Boakai Fofana
7 January 2009
Monrovia — Although the Liberian government believes there should be "constructive engagements" with the authors of Guinea's recent military coup, it does not back the new regime, says Liberia's Information Minister, Laurence K. Bropleh. AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana interviewed him after a Guinean delegation visited Monrovia seeking recognition.
Since we are beginning to hear mixed reactions to the coup in Guinea from West African leaders, what is Liberia's position? Some of the coup leaders came last week to get Liberia's backing. Is Liberia backing the coup?
We as a government… are not "backing the coup." We recognize there need to be constructive engagements with the coup leaders because the ultimate interest must be the Guinean people and the return to democratic rule. So President [Ellen Johnson] Sirleaf, as chair of the Mano River Union [comprising Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire], has continued to call on the coup leaders to respect the rule of law and return Guinea to democratic rule.
Leaders of Ecowas [the Economic Community of West African States] are reported to be making a decision on suspending Guinea at their forthcoming meeting. Will Liberia be persuading Ecowas not to do so?
We haven't gotten to Ecowas yet and we can't guess what the outcome will be. At that point we will be able to speak to what decisions will be made. Mind you, Liberia is a member of Ecowas. Liberia is a member of the African Union. However, Liberia exercises its own will and judgment in terms of looking at circumstances and, in terms of this case, what we are saying is that we should constructively engage the leadership now in Guinea because the ultimate goal should be to return Guinea to democratic civilian rule.
Why is Guinea being treated differently following this coup? Because normally, it's a matter of principle that governments would not support a coup. In the context of Liberia is it because of the security implications since Liberia is a next-door neighbor?
No. We don't support the coup. We have not supported the coup at all. We would rather that Guinea not have a coup. We are not celebrating the coup leadership. But what we are saying is that we need to look at the situation in a contextual way and urge the leadership now in Guinea to understand that coming to office by military means is not the answer. Africa has made too many gains democratically for us to digress......
You talked about looking at the situation in a contextual way. What is that context? What is the specific context as regards the situation in Guinea?
The context is that, as we know, Guinea has had a situation where the people felt that true democracy had not taken hold. And so what we are urging now is through this circumstance, let us constructively engage the coup leaders and let the ultimate goal be to get Guinea a to true democratic rule where the tenets of democracy will be not only exercised but will be truly evident. And so we are looking at the situation where we need to turn it around in the interests of the Guinean people for once.
Let's talk about the visit of Libya's leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi, to Liberia. Did he come to get Liberia's backing for the coup in Guinea?
No. no. He was shuttling around the region, and he has great regard for President Sirleaf. As you know Libya is engaging us in agriculture, tourism and so he wanted to talk to a leader, a woman that he reveres. So he stopped over. And he also ensured Libyan support for our economic recovery.
And did he mention the coup in Guinea?
The coup in Guinea was discussed in the sense where he, as leader of Libya, he empathizes with the people of Guinea and thinks that no bloodshed should come upon the people of West Africa, who have suffered enough.
And Liberia shares that, right?
Liberia shares that. Absolutely.
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We all are very much aware of the plight of the good people of Guinean. Decades of crippling dictatorship. However, Conte came to power in much the same way this junta has seized power...through the barrel of the gun...coup! But this junta has a unique opportunity to make a real difference. At this moment the coup leaders need to do three noble things: 1.Swiftly invite the help of international organizations to organize a democratic election. 2. Appoint an all Guinean civilian management council to work with these organizations in ensuring the smooth,democratic transfer of power. And 3, The coup leaders should remove themselves from the military, become civilians and take part in the process if they want to be considered for election to public offices. We all agree that for once the people of Guinea deserve better. And if this junta is sincere to give them that, then that is what they should be doing right now and not shuttling the region to seek support for their two-year-stay-in-power promise. We all know too well that once they taste power, they will never give it up. And the people of Guinean will once again muddle through decades more of tyranny. Africa is slowly maturing democratically...the days of coup are over for crying out loud! Enough is enough. I proudly support my country Liberia's position of engaging the coup leaders but not endorsing the act of coup.
Nat TS Johnson
We all are very much aware of the plight of the good people of Guinean. Decades of crippling dictatorship. However, Conte came to power in much the same way this junta has seized power...through the barrel of the gun...coup! But this junta has a unique opportunity to make a real difference. At this moment the coup leaders need to do three noble things: 1.Swiftly invite the help of international organizations to organize a democratic election. 2. Appoint an all Guinean civilian management council to work with these organizations in ensuring the smooth,democratic transfer of power. And 3, The coup leaders should remove themselves from the military, become civilians and take part in the process if they want to be considered for election to public offices. We all agree that for once the people of Guinea deserve better. And if this junta is sincere to give them that, then that is what they should be doing right now and not shuttling the region to seek support for their two-year-stay-in-power promise. We all know too well that once they taste power, they will never give it up. And the people of Guinean will once again muddle through decades more of tyranny. Africa is slowly maturing democratically...the days of coup are over for crying out loud! Enough is enough. I proudly support my country Liberia's position of engaging the coup leaders but not endorsing the act of coup.
Nat TS Johnson
We all are very much aware of the plight of the good people of Guinean. Decades of crippling dictorship. However, Conte came to power in much the same way this junta has seized power...through the barrel of gun...coup! But this junta has a unique opportunity to make a real difference. At this moment the coup leaders need to three noble things: 1.Swiftly invite the help of international organizations to organize a free election. 2.Appoint an all Guinean civilian management council to work with these organizations in ensuring the smooth,democratic transfer of power. And 3, The coup leaders should remove themselves from the military, become civilians and take part in the process if they want to be considered to be elected to public offices. We all agree that for once the people of Guinea deserve better. And if this junta is sincere, that is what they should be doing right now and not shuttling the region to seek support for their two-year-stay-in-power promise. We all know too well that once they taste power, they will never give it up. And the people of Guinean will once again muddle through decades more of tyranny. Africa is slowly maturing democratically...the days of coup are over for crying out loud!
Nat TS Johnson
Earlier I wrote that as a respected leader in the region, and as Chair of the Mano River Union, it was okay for President Sirleaf to listen to what the military junta in Guinea had to say, but that Liberia should NOT endorse the act of coup. I am delighted and proud to read the position of my country(Liberia)firmly conveyed by the Honorable Minister of Information. A position of what I would call "persuasive engagement without endorsement." By this position, President Sirleaf should urge the coup leaders to carry out three noble acts for the sake of the people of Guinea, and for the coup leaders' own sake: 1. Swiftly invite international organizations to organize a democratic election. 2. Appoint an all Guinean Management Council to work along with these organizations to deliver a civilian, democratic leadership. 3. If the coup leaders desire to be that leadership, then they should immediately remove themselves from the military, become civilians, form a politcal party (based on the guidelines of the intaernational organizations and the All Guinean Civilian Management Council) and campaign for election on the platform of the change they desire to give to their people. In the absence of these actions, we will witness many more decades of Guineans muddling through familiar paths.
Nat TS Johnson
ON THE VAPID DISCOURSE OF SOUPISTS
Each and every government in West Africa is structured by the Imperialist sired SOUPIST STRUCTURE. See our theorizing of this structure in this site and other loci.
The foundation is the soupist structure; phenomena such as democracy and tails thereof are mere superstructural window dressing, bait for the gullible, and those beyond gullibility.
Thus, we denounce the soupist structure, and regard those ensnarled in its toxic net as pitiful midgets and puppets of British and French Imperialism.
The imperialist sired soupist structure is indifferent to the form of the organization of the social collective: a democratic, fascist or whatever political structure conforms with its arch directives: obviate the formation of a nation and loot the treasury of the captured territory.
Thus, it was a hundred years ago; and thus, it is today, as we write.
Under these premises, it is ridiculous, if not poignantly absurd for a one soupist tail of the Imperialist sired soupist structure to recommend a political formation to another. There is nothing in human nature, to the extent that we know it, that mandates that political formations be draped in the robes of "democracy," a concept so amoebic that it is, in fact, definable only at the highest levels of generality, which de facto makes it completely manipulable ad libitum.
Accordingly, preference of a democratic formation is a PREJUDICE. We bracket this prejudice within the cogitative type "judgment." We view it as a pure phenomenon, paired with the relatively intersubjectively valid self-expression of the people.
If the people want democracy, fine; fascism, fine; aristocracy, fine.
But no rational people would even desire the shadow of the SOUPIST STRUCTURE. The SOUPIST STRUCTURE was the form of British and French Imperialism, and continues to rock in territories stolen by the imperialists, which boneheadedly call themselves "countries," and worse, "nations," the latter determination being mendacious without measure.
Now, the soupist leafy Sirleaf is reported to have called for a "return" to democracy in the Republic of Guinea. The soupist coupist Camara grabbed the state power from civilian soupists, led by the deceased soupist Conteh. Leafy Sirleaf should be reminded that her directive is NONSENSE, for there was no democratic formation ante the coupist side kick. Moreover, it is doubtful that the territory of Liberia is a democratic formation.
We now theorize a new construct: DEMOCRATIC IMPERIALISM. Arguendo, a democratic formation exhibits the will of the people. Historically and systematically, the boundaries of this expressive potentia is the idealization called the "nation-state."
Of course, under our theorizing, we hold that there are no nation states in West Africa.
One potent consequence follows: soupist heads of state are mere heads of factions authorized by the SOUPIST STRUCTURE. Heads of nations, they definitely are not, despite their vapid essays to fool the theoretically gullible.
If the SOUPIST STRUCTURE is conformable with even slavery, then it follows that any and all attempts to shove democracy down the throats of the Guinean people or any people inhabiting soupist occupied territories in West Africa is nothing more and nothing less than DEMOCRATIC IMPERIALISM.
Accordingly, leafy Sirleaf is not only a civilian soupist, but A SOUPIST DEMOCRATIC IMPERIALIST.
AUTHORIZED AND ISSUED BY THE REVOLUTIONARY WEST AFRICA ANTI-SOUPIST MOVEMENT.
Are we not all playing word games in talking about a "return to democracy" in Guinea? Conte took over in a coup - and were there any non-rigged elections under Conte? For that matter would we describe Toure's government as a democracy? It seems to me strange to speak of a "coup" when the "legitimate" alternative would have been to maintain the control of those who had undermined any democracy in Guinea and helped it to the quite remarkable title of most corrupt country in Africa. The only legitimate government now is a transitional arrangement, and it seems to me that the AU and Ecowas and the Mano River Union could be helpful if they decided to stop posturing (with the main audience I fear being the donors) and start engaging in creating a transition process that includes everyone from civil society to Camara.