I have been very vocal on the atrocities committed by the various warring factions including the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) especially in my last article, Civil Society: Our Time has Come, October, 2003. I exposed their propagandists for the level of petty crooks and criminals they are.  I had thought that those attacked in that article would have responded, but for the cowards they are, it is my guess that they opted to hire a pen to discredit my article in person of a nonentity called Nat Galarea Gbessagee in two separate articles published on the New Democrat website (Countering Political Rhetoric & Intellectual Misrepresentation in Liberia published on October 10, 2003 and Dukele World of Limited Responsibility published on October 19,2003)

My paper was self-explanatory wherein I emphasized the fact that the unarmed civilians (Civil Society) who were victimized by the various warring factions and the Taylor militia should use this time beginning October 2003 to vent out their frustrations and demand justice. These criminal gangs would cease to exist as armed groups and we would all be equals before the law.

Being educated does not mean ones ability to read and write but also ones ability to comprehend / understand what is read or written. One major problem facing many Liberians today is that they cannot read properly and that includes Gbessagee. Many dwell on the stupid Liberian concept of They Say! (Gossips without proof). I lived most of my life in Liberia and I know our literacy level is low. Hence, in all my writings, I make it my binding duty to make the paper as simple as possible so that the layman can understand my thoughts and opinion. It is useless writing a paper using the thesaurus when your message cannot get to the readers.

Gbessagee is an idle imbecile who spends his time in Liberian chat rooms and makes issues in his writings about what anonymous people post in the chat room as analysis of the Liberian Crisis. He never read my paper, but yet chooses to analyse my article and defining my choice of words in a completely wrong context. I challenge this cretin to be a man and admit his inability to understand what we wrote and apologise for being such a dumb fool in classifying my article as a rambling discourse of political rhetoric and intellectual misrepresentation in Liberia.

I have decided to respond to Gbessagee because of a quote from Dr. Wade Nobles, which reads, "Our dilemma, our problem is that we allow other people to define the meaning of who we are. And once we accepted their definition we gave them power". I shall deal with the paragraph in his articles where he mentioned my work directly as I believe the others involved have adequately responded to him.

He tried to argue that it is not the civil society who should rule Liberia after October 2003. His apparent sponsors want the reading public to accept them as heroes and liberators after killing, looting maiming and decimating our country in the name of the Accra Peace Accord. It is sheer stupidity to argue or think who are the rightful strata of a nation to rule a young democracy other than its civil society in the aftermath of a devastating civil war.

He is wondering if the Civil Society connotes a group of neutral Liberians who had no direct or indirect roles in the Liberian conflict. I can tell you Mr. Gbessagee that I am part of the Civil Society and I am neutral along with hundreds of thousands of other Liberians. I lived in Liberia during the war and my records are there. I am a neutral Liberian with no bloodstain or factional alignment. I am very proud of my services to the people, the students of Liberia and the Episcopal Diocese of Liberia. Chairman Bryant knows my capabilities when I served the Diocese as Secretary General of its Planning and Development Committee along with Mrs. Amelia Ward as Chairperson. I need not delve into what I have done to help the poor and suffering Liberian masses, but it is up to you to check out my credentials from people who know me.

Gbessagee is questioning the rationale behind a small country like Liberia having 67 Civil Society groups. I would hasten to ask him how many civil groups should be registered in a country? People who share similar ideals organize civil groups and there are numerous groups in any democratic country. Please make a survey wherever you live to know how many civil groups exist there.

We are aware of the split in the Civil Society groups in Liberia. Those that voted for the slot in the Transitional Assembly did not represent the people. There is one group called Patriotic Consciousness Association (PACA) led by one Frederick Baye that was supported by the erstwhile NPP government. There is another group called the Civil Society Movement of Liberia (CSML) led by Saa Philip-Joe which represents 43 religious, professional, pro-democracy, women, youth and related organizations.

The vast majority of these groups are organizations that exist only in brief cases and in some peoples bedroom with no offices. They talk on behalf of the people many of whom are illiterate. The reality is that Liberians dont care attitude have allowed a few to capitalize on it and use their names for personal benefits. The market women in West point or Duala dont know anything about the CSML or a typical University of Liberia student knows about the Liberian National Students Union (LINSU). These organizations exist and claim to represent the views of their members but in reality, they dont. The poor masses do not know how their slots were filled. It is this ugly habit of using our people name wrongly that we write to correct and let the world know. Recently, Saah Ntow wrote Chairman Bryant to ask who represents the Liberians in the Diaspora / America in the Assembly.

It is inconceivable that Gbessagee wrote a paper on July 9, 2002 Leadership in Liberia beyond elections 2003 published on the Perspective website wherein he said that Liberians are now realizing that much of the socio-economic and political turmoil could have been averted had the national leadership since independence in 1847 been centered on good governance but unfortunately, our leadership tilted towards personal enrichment rather than unity and institution building. He went further to say in an effort to reverse this trend of corruption, a group of Liberian power brokers and potential political, CIVIL and opinion leaders met in Burkina Faso in July 2002. Gbessagee claimed that he had personally wanted to ask these power brokers on their positions on the plight of the Liberian internally displaced and refugees, coupled with steps taken to restore security and CIVILITY to Liberia vis-a-vis, good governance, social justice and free and fair democratic elections.

True to his words, we have realized the causes of our turmoil and have begun to stimulate the consciousness our people. The old order has to be uprooted and destroyed. The correct process of democracy has to be taught to the Liberian people. There is no short cut. Having written these words, is Gbessagee arguing that Liberia should be ruled by a bunch of sapheads because the Accra Peace Agreement is a priority? The incongruity of his writings are highly laughable but he should be taken to task for his level of idiocy.

The noun Transition means passage or change from one place, state, condition, style, etc to another. The new government set up in Accra is responsible to lead Liberia to democratic elections in 2005. It behoves us to put into play the proper mechanisms that will stamp out corruption, nepotism, tribalism and personal greed. Check out the records of many officials of past interim governments, we saw that they were all crooks bent on enriching themselves while the vast majority lived in abject poverty. There was no accountability.

 The United Nations isnt new to the trouble in Liberia and in fact, they have more information on our failed state. Thus after careful analysis of our problems, the United Nations has made it emphatically clear that those appointed or elected to the new government must be individuals of high moral characters and integrity with untainted past records. Those appointed or elected should be based on their professional abilities. It warned that putting unqualified Liberians and discredited cronies of past leaders into the new government would dissuade the international community from giving aid to help the countrys shattered infrastructure.

Mr. Gbessagee, thats the criteria set by the United Nations to uplift Liberia from being a pariah state. We love Liberia and thats why we write to inform the people in plain simple English the need to follow the recipe of the United Nations so that our people can stop suffering. Liberia is not a poor country and we should not be listed as such. At the moment, Liberia has absolutely nothing politically, socially, and economically. We need all the aid packages available from the international community and they wouldnt put their money into the hands of unqualified thieves and murderers in the name of peace from Accra. Case in point, Charles Taylor won elections in 1997 and asked the donor community for help. An international donor conference in April 1998 estimated that Liberia required about $430 million in rehabilitation and reintegration aid. The Liberian government reportedly said it could contribute one percent of that amount. Donors pledged some $200 million for the first phase, stipulating that the Liberian government needed to increase government accountability, security, and respect for human rights in order for international aid to continue. Guess what Mr. Gbessagee, those basic tenets were never adhered to by the Taylor government which resulted in the aid packages not reaching the poor people of Liberia that are in dire need.

The short sightedness with which you write, Mr. Gbessagee is so disgraceful and it give rise to more questions some of which includes:

Is Gbessagee telling us not to put qualified Liberians in positions of trust so as to once again regain the confidence of the donor community?

Is Gbessagee in support of the ideology that because one held a gun, s/he must be given jobs before lasting peace can return to Liberia?

Is Gbessagee oblivious of his own writings wherein he called for a new Liberia where good governance should be it benchmarks?

Gbessagee, when and where do we start to build these institutions and unity if it is not now by putting the correct mechanisms into play?

Is Gbessagee not aware that putting unqualified personnel in government results in backwardness, underdevelopment and a stimulant for corruption and sycophancy?

This man, Gbessagee must have a phobia against being qualified. How can you justify appointing a teller as Vice Governor of the Central Bank? Where can such a man represent Liberias financial interests among the world financial gurus? Can such a person sit with Alan Greenspan who is the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve or John Snow, Treasury Secretary to discuss economic, financial aids and multilateral investments, loans and debt relief for Liberia? Why should we shut our mouths when a man who hasnt got a high school certificate be made Speaker of the Transitional Assembly? Can George Dweh and Rt. Hon. Michael Martin (Speaker of the House of Commons, UK), or J. Dennis Hastert (Speaker of the House, USA) or simply just in Africa, the Speaker of the Ghanaian parliament Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjettey sit in any gathering to discuss anything substantial for the attainment of world peace and democratisation? NO WAY!!!!! These unqualified people whom you support are more liability to the meagre resources of Liberia.

I am not aware that the so-called technocrats according to Gbessagee have grouped or crowned themselves into a new political block in Liberia with entitlements to lucrative public offices and have gone on a media bliss to condemn incoming transitional government appointees as unqualified. Mr. Gbessagee should name said political block and who exactly have gone on media bliss.

Fellow Liberians, stupidity and ignorance are really ingredients for sub normality. Mr. Gbessagee believes that being a technocrat in Liberia at this time is a person in search of political and economic advantages. Where does this fool get such inclinations? Is he really arguing that being educated means one seeks superiority over others?

Be that as it may, whats wrong with seeking economic advantage and building our country? My mother is illiterate and I lived in the slum area of Saye Town in Sinkor. When it rained, water seeped through the floor of the room in which I shared with four friends. I had to go fishing on the Du River at night to get spending money. I also worked in the Nancy Doe Jorkpin Town market selling oil, onions, rice, maggi cubes, etc just to help my mother pay my tuition at Cathedral High School and subsequently at the University of Liberia. I did not want to live the rest of my life in the slum or the ghetto. So, I opted to go to school to become somebody to serve as a role model that other kids from the slums can emulate. Many of my friends opted to play marbles, chase opossums, and do drugs instead of the classroom. Should I keep myself on the same periphery as these marble players, drug addicts and hunters? Hell NO!!!

The great western countries where many of us find ourselves as a result of the troubles and civil war in Liberia were built by technocrats and not idiots and unqualified people. We see the wonders in term of socio-economic and political advancement. Is it a bad idea Mr. Gbessagee to adapt such principles and system in our war torn country?

My articles have been awakening and enlightening our people on the need for war criminals to be brought before a court of competent jurisdiction to answer their victims, the Liberian people. My thanks and appreciation goes to all the brothers and sisters who are active in advocating for a War Crimes Tribunal for Liberia. It is my desire that we concert our efforts in attaining our objective. It is my belief that our voices are being heard as evidenced by the passing of a U.S. House Bill that rewards $2 million for the capture of Charles Taylor who has already been indicted by the United Nations backed Tribunal in Sierra Leone.

 There are many more to follow and we will keep using the pen to expose them. Case in point include: Mr. George Dweh has agreed to go to court for the first time to clear his name of murder and rape. Also in my last paper, I urged Kabineh Janeh to forget his Port Manager portfolio and help the Liberian Bar Association since he is a Lawyer. I read in the news recently that he is the Justice Minister designate. I feel very good when people are rightfully placed so that there will be advancement and productivity.

In closing, I would urge Mr. Gbessagee to beat pride and openly apologise for his error. He and his benefactors should shut up if they have nothing positive or meaningful to add to the search for lasting peace in Liberia. I understand and deeply sympathize with you that it is boring living in the West especially when you are unqualified. It is best you go to the chat rooms where you will find your calibre of friends to discuss issues at your level of comprehension or play games in yahoo to entertain yourself and not become a critique overnight.

Good riddance and God Bless Liberia!!