Liberia's week of rapid events
by Ben Mensah
THE NEW Liberian Minister of Information Alhaji G.V. Kromah was in London last week at the time his ministry was ready to release the results of a national referendum over the acceptance or rejection of the country's new constitution. Why was it so, one wondered. The explanation was that Head of State Gen. Samuel Doe himself was scheduled to announce the results in a radio broadcast.
The minister's presence in London offered the press an opportunity to meet with him at his country's embassy. But the meeting presented the journalists with the dilemma of having to discard their notes as the bases of the points raised with the minister changed as rapidly as events developed in Liberia.
The journalists went to the meeting armed with information provided by the Liberian News Agency that registered Liberian voters had gone to polls on Tuesday, 3 July in a national referendum to accept or reject a new constitution. The Agency revealed that the turn out of the more than 900,000 registered voters was very satisfactory and that voters throughout the country had gone out in large numbers to exercise their franchise. It reported that long before polling booths were opened at 8 o'clock in the morning there were already long queues waiting to cast their ballots and that two-thirds of the votes cast were required in order to adopt the new constitution.
But as the journalists put their questions to the Minister in London news came in that the new constitution had been accepted by the Liberian people in the referendum, and that Head of State, Samuel Doe himself announced the result at the Centenial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia. The first observation made on the result was related to figures. For it was noted that out of a total of 689,929 registered voters, (the number was no longer 977,000.) 540,113 voted in favour of the draft constitution, while 7,771 rejected it.
There were 14,759 abstention ballots and 4,248 spoilt ballots recorded during the referendum. A second observation was that the previous criterion requiring two-thirds of the number of registered voters to adopt the new constitution had also been substituted by a simple majority of the votes cast in the national referendum. According to General Doe, the decision to restrict the adoption of the new constitution to a majority of the votes cast was based on a recommendation by the special elections commission in which the commission admitted that it was unable to register the projected 977,826 eligible voters in the country.
According to General Doe, the decision to restrict the adoption of the new constitution to a majority of the votes cast was based on a recommendation by the special elections commission in which the commission admitted it was unable to register the projected eligible voters in the country.
After the hiccups in the interview, Minister Kromah went on to pledge that his ministry would not be an institution of party political outfit propagat- ing the views of only one party. The ministry of Information, he said, will remain a government outfit operating in the interest of the entire Liberian society. It will not encourage lies or false propaganda that could destroy the credibility of the government, he said. In the same vein, the minister expects that no lies would be told about the national government.
All this was after Minister Kromah had announced that the Peoples' Redemption Council (PRC) was not going to be partisan in the conduct of the political campaign that would lead to constitutional and democratic rule by January 1986.
How a government that issued Decree 75 whose section 4 empowers a special commission to deny the registration of certain political parties or independent candidates can project a neutral image was an issue on which the Minister wasn't readily forthcom- ing. All he could volunteer was that the same Decree 75 provides for the right to appeal against a decision of the special commission if it was deemed to have deprived anyone of his fundamental rights.
Again it was suggested to the Minister that a government whose decisions and actions over the past four years had affected the entire Liberian society was likely to be criticised by some of the politicians aspiring to succeed the PRC during the electioneering campaign. But Minister Kromah believes that there should be no cause for friction if the politicians will regard the PRC as a government representing the interests of the Liberian people and concentrate their electioneering efforts on telling the people what they have to offer and not criticise what the PRC had done.
Alhaji Kromah who before his appointment a month ago as Minister was the Director-General of the Liberian Broadcasting System was obviously too new in his ministerial portfolio to have grasped the realities of the political game. For back home, Gen, Samuel Doe and his colleagues on the PRC had obviously realised that there was no way the PRC could remain neutral or be insulated from criticism from their political opponents.
Three days later the interview with the Information Minister was again rendered useless with the news that the PRC had been dissolved and a transitional government formed.
In the ensuing frustration I wondered how a fundamental decision such as the dissolution of the highest legislative and executive institution, Peoples Redemption Council and the formation of a transitional government could be effected without the slightest consultation with a cabinet minister!
There was however one point made by Minister Alhaji Kromah which has so far not been overtaken by events. This is his pledge to evolve a constructive policy towards the country's media. As a trained journalist, the new Minister of Information knows very well the tribulations facing African journalists and would not want to add to them.
It was in this spirit that he would like to see the release from detention of a journalist, Mr Rufus Darpoh, former managing Editor of the Liberian Star who was arrested over a month ago for 'clandestinely' transmitting information to certain papers abroad.
Alhaji Kromah however, didn't want to prejudice the outcome of government investigations into the conduct of Mr Darpoh. The government, he said, has a case against Mr Darpoh and this must be pursued but did not want his hint of a possible lobby on Darpoh's behalf to be the basis of a discussion with the press. We all agreed with him and ended the interview.
Ban on politics lifted
THE pace of Liberia's march towards constitutional civilian rule has decidedly quickened with the lifting of the ban on politics on Thursday 26 July.This was preceded by the dissolution of the Peoples' Redemption Council headed by Gen. Samuel Doe and its replacement by an Interim National Assembly. The announcement of the new measures came a day after the release of the results of a referendum in July.
The results announced in a nationwide address were that, out of a total 689,929 registered voters, 540,113 had voted to adopt the new constitution while 7,771 rejected it. There were 14,759 abstentions and 4,248 ballots damaged.
The exercise was seen in official circles as the first time in Liberia's 137 year history when citizens from all walks of life and across the country had been eligible to exercise their franchise.
This verdict is however disputed by those who argue that Decree 75, clause 4 which disqualifies anyone who has engaged in activities or has otherwise expressed converse and or adverse ideological aims, is a denial of fundamental rights to a section of the Liberian society.
The new national Assembly will consist of the Peoples' Redemption Council and 35 civilians chosen to represent what General Doe termed 'various political subdivisions'.
Dr Harry F. Moniba, the ambassador in London has been appointed the Assembly's Vice President with Gen. Doe as President.
Before the lifting of the ban on politics, Monrovia was buzzing with speculations over the identity of the political divisions and who were likely to be the party leaders.
Liberia's political history was dominated by the True Whig Party made up of the descendants of freed slaves who emigrated from America and the radical MOJA/PPP on the other. The latter led by Baachus Mathews, Dr Henry Fahnbulleh and Dr Amos Sawyer, all ex-Ministers in the govern- ment of Gen. Doe was proscribed by the government of the True Whig Party in 1979, a factor which contributed to the Government's overthrow by the then Master-Sergeant Doe in 1980.
The registration of new parties is expected to be pursued in the next few weeks and presidential and legislative elections will begin from 8 October, 1985. A new government will hopefully be inaugurated on the first Monday of January 1986.
Baachus Mathews
Dr Amos Sawyer
Dr Harry F. Moniba, Vice President
