allAfrica.com: Liberia: We Want to Restore Our Dignity and See Liberia Prosper Again

During her visit to the United States last month, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf addressed a gathering of development experts at a luncheon on March 20 hosted by the Academy for Educational Development. The session was recorded by AllAfrica and transcribed by AED. Sirleaf was introduced by AED President Stephen F. Moseley. Vivian Lowery Derryck, AED Senior Vice President and Director Public-Private Partnerships, presided. The text of Sirleaf's speech and the questions and answers that followed:

There are so much people in this room that have traveled with us on this long road to democracy and to the point of progress where we are. If I started to call names I'd probably end up calling up almost everybody around each table so I can just say to all of you a big thank you.

Thank you from the people of Liberia for all that you did to stand by them through a difficult time, the advocacy that you carried me, the agony that you shared with us, the support that you gave to us, individually, collectively, institutionally, certainly made a big difference in bringing us to this point of progress.

We certainly do think that the elections have opened up a window of unparalled opportunity and that window has the foundation in the exercise of choice. That's what democracy is all about and that's what the Liberian people exhibited in October and again in November when they went to the polls in large numbers under difficult circumstances, infrastructured, underdeveloped that would have imposed serious impediments to getting up and getting there to cast their ballots but they did and in that we see they stood up for democracy.

They exemplified the fact that they wanted Liberia to show the world that they want to be in control of their own destiny, and so we start off on the basis that Liberian people have chosen the path of participation and that we can do no less then create the environment that enables them to exercise choice in so many other ways, choice in leadership, choice in economic endeavor, choice in association, choice in religion, all of those things that encompass the fundamental rights of an individual.

This government is committed to ensuring that they continue along that path, but democracy does carry with it so many other requirements it will create that environment that promotes choice. One of the first things we think of is peace and stability to have the opportunity to participate and to exercise their democratic choice, we need peace and that peace can only come when we have concluded the work on getting our own security forces in place. The U.S. government is helping us along those lines, that peace enables us to respond to whatever threat there may be to democracy. The stability that is supported by that peace, but which goes beyond just having the military might or having professionalized institutionalized security service to protect the people, but one that goes in to creating a feeling of togetherness, a feeling of unity, a feeling like each one having a stake in the future.

And so we stress reconciliation as part of building that peace, finding the means to ensure that each Liberian has the right to participate in the processes of contrition and forgiveness, putting our emphasis on that and to carry that out we've just inducted into office and given support to the troop in reconciliation commission to enable them to examine some of the root causes of conflicts and find the means whereby we can adopt those measures that will ensure that there will not be conflict again.

The constitution, the composition of our government is trying as best as we can to make it inclusive bringing so many of the opposition people into it promoting a loyal opposition so that we don't have we don't slip back in to a centralized power and decision making situation with an imperial presidency, but ensuring that everybody feels that they're party all are taking part in the process of decision that will affect their lives.

We also know that if democracy will prosper we need a government that has some policies, some economic policies, to enable us to carry out a development agenda to be able to attract private capital and investment; a government that is efficient that's honest, that has a level playing field and enables a judiciary system to respond wherever recourse the legal means are necessary to protect rights-- contractual and corporate rights.

A government that has the commitment and the ability to manage our own resources while pursuing an agenda of balanced economic developments so that we not only concentrate on employment opportunities and investment opportunities in some of the major urban centers, but that we take it out to be to the countryside through an official local government system that also has decision making and choice, not only at the center but at the peripheral, and enabling people to build capacities to establish their own priorities as much as possible with linkage to the center to manage their own affairs at the local government level and be able to see opportunities all the social economic infrastructure extended beyond just the centers of power .

We start formulating our development agenda, trying to tie in to policies that will enable us to implement it, but clearly one of the things that we are going to focus on is education. There is no doubt that if anything we need to address if there's one area that's been neglected over time is educating our young people. We have a strange situation, an unusual situation in our country today, where the current generation is more educated more capable then the one behind it, than the younger one.

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