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Monrovia – The chairman of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Mulbah K. Morlu, Jr. has announced that in 2019 going forward, the Montserrado County Chapter or the Montserrado Youth League of his party will now be responsible to deal with what he called reckless and baseless comments directed at government and senior officials by those he referred to as irrelevant opposition politicians in the country.
If this pronouncement is anything to go by, then government’s official spokesman Minister of Information Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT), Lenn Eugene Nagbe has been stripped of some of his responsibilities if not being disposed of his official function.
Morlu, addressing a press conference Monday at the CDC’s Congo Town recently refurbished Headquarters, averred that the attention of the Coalition for Democratic Change and the Government of Liberia has been drawn to nonfactual, baseless, unsubstantiated and unprovable allegations and comments emanating from some political personalities, and the leaders, surrogates and commentators they sponsor.
According to him, these false claims are intended to injure and malign the reputation of the government and some senior officials.
The CDC chairman fell short of disclosing the names of politicians engaged into the spread of baseless and unsubstantiated allegations and comments against the government and senior officials of the administration, but his outburst comes days after the former standard bearer of the opposition Alternative National Congress (ANC), Alexander B. Cummings appeared on national radio and accused officials of the George Weah-led government of stealing and looting state resources.
“The stealing has got to stop. You cannot have a leaking pocket and try to add more water. There is a leaking pocket because of the stealing and corruption in government and that has to stop,” said Cummings, when he appeared on the widely listened-to radio phone-in radio talk show, The Costa Show aired on Roots FM 102.7
Among other things, Cummings added: “By every economic measurement, the economy is failing. It is not working for the people of Liberia. Inflation is everywhere. Prices are going up. This government has made an ‘F’. I don’t have to say it for the Liberia people, they are feeling the pinch and what makes it worse for me, there seems to be no plan to fix it by the government.”
Alexander B. Cummings and the ANC garnered a total of 112,067 votes accounting for 7.2% in the 2017 presidential elections, and placing him fifth, but his party failed to win any seat neither in the House of Representatives nor in the House of Senate.
Morlu referencing the Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf-led government, of which he was a bitter critic, said while Liberia has made great strides in fostering an environment on free press, free speech and free assembly over the past decade, a period which spanned Sirleaf’s rule, there is an attempt on the part of those he described as irrelevant politicians to grant public discussions and debates on falsehood, unbalanced news coverage, and unwarranted allegations against the government and some of its senior officials.
“In a free democracy and media culture as ours, the only policy response against this creeping menace is to alert citizens and device vigorous mechanisms to buffet untruths, propaganda and lopsided news coverage,” he said.
Although there exists a noticeable strain between government and the local media since the CDC-led government came to power, Chairman Morlu said government will continue to uphold and sustain an environment on free press and free expressions of ideas.
However, he pointed out that while the CDC and the government will find unofficial ways to reject the culture of baseless allegations and statements, purporting to situate itself as the new norm of public discourse, the government considers it necessary to issue policy guidance regarding unsubstantiated public political statements and spurious allegations hailing from former standard bearers or political leaders of registered political parties.
Therefore, Morlu disclosed that commencing 2019 and beyond, the CDC and the government’s official policy is to respond to political parties or political leaders who have a minimum of 8 percent of the votes in the 2017 presidential election and who hold at least a seat in the National Legislature.
The government is accountable to all Liberian citizens individually and is politically accountable to large groups of Liberians at the district or county levels through their elected representatives or senators, said Morlu, adding, “political parties have elected representatives and influence the policy and development process through the National Legislature.”
He intoned that fact-based issues from politicians with representation in the Legislature are deserving of response and attention from the highest levels of government, but maintained that “the government will no longer officially dignify lies, baseless allegations and unprovable assertions from political leaders who do not hold any legislative seat.”
Said Morlu: “The Montserrado Youth League or the Montserrado Chapter of the Coalition for Democratic Change have been designated to deal with these lies and rumors.”
The CDC chair also disclosed that journalists and media organizations seeking inquiries regarding what he calls baseless claims and statements from those he referred to as irrelevant politicians with be directed to the Montserrado County Chapter or the Montserrado Youth League for official response.
“To the extent that these false claims purport to injure and malign the reputation of government officials, such officials will minimally debunk the lies and refer the press and other interested personalities to the Montserrado Chapter or the Montserrado Youth League for more detail discussion of the matter,” he stated.
He emphasized that going forward, government will no longer entangle itself in a war of words with irrelevant politicians looking to gain political traction by dent of the media coverage generated from the intended war of words.
“In 2019, the Liberian public will hear more about the concrete development the government is availing, but also about critical challenges and how the government is addressing these critical challenges,” Morlu further said.
He intimated that as the CDC and the government prepare for President Weah’s State of the Nation Address expected to be delivered before the end of this month, citizens and the Liberian public should be warned that some irrelevant politicians are now devising ways to distract the government from its focus on the president’s progressive speech and to undermine the narrative that the speech is expected to engender.
However, he assured citizens and partisans of the CDC that the government and the party will not succumb to what he termed as gimmicks, saying, “the party and government will never be distracted from its current course of developmental progress of national transformation.
Responding to a reporter’s question regarding ANC’s Cummings recent assertions about stealing in government, the CDC Chairman stated that it is undesirable to want to single out the ANC political leader, because according to Morlu, Cummings’ political presence in the country’s evolving political discourse is irrelevant.
“In the first place, nobody wants to take this individual seriously, and I don’t think anybody took that statement seriously,” said Morlu, who intimated that “as a responsible government building roads, when we start building bridges, building hospitals, transforming the economy, we don’t have time to get involved in war of words that will give platform to failed politicians who could not win even a seat in the elections to be glorified. So we are not going to glorify him.”
Morlu categorized Cummings’ recent comments as being irresponsible and baseless, stating that “notwithstanding, there is a popular adage that he that demands equity must come with clean hands – it is this same individual who is running from pillar to poles internationally, raising money from his corporate partners generating millions of dollars; in my view, of tax payers in the United States and beyond, under the canopy of coming to launch a presidential bid – where he raised allegedly 10 million and put 200,000 in the bank in Singapore and pocket[ed] the rest allegedly.”
“So he needs to explain to us about his accountability mechanism to let his donors know what he did with the money that he collected from America. So he cannot make it look like someone here [is] taking money. Whereas, he stands to be held accountable for the millions of dollars supposedly that is said he generated from foreign donors for his failed campaign that could not give him a seat,” Morlu said.
