LIBERIAN POLITICS, A FAVORITE CRIME
Written by Paul K. Kennedy
Washington DC, USA

Liberian politics has become a very immoral act, which has gained fame and welcomed by the "so-called" politicians in our country. Time after time, our leaders (these politicians) have abused and exploited our basic human rights and our country's natural resources for their selfish intents and personal greed. Yet and still, they live and walk with impunity amongst the Liberian People.

According to philosophy, politics is ethics applied to a group of people; and ethics is the proper course of actions or norms of a society that regulates moral values or actions of mankind. Politics dictates how society is set up and the proper course of actions taken in that society. A political system requires that the individuals within that system be allowed to fully function according to their nature (to live as a rational being). If that is not the case, they will either rebel, or the system will eventually collapse. Holding these truths as evidence, the politics practiced in my country, Liberia, can only be considered a crime against that society. It completely violates all of the norms and proper course of actions in our society. I as an individual victimized by such crime, have deduced out of critical and analytical reasoning, to call it "A Favorite Crime".

Corruptions, embezzlements, misappropriations, mismanagements, rapes and murders are famous acts repeatedly committed against Liberians by politicians. Let's mention of few in most recent time:
Samuel K. Doe, a sergeant of the Liberian Army who assassinated his predecessor, William R. Tolbert for "Rampant Corruption", became the most corrupt African Leader of his time. Receiving more than five hundred and eighty million ($580.000, 000) United States Dollars, within a five-year period 1980-1985, from the United States Government and other International Organizations, for national development. Samuel Doe and his immediate relatives and friends, lived a lavish life at the detriment of the Liberian People; ordering the arrests, murders and secret disappearances of Liberians who disagreed with his cruel and unlawful acts against humanity.

Charles Ghankay Dakpannah McArthur Taylor, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Charles Walker Brumskine, Alhaji Gebah Varmuyan Kromah are amongst the names of unpatriotic and selfish Liberian Politicians who designed, facilitated and imposed atrocity against the Liberian People in the name of freedom and peace, from the hands of the "dictator" Samuel Doe.
I still remember when Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, (one of the most potential candidates vying for presidency in the forthcoming Liberian Elections), commanded her able Lieutenant Charles Taylor to level Monrovia if that's what it took to remove Samuel Doe. She never considered that there were armless civilian populations in Monrovia at that time who would suffer and die in that process. In other words, she was saying kill everyone in Monrovia if that's what it required to get Mr. Doe out so that she could become president. Unfortunately for her, when Mayor Taylor leveled Monrovia, he did not allow her to become the president. After killing, raping and committing other violent crimes against the Liberian People, Taylor was elected to power by the very people he had committed all of these crimes against for the sake of peace. They greatly expected that President Taylor would change his tyrannical behavior. Even worse, defying expectations, Taylor became the most immoral, unpatriotic, corrupt, democratic elected rebel the world has ever produced.

The philosophical definition of politics in the second paragraph of this commentary leads me to believe that a moral and rational political system must respect and protect the basic rights of individuals within that system (Right to Life, Right to Liberty, Right to Property, Right to the Pursuit of Happiness, Right to Free Speech, and Right to Self Defense).

Therefore, a proper political system is that in which, the designated government upholds the individuals' rights and does not itself violate them in any way. Hence Liberian Politicians have never provided such political system for the Liberian People; I consider politics practiced in this country a crime and those who practice such as criminals.