Your Excellency:

"There is no turning back!" seems the catchphrase of your administration as you navigate the challenges that face this country following 14 years of warfare - warfare that devastated the nation and destroyed its human resources. We think this is so because in countless number of public comments, you told the nation and the international community that this nation will press ahead to reclaim its place in the comity of nations. You often make the comment with regards to the peace process, the revitalization of the Liberian economy, and the restoration of the rule of law. But if that catchphrase had not come home to roost, there is no question that it has and this memo focuses on exactly what you must do to remove the dilemma that you are slipping slowly into.

Madam President, when the question of peace and reconciliation was thrown out to Liberian stakeholders that included warlords and their supporters or sympathizers, two options came up. One was to prosecute in a special court those Liberians who visited untold violence upon fellow Liberians without provocation or justification. The other was to create a forum where victims and perpetrators of violence will tell their stories, seek, and obtain open forgiveness that will go a long way to generate peaceful co-existence in post-war Liberia. In the former choice, punitive actions such as restitution and reparation would be sought, something the nature of the war, which is violence on violence by various groups, would not permit or handle. So, it was agreed that legal technicality in the run for peace and reconciliation would be invoked only if an accused refused to appear before the commission or if the commission has overwhelming evidence that he or she has committed crimes against humanity. But could that power cover the presidency and legislators? Many say yes. But the law of Liberia remains an obstacle to that "Yes" and so cooperation, propelled by the desire for peace, remains the unquestionable hope for the appearance of public officials at the TRC. We stand corrected, though.

This is what we know, Your Excellency. And by dedicating the TRC, giving it the necessary financial support, and announcing to the nation that you would cooperate with the commission by testifying when invited to do so, we had no doubt that you do not only know that, but that you are also committed to it in the truest since of commitment. But despite what we all thought you knew, your comments last week regarding testimony, avoiding making spectacles of the truth commission, and writing a book as alternative to personal appearance, have been especially troubling, to put things diplomatically. It is because it subtracts from your support to the commission, steps up the belief of critics that the TRC process may amount to nothing because it may not be able to subpoena public officials, and provides warm, cozy cover for those whose closets are so full of skeletons that they would prefer for the violence and the justice that will cure it to die a naturally. Already, the argument out there is besides hiding behind the spectacle argument and the authorship alibi, you may deliberately or inadvertently be undermining the TRC process perhaps to cover your own back which prevailing conditions show would be very difficult to cover.

So, Madam President, you have no choice but to testify. You will have to walk up to the TRC and proffer to testify. When you do that, you will diffuse the gathering storm and remove the unnecessary crossroads of undermining or providing boost and confidence to the process. You will also send home the national message that all must testify irrespective of socio-political, economic, and cultural statuses. We have found out, and you may not disagree much, that Liberians fear the silence that hangs over known war and political conspiracies than they do about the making of a spectacle of the PRC process. Whatever that spectacle may be, as long as it does not seek to undermine and destroy the PRC process, it will contribute to the process of peace, reconciliation, and the creation of peaceful co-existence amongst former belligerent tribes, communities, and tribes.

Your Excellency, if you do not do that; if you choose to follow your wit about not testifying to avoid undue diversion from the national reconstruction agenda, you will make an even bigger spectacle of the TRC. Most public officials with problem to thrash out with former victims will follow your lead - some to writer books of their own in order to avoid the noise of direct testifying and others simply because the believe the TRC does not have the power it says it has and challenge its subpoena powers using your excuse as alibi. Nimba County Senator Prince Y. Johnson is already pressing his case and we know there many more on line to use your plan as an excuse. You have to appear in order to fulfill the ECOWAS peace plan and ensure that TRC gets meaning and form. Don't forget that your failure to appear before TRC will justify the campaign of the Forum for War Crimes Court that there should exist such court that will compel you and others to give accounts of your "deeds". Don't forget the least in these matters that you are the single biggest icon of Liberia's political, social, and economic stability, and opinion for moral decency. For this, you stand in the gap of either destroying/crucifying or preserving the integrity and/or dignity of the TRC. There no denying that most Liberians believe that you have part to play in the wars, and that your failure to testify undermines the TRC process. This gives added ammunition to critics of the TRC process; it must be borne in mind.

Many thanks, Your Excellency, for your attention and change of mind.