30 July 2010
Justice advocate Darius Dillion said even though the Sirleaf Administration has made tangible strides in pulling Liberia out of the ashes of war, it runs the risk of losing the people's support unless parasitic miscreants operating from within were uprooted and prosecuted
Mr. Dillion currently the chief of office staff to Bong County Senator Jewel Howard-Taylor and former senatorial candidate for Montserrado County in the 2009 midterm election, made the assertions, yesterday, when he served as keynote speaker at programs marking the opening and fund drive of the Association of Liberian Professional Secretaries and Clerks (ALIPROSEC) in Monrovia.
He spoke on the topic, "After nearly five years, what significant progress has been made under the UP-led Administration as we gear toward the much talked about 2011 elections? What are the pitfalls and the way forward?"
Mr. Dillion, who referred to himself as an 'ordinary soldier', said there was no question that the Sirleaf Administration has achieved so much in so little a time with meager resources - though with so much goodwill but several yet-to-be fulfilled promises.
He said opinions about the administration's achievements and about it being on the proper path varied on political and personal levels, but that there was much to hope for in the administration's programs and activities when taken in their totality.
"In my opinion as Darius Dillon, I think we are progressing with tangible strides resulting from our individual and collective efforts to move our nation forward despite the mammoth challenges. Thanks to the leadership guidance being provided by this administration," the opposition Liberty Party's strategic icon said.
He noted specifically the extensive repair or reconstruction of the nation's devastated infrastructures, the restoration of basic social services such as water, electricity, and education and health facilities, the strengthening of government institutions, and the waiver of the nation's foreign debt as some of the administration's feats.
"Thanks to the government and people of Liberia for this magnificent success. Special thanks to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for her positive and constructive engagements with our international partners for this unforgettable gain. For these reasons, I am once more proud to be referred to as a Liberian. Hope you are, too," he said of the debt waiver.
He said wherever the debate about the administration's achievement weighed most, what was important was for well-meaning Liberians to galvanize their energies into a united front to turn the negatives into positives by conscious commissions and omissions, since ordinary Liberians for whom most politicians pretend to speak were in the first line of fire of any national upheavals.
"We must all have this national conversation because we are direct victims or beneficiaries of whatever sparks up as a result of our actions or inactions," he said, noting that the united front would require the recommitted leadership of the government of Liberia to peace and development.
What the government and the citizens could achieve working together as one, he said, was the prudent management and distribute of the nation's natural and mineral resources in what he called "equitable manner" to afford the Liberian people the opportunity to improve their lots rather than wallowing in continuous poverty and deprivation.
The justice advocate said even though collective ratings favor the Sirleaf Administration's handling of the nation's challenges, it did not mean that the administration has overcome the problems that put past administrations on collision courses with the people and eventually brought them to their knees.
He said perhaps carried away by the modest achievements, some officials of government were forgetting their responsibilities to the people and were instead calling for peace, unity, and patience while nurturing a society in which greed, immorality, and exploitation flourished with impunity.
As the result of this kind of mentality, challenges basic to peace were being overlooked, he said.
"For instance, the issues about corruption, reconciliation, provision of quality education as well as affordable provision of basic services to our people. The lack of these may erode the confidence of Liberians in this administration," Dillion said.
He was however quick to point out that the current problems of the nation may be related more to the activities of parasitic moles and miscreants operating from within the administration than to the government's conscious failure to design the appropriate policies and programs.
"How can we progress my friends, if we have in our society some men and women who see Liberia as a plantation where they can make "quick money" to spend in Europe, America and other parts of the world? Even though these opportunists are doomed to damnation, I am quite optimistic that we, the conscious and well-meaning Liberians will judge them by their actions in the not too distant future," he said.
He did not name names, but he told his audience that unless these people were uprooted from government and prosecuted, the government as a whole would face the wrath of the Liberian people at the 2011 general and presidential elections.
"The time is coming soon (2011) to make a wise decision - one that will echo to the people in the forgotten and abandoned parts of Grand Kru County, Bokongedeh, in Sinoe County and Mount Wologisi in Lofa County that they too are part of Liberia," he said.
He said it was then that those who "who cry for peace, stability and harmony and yet cheat and deny the ordinary citizens; all those who turn their noses up when they see the broken bodies of ordinary workers and peasants; and all those who preach for another world but yet give us 'hell' to live in", would face their political waterloos.
Meanwhile Mr. Dillion has called on members of ALIPROSEC to ignore the fallacy that some Liberians were more important than others were. He said what determined a citizen's worth was respect for the laws and service to his or her nation and people.
"The truth is, the five fingers are not equal in size and height, but none is superior to the other," he said regarding classifying citizens on the bases of economic and social status.
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Mr.Dillion,you are so correct. Those parasites of which, you are included, need to be up rooted indeed. When those you serve under today, were in power, you would not dare open your mouth because,they were not just parasites of any kind but, fongus. Yes! Fungus! who made the timber prices fell on the world market, by cutting down our precious forest indiscrinately.This made Rusia to protest because, their Surberian Pine Timbers could not compete with our diverse great woods sold to France and other European countries. And yet, they did not build or repaired a single road, renovated a single school, or provided a single clinic for the people in the remoted parts of Liberia.
So, you are right to exercise your freedom. It is a new day in Liberia, that even the tea kettle, can tell the pot,on the same fire, you black.