is why we vowed to fight it tooth and nail, to ensure it is eradicated. This is our vow and this is our calling.

This is not just a very big shame, but a very big national disgrace to all of us as Liberians, being the very first country on the dark continent of Africa, to have tasted democracy, no matter how fragile it may have been.

As Liberians, whose country on the Dark Continent was the first to enjoy freedom, a symbol which the LONE STAR, on our national flag represents to this day and forever. It is a national disgrace that we have nothing to show today, after one hundred sixty-five years of existence

Is this the kind of democracy we are practicing here in the great United States, the mother of modern democracy? Is this the kind of democracy we see here in this country, where all of us are enjoying unlimited freedoms, as citizens of the whole wide world?

As Liberians, from a country which was the first to produce the first female President, of the General Assembly of the United Nations, in the person of Mrs. Angie Brooks-Randolph, what do we have to show today, after one hundred sixty-five years of existence?

As Liberians, from a country which produced the first female President on the continent of Africa, in the person of Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, what do we have to show to our children and their children’s’ children, after all these years of existence?

What do we have to say to the world community now? What can we tell our brothers, sisters, neighbors and even citizens of the world, that this is what we have to show, after one hundred sixty-five years of existence?

Where are the Arthur Watsons, Emmanuel Wehtees, Anthony Kessellys, our then young democratic militant of the 1980s? Is this all you guys have to offer the Diaspora Liberian Community, here in the great United States of America, after one hundred sixty-five years of existence?

What a national disgrace, Gentlemen? Is this what we will carry back home to Liberia as a political achievement? What a big shame Man? What moral standing do we have now, to call our leaders dictators?

Is this your brand of modern democracy, or what we classify as “LIBERIANCRACY?” This type of LIBERIANCRACY (exclusion) reminds us about the passage in Primer Two which reads in part, “I AM IN, GO ON, IS HE TO GO IN? NO! HE IS TO GO ON. ON, ON WE GO, Liberiancracy (exclusion)?

If this is not dictatorship and a system of Liberiancracy (exclusion) of thousands of our fellow compatriots (citizens), by recklessly disenfranchising us, then we don’t know what to call it. Can somebody please help us find the name?

We, the Editorial Staff of the Independent Eye News (IEN), realize that by just writing about this major cancer in our community, will not automatically eliminate it. However, there are people in our community who we believe, have the capacity to cure this curable disease.

In this light, this is our calling. First, we, the Editorial Staff of the Independent Eye News, calls for a constitutional amendment of the ULAA constitution, to create an avenue where ONE MAN, ONE VOTE system, will be the order of the day.

Our second calling is that NATIONAL ELECTIONS be held throughout the United States, where all Liberians, or a significant majority will have the right, to register and vote in the democratic process in determining ULAA’s leadership henceforth. These are just the two key many changes we are calling for now!

Therefore, we, the Editorial Staff of the Independent Eye News (IEN), calls on the above named gentlemen, to help correct the system they either put into place, or presided over for nearly a decade now.

We, the Editorial Staff of the Independent Eye News, can assure you that, we vow never to rest until this cancerous disease in our political culture, is eradicated.

We believe the Diaspora Liberian community should be in the position to serve as a role model for a good political system. We are fully prepared, ready and willing to go to any possible rationale length, to help in the process. This is our vow and this is our calling.

THE INDEPENDENT EYE NEWS (IEN), THE FASTEST AND LEADING NAME IN NEWS. WE REPORT, YOU DECIDE.

BY: TARNYON NYENON
PUBLISHER & MANAGING EDITOR
INDEPENDENT EYE NEWS (IEN), WWW.LIBEYE.ORG
TNYENON59@YAHOO.COM-(763) 226-3634-CELL