Campaigning for Liberia's presidential election in October has shifted into high gear, with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf seeking a second six-year term. Charles Brumskine, a 60-year-old lawyer who ran third in the country's first post-war poll in 2005, is the Liberty Party standard-bearer.
Brumskine, who earned a Master of Laws degree at Southern Methodist University in Texas in the United States, served as president pro temp of the Liberian Senate before fleeing the country following a fallout with former President Charles Taylor in 1999. Brumskine was interviewed in Monrovia last month by AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana and Reed Kramer. Excerpts:
Let's begin with the current situation in the country. How do you evaluate the changes that have taken place since the civil war ended?
In terms of fundamental change, not much has happened over the last five to six years that would sustain our attempt at democracy. What you have going on is rather cosmetic in nature. We have missed a glorious opportunity. Ellen should have hit the ground, using the bully pulpit and changing this country. But instead she tolerated and encouraged corruption. I am afraid we're running the risk of violence again. People are really hurting. When you hear a Liberian say that he was better economically under [former warlord and president Charles] Taylor than he's doing now, you know something is fundamentally wrong and that there's a need for change.
It does appear that an impressive rebuilding process is taking place. Why do you argue that this is cosmetic?
Why is it that Liberia went to war? Why did we kill ourselves for 14 years? Why did we destroy the country? Was it because we didn't have running water in Liberia? No. Was it because we didn't have electricity in some parts of Monrovia? No. Was it because the road from here to Buchanan was not paved? No. The absence of those things were not the cause of the war. They are the consequences of war. Corruption [and] the lack of good governance - those are the issues that caused us to go to war. Until we determine those things that need to be corrected, those things that need to be addressed so we won't have a relapse, we remain fragile. We remain, in a technical sense, a failed state.
You believe the President is doing very little to address these fundamentals?
Very little, if any. Let's start with corruption. You have a situation where, in the president's office, U.S.$150,000 was withdrawn from the social security account as revealed by the John Morlu's audit report.
Nobody knows what happened to that money. President Sirleaf will admit that she's failed. She will tell you that [corruption] is systemic. We knew that. That's why leadership is important.
Look at governance. It's regrettable that President Sirleaf's mindset is still in the 60s and the 70s. We are yet to hold elections for a chief in Liberia. So the people at the base of the governance pyramid still do not know who their leader is. The president is appointing chiefs, dismissing chiefs - contrary to the constitution of Liberia. For the first time in the history of our country, we have a president who has acquired authority to appoint city mayors. You don't need to be a specialist to know that a city mayor in a liberal democracy is elected by the people. That isn't done in this country. So where are we heading with regards to governance? Not very far.
We haven't done anything with regards to reconciliation. Understandably, President Sirleaf cannot reconcile Liberia because she is an embodiment of the problems of this country. Liberia is 164 years old this year. The first popular election we had in this country was 1985. Mrs. Sirleaf was elected to the Senate. She refused to take her seat. They agitated until they brought war to Liberia. That is no secret. In 1997, we had our second popular election. President Sirleaf lost. She brought war to Liberia. She was indicted by the TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] for giving financial support to Charles Taylor.
Fortunately for the Liberian people, 2005 saw someone like myself making a conscientious decision to give opposition politics a new face. You know I lived in the United States before, and, if I say so myself, I was doing pretty well there. But I came home in 2003. When I lost, I didn't return to the States seeking greener pastures. I did not wage war against my people. I stayed here. Liberian people have begun to understand that you can lose an election and wait for a second chance.
If you had won, what would you have done differently?
I always find it difficult answering hypothetical questions. Let me tell you what I intend to do next year. I will be more of a domestic president than an international president. I am going to spend more time in the villages and the districts of Liberia than in the capitals of western countries. I want to adapt the palaver hut concept where we go around the country, talking with our people. Give the victims of war an opportunity to vent their frustrations, to talk about the ills that have been meted out to them and ask our brothers and sisters who have perpetrated the violence to come and apologize. We're going to push that.
Our reconciliation process will start with the schools. We're going to have a program for scholarships to students who are B-plus to go to university. In exchange, they will sign an undertaking to work for the government during the annual vacations. We are going to build a sort of domestic peace corps. Send them into the interior of Liberia where they going to be conducting vacation schools for younger kids who either didn't have the opportunity to go to school or had deficiency during the previous semester. We will have them working as clerks in paramount chiefs' offices, in the superintendents' offices, learning how to build clinics and roads and schools.
Kids from Bassa will be assigned to Lofa. Kids from Lofa will be assigned to Cape Mount. Kids from Cape Mount will be assigned to Grand Kru. Just imagine a young child spending four annual vacations in a different culture. They will learn how to speak each other languages.
They'll learn each other's cultures. We will, for the first time, give teeth to Liberia's unification policy. Politicians always talk about this but they do nothing to enhance the policy.
Corruption - Mrs. Sirleaf is never going to be able to deal with corruption because she's failed the first test. President Sirleaf is perceived as being corrupt. I have to make sure that as a leader I will keep above the fray. To do that, the law of the land has to be applied indiscriminately. If your friend or your senior partisan breaches the law or is accused of corruption, that person must be turned over to the law for prosecution.
The Jallah Town Road project - $ 1.5 million squandered. After a lot of outrage from the public, what did President Sirleaf do? She assigned the minister as advisor in the mansion - basically promoting this guy. What do you think came to the minds of the average Liberian. Oh, that fellow alone didn't eat the money, the president must have eaten some too. It may not be true but this is an issue of perception.
Look at what happened the other day in Grand Bassa. The President of Liberia gets to this foreign company and she is given a white envelope.
And the British man says to her: This is for your special market fund. I will not have a special fund as president of Liberia. No president should have such a fund that is not subject to public scrutiny because obviously, it becomes a conduit for corruption.
President Sirleaf requested from Mittal Steel vehicles for members of legislature at the value of about U.S.$3.5 million - at the time when the contract of Mittal Steel was pending before the legislature for rectification. These are things that we must stop. We must not allow it to happen in the new Liberia. I mean we can go on but I'll give you chance to bring in another question.
Why were the discussions between you and [soccer star and former presidential challenger] George Weah about a merged ticket not successful?
We gave it our best, and it didn't work out. People have to share common values in order for them to be able to move together.
Can the political opposition hope to win if you can't unify against the incumbent?
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All of us in the opposition understand among ourselves that Ellen must go. At the end of the first round, we're going to come together. I believe that with all my heart. Having said that, I am looking forward to winning on the first round. If not, we believe we're going on the second round and we're going to be number one. The political map of Liberia favors our candidacy. People who believe President Sirleaf can win should answer a simple question: which counties can she win?
I am a Bassa man. I am going to win Rivercess , Grand Bassa - I am talking about 65 percent of the votes in each of those counties. My running mate is a Kpelle man. Together we are going to win Margibi, Bong, Lower Lofa, Lower and Upper Nimba. We're going to take at least 35 percent of Montserrado County.
Can you draw support from other areas and work to reconcile the country? During the last election, you alienated the Islamic population with some of your pronouncements. What will you do differently this time?
I don't agree that I am incapable of reconciling. In 2005, we came second in Nimba Country [after] Dr. Joe Kortor, a son of Nimba county, came into the race at the 11th hour. Nimba is like a second home for me.
I am very popular in Nimba county. You're right about the Islamic community. We did not do as much as we should have done in 2005. We allowed the opposition to define us to the Islamic community. That is not happening this year. We are working with our friends that are our brothers and sisters in the Islamic community. And I believe we are going to win the majority of the votes in the Islamic community. I enjoy a very strong support with that group today.
So you are confident about your chances?
Yes. I have no doubt that the people understand the message. All we're asking for an environment where the votes of the people can be accurately reflected. If it is the will of the people that I do not win, I will appreciate that, like I was told in 2005 that I did not win. But this time, I will make sure that it is the result of the people and not the results of someone else.
