2 July 2009
opinion
The Liberian public must have bowed recently in the pool of disbelief and shock when some information scavengers created the impression that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's appointment of Marc A. Amblard as Inspector General of the Liberia National Police was ill-conceived.
What the scavengers did to achieve their objective was to mutilate the Inspector General-Designate's profile and vitae to make it appear that beyond his first college degree in Agriculture, he's got no iota of further training and education, let alone security-related tutelage and experience and therefore unfit for the delicate national placement.
Not too sure that President Sirleaf, a renowned international civil servant and reform-obsessed leader, would leave citizens' security in the balance and at a mercy of unfit Police Director,
The Analyst Staff Writer conducted a little bit of research which finds out the President is not in error and that the new LNP boss' credential provides substantial assurance of the police force under his superintendence can be more vigilant, people-centered and productive.
There have been sustained public uproars since President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf reshuffled her government. The uproars are sparked by suspicion that some of the President's appointments were mere placements of round pegs in square holes and square pegs in round holes.
Apparently consumed by the disinformation, some job hustlers and media scavengers have been launching collective indictment campaigns for whatever reasons. One victim of this information perversion campaign is Humphrey International Fellowship trained cop, Marc A. Amblard who President Sirleaf has picked for the post of Inspector-General of Liberia.
Meeting a lineup of Senators during his confirmation last week, the Police Director-Designate presented exhaustive vitae and divulged his vision and strategy for building an enterprising and transformed police force in the country. Brushing aside the enthralling exchanges between Marc Amblard and the Honorable Senate, some news writer painted a bleak picture, largely in a paranoid research model that nearly turned public taste and preference away from the young Police Director-to-be.
Thus, the headlines rolled that President Sirleaf picked Agriculture-degreed individual to head the Liberia National Police and to fight crime which is rising in tide. Ahead of presidential response to these innuendoes, The Analyst saw it as a professional obligation to establish whether or not the man who is to head the nation's long beleaguered but pivotal security force particularly in the face of rising crime rate lacks the requisite credential.
The research included accessing and verifying information material on the professional and academic history of the appointee and interviewing presidential aides and critical minds, most of them requesting that their names should remain off print since confirmation was still ongoing.
Meeting a calm-looking Marc Amblard at his Congo Town residence Monday, The Analyst, following several hours of persuasion, was successful in obtaining and verifying the Police Director-Designate's curriculum vitae as well as an assortment of academic insignias and accolades accorded him by a plethora of training institutions.
Amblard's education and training as discovered by The Analyst research goes beyond a degree in Agriculture, which the 41-year old Liberian first earned in 1992 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign , Illinois , U.S.A.
Asked jokingly why he chose Agriculture as his first degree, Amblard smiled and said, "Every young person makes academic choices based either on their conviction or simply as steppingstone or gateway to higher frontiers of their professional life; and this sets the stage of higher pursuits that at times don't necessary look back at earlier achievements."
Reporters' question on the matter comes from the backdrop of insinuations amongst critics and opponents that President Sirleaf made a mistake to name an agriculture academic as a Police Director. But a further inquiry beyond the insinuation would certainly jettison critics into submission because volumes of Biological notes available to The Analyst attest to Amblard's deepened orientation and knowledge in security science and an amiable profile of an astute administrator.
According to documents verified by The Analyst, Amblard is a fresh product of the University of Minnesota, USA, where between 2008 and 2009 he imbibed intensive lessons in National Security Policy, Leadership for the Common Good, Strategic Human Resource Management and Global Commons Seminar.
The Security Policy course helps graduates such as Amblard to examine the organization and structure of the national security apparatus and national decision-making process and to access central threats to international security and develop policy options to dealing with such threats. The course also puts its products in the frame of mind to undertake major policy review on specific national security challenges and to produce written and oral products crucial to national security policymaking.
Another important benefit of Amblard's Minnesota University training came via the Strategic Human Resource Management course which instills into graduates such as the Police Director-Designate the skills to dissect complex issues, providing an understanding of theories of organizational development, leadership and human resource management.
Complementing his Strategic Human Resource Management knowledge as provided by the University of Minnesota is the Leadership for the Common Good course which enables graduates to understand and develop theories, tools and strategies of leadership, builds a learning community and provides how policy entrepreneurs develop and manage ideas for achieving the common good.
While undergoing his Humphrey International Fellowship Program provided by the University of Minnesota , Amblard enjoyed training affiliation with the Brooklyn Park Police Department (BPPD) where he studied processes and methods of policing and law enforcement, thus imbibing a holistic understanding of working in a Liberia type environment since Liberians in this part of Minnesota , Brooklyn , are approximately 22,000.
The BPPD studies permitted the new Police Director to acquire training in Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), Tactical Leadership, Use of Refresher Training, Basic and Advanced Handgun Rifle Training and Transformative Justice. The rather intensive course has developed Amblard's capacity to possessing the technical and strategic expertise required to effectively administer and manage a modern police organization.
Before the Inspector-General's appointment at the National Security Agency (NSA) where he served as Deputy Director for Administration from 2006 to 2008, Amblard occupied a plethora of other venerable administrative positions, according to documents in possession of The Analyst.
He was the Founder, General Manager and CEO of Atlas Trading Corps and an Associate of the US-based Corporate Response Group, where he was responsible for the design of crisis and emergency management plans for various corporate governmental clients. Confirmed documents in possession of The Analyst show that before the Police Director-Designate returned to Liberia in 1998, he worked for three years as paralegal at one of USA 's leading law firms, Jackson & Campbell Law Firm situated in Washington , DC .
Amblard's service at the law firm provided him ample experience in legal research and investigations and preparing legal briefs for lead lawyers for the firm. Earlier media publications glossed over substantive information on the professional and academic standing of the new police director now pending confirmation before the Liberian Senate.
But pundits in government circles, both at the Executive and Legislature, said compared with a chain of erstwhile police directors, Amblard stands a better professional and academic chance to make enormous progress at the Liberia National Police.
Though Amblard might not have obtained a Doctorate in Police Science, a longtime-serving LNP officer who does not want to be named in print said the level of training and experience he brings to the police force is adequate to actualize, if not finalize, the horde of reform measures initiated by his predecessors.
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