Ante-Dates Current Multi-Party System
The Analyst
By E. Sumo Jones, Sr.
There is a false belief in the minds of even some intelligent Liberians that there existed no democratic political multi-party system in practice in Liberia when then Associate Justice Wm. V. S. Tubman ran to become the Standard Bearer of the True Whig Party (TWP) and won and was subsequently elected the 18th President of Liberia in 1943. Even before then, there were the True Liberian Party (TLP} and the True Whig Party respectively and it was through a an unyielding ideological and democratic contest that led E. J. Roye, the first Standard Bearer of the True Whig Party, to defeat the ruling True Liberian Party and was then elected the first President of Liberia elected on the True Whig Party ticket.
Liberian history is replete with the fact that when President Edwin Barclay ended his Second term as President of Liberia won as a member of the TWP after his predecessor, Charles Dunbar Burgess King, had resigned involuntarily as a result of his having been found guilty of Force Labor and Slavery by the International Commission of Inquiry of the defunct League of Nations, the partisans of the True Whig Party began to search for a very capable and very popular presidential timber partisan who could replace Barclay with a man he , Barclay, also found interest and confidence in his ability to lead Liberia at that crucial time in the history of Liberia. The infrastructure of the country was practically virtually nonexistent at the time, economically unsound and the Government was absolutely broke. Monrovia, the Capital City of the country had only two partially paved Streets (Ashmun and Broad) with no water and sewage, electricity, telephone and television systems. Not to talk about constructed roads in the then Provinces, the now new Counties of Bong, Grand Gedeh, Lofa and Nimba. Also, at the time, prior to President Tubman’s Administration, the women of Liberia and the indigenous people of the Provinces were denied the right to vote while forced to pay their taxes.
During the Presidential campaign, three political Parties contested the raise after being duly registered which disproves the false notion that it is only in recent times that democratic multiparty political system has come into being in Liberia. The Parties concerned were the Unit Party,(UP) the Democratic Party (DP) led by the then most wealthy Liberian rubber magnet, Hon. James F. Cooper of Monrovia, Montserrado County, as Standard Bearer while Associate Justice William V. S. Tubman was being bitterly fought within the TWP by highly educated, wealthy and articulate then Secretary of State of Liberia , Clarence Lorenzo Simpson, Sr. and his supporters who wanted only a Montserrado County partisan to succeed President Barclay of Montserrado County and not an outsider like Associate Justice Tubman who was said to be a poor man , not a college graduate and from the East Coast, Maryland County.
In those days, the Liberian voters were not concerned about wealth and only someone from Montserrado County to lead them but a great man who had the political ingenuity to bring the Liberian people together and eliminate discriminative barriers which denied the majority of the Liberian citizens their universal franchise in the period just almost at the end of World II when the United States was undergoing a serious economic depression and when Liberia needed a man who could wisely carry the nation through those very difficult times and develop it.
When Simpson refused to withdraw from the raise for Standard Bearer of the Party in favor of Tubman upon an appeal to him by the Executive Committee members of the Party, the Party, under the influence of powerful Senator Edwin A. Morgan from Grand Bassa County, surprising to Justice Tubman, wrote a petition to him signed by the leading partisans of the 5 original Counties of Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount, Maryland, Montserrado and Sinoe who asked him to agree to allow them to carry him as the only Presidential candidate of the True Whig Party and demanded that if he accepted their request, he must reply along with a copy of his Platform attached which Tubman forthwith did. Secretary of State, Simpson, having realized the enormous popularity of Tubman with the partisans, had no alternative but to withdraw from the raise under the condition that he must be chosen as Tubman’s running-mate during the Party’s Convention and his wishes were granted not by the choice of Tubman but by the members of the Party for the sake of Party unity. During the Elections among the respective Parties, the True Whig Party, upon the casting of the first ballots, defeated the two Parties’ candidates by an absolute majority and it is said that the elections were free and fair.
After the inauguration of President Tubman, he wasted no time in setting up Commissions composed of a cross section of the Liberian people to submit, within a reasonable period of time, proposals as to ways and means by which the Government could tackle , on priority basis, the following areas: agriculture, health, the economy, education and rural development including construction of roads throughout the country and unity and integration of the Liberian people to remove all stumbling blocks that divided the Americo-Liberians and the indigenous people with the aim of integrating and uniting the Liberian people in order that they all would have equal opportunities.
Upon assuming Office, President Tubman vowed not to accept any invitation to travel abroad until his plans for development of the country and improving the lives of the people were laid on a proper foundation and sources of funds to finance priority projects were assured from available appropriate quarters. It was in the year 1956 that President Tubman took his first Official visit abroad upon an invitation extended to him by General Francisco Franco of Spain.
Whilst it is true that President Tubman remained in Office for consecutive years until he died in 1971, which critics frowned upon as his having stayed too long in Office and also that his re-elections were undemocratically manipulated by him with the sole objective of barring opposition political Parties and even ambitious partisans within the TWP which are not true, he gave good account of each year he was asked by the Liberian people to succeed himself in terms of progressive and development transformation of the country and promotion of the welfare of the people. President Tubman was unquestionably a nationally and internationally acclaimed dynamic, energetic and a farsighted leader. He was determined to develop economy from scratch and to integrate the people. As sufficient proof of what his Administration achieved during the years he served, I hereby list the following as some of his major progressive achievements not done in chronological order but randomly:
- Granting the women of Liberia and the indigenous people universal suffrage heretofore denied to them. It was through the implementation of this policy that caused the native people and the women of Liberia to have the right to vote and be represented in the National Legislature of Liberia after 97 years of the independence of the Country as a free sovereign and independent State. But for this farsighted action taken by President Tubman, who knows if a woman would have become President of Liberia today without the right to vote and disfranchised?
- Placing the hinterland sub-political divisions of the country inhabited predominately by the native people who constitute the absolute majority of the people on equal footings with the 5 original Counties by changing their names from the status of Provinces to Counties. Bong County was previously called, Central Province, Grand Gedeh and Nimba Counties were previously and jointly called, Eastern Province and Lofa County was previously called, Western Province. Until then, the native people residing in the Provinces were considered second class citizens of the country.
- Construction, Extension and pavement of the Streets of Monrovia including the streets in Sinkor and construction and pavement of Tubman Boulevard.
- Construction of the Bong/Lofa County highway by Raymond Concrete Pile Company of the US.
- Installation of electricity, Telephone, water and sewer, television and national radio (ELBC/) systems in Monrovia and the entire nation with reference to ELBC.
- Construction of the Hydro Electric plant in White Plains.
- Construction of the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Postal Affairs, the Executive Mansion, the Executive Pavilion, the Centennial Memorial Pavilion, the Ministry of Finance, the Capitol Building and the Temple of Justice respectively.
- Construction of the Free Port of Monrovia by the United States as a grant to the Liberian Government and creation of the national Port Authority (NPA)
- Construction of the Tubman Military Academy in Todee, Margibi County.
- Creation of the Ministries of Commerce, Industry and Transportation, Agriculture and Health and Welfare respectively.
- Expansion of the University of Liberia, construction of the Science Building on the campus and construction of the Technical College of Maryland.
- Construction of the Freeway highway connecting the Freeport of Monrovia with Tubman Blvd. in Paynesville.
- Construction of Teachers Training Institutes in the Country.
- Creation of the Monrovia Consolidated School System in Monrovia.
- Introduction of a mass Foreign Scholarship program in the Ministry of Education which gave opportunities for hundreds of under privileged Liberian graduates of high school to study in accredited colleges and Universities abroad at the full expense of Government. Also, some Liberian students who went to study abroad on their own were given grants in aid. But for this grand educational policy, there would have been no opportunity for the hundreds who benefited from this program to have been able to get the caliber of further training abroad that both the scholarship recipients and the Liberian Government benefited from in terms of invaluable services those who returned rendered to the country.
- Liberia became a founding member of the United Nations, the only independent African State then that signed its Charter in San Francisco in the United States in 1945.
- Spearheaded the organization and founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Sanniquellie, Nimba County, Liberia, now African Union (AU)
- Spearheaded the formation and the founding of the Manor River Union (MRU}, an economic union among Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
- Initiated a policy that significantly assisted colonized countries of Africa to becoming decolonized and independent sovereign States..
- Extended mining concessions to Bomi Hills Mining Company, Lamco, Mine Management Associates and Bong Mining Company respectively consistent with his Open Door Policy .Liberians were given the opportunity to purchase shares in LAMCO.
- Caused the codification of Liberian Laws which led to the production and compilation of the Liberian Code of Laws of 1956 and the Liberian Law Reports under the auspices of Cornell University of New York which heretofore were unheard of.
- Constructed the Unification Monument and the Voinjama Social Services Building respectively in the City of Voinjama, Lofa County and launched the Unification and Integration Policy that symbolize the unity and integration of the Liberian people.
- Establishment of a Liberian National Airlines program (LNA) and constructed Airfields throughout the country where those planes took passengers to and fro.
- The John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital was built as a grant to the Liberian Government by the United States and it was a first class Hospital where Liberians and people from all over West Africa went for medical attention prior to the civil war.
- Liberia became a member of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund respectively.
- Leaders of the world sought his wise advice including the Government of the United States.
- A Literary program was introduced in Liberia as well as adult education.
- During his Administration, Liberia was self-sufficient in feeding itself with its staple food, rice.
- The Liberia Refining Company (LRC) was introduced which later came to be known as the Liberian Petroleum Refining Corporation (LPRC) and a Public Corporation today. Liberia experienced neither shortage of gasoline nor the basic consumer items such as rice and prices for those commodities did not skyrocket beyond the buying power of the average citizen during his entire Administration.
- It was during his Administration that Labor Unions were established in Liberia.
- Liberian Embassy Buildings were bought in the United States, Britain, France, Ethiopia, Ghana and Togo respectively all of which, with the exception of those buildings in Ghana and the United States, we have reliably been informed have been sold by certain Administrations after President Tubman’s Administration.
- The National Police Force (NPF), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Special Security Service (SSS) and the National Security Agency (NSA) were created respectively which rendered and are still rendering first class security services to the nation. The National Police Force was reorganized in 1949 doing away with services of illiterate men and women by retrenching and immediately paying them off. Liberian High School graduates attending college were encouraged to join the Force by creating a special Shift to accommodate them after school known as Company C which ran from 2 P.M. to 10 P.M. Col. Charles A. Cooper of Monrovia was then the Director of Police. Your humble servant was a beneficiary of this reorganization program who was a Police Officer while attending the University of Liberia.
- The President established the Liberian National Guard and Liberia was the first African country to send troops to the United Nations Peace-keeping mission to the Belgium Congo which came to be known later as Ziare.
- In 1947, when Liberia became 100 years old, President Tubman paid-in-full the salary arrears of former members of the defunct Liberian Frontier Force who were given good notes by a previous Administration with promise that they would be paid by the Government of Liberia upon presentation of their good notes when the country became 100 years old.. The President redeemed those good notes on time and during his entire Administration, Government employees received their salaries on time. We hope President Sirleaf‘s Administration will be kind to redeem the Liberian Savings Bond Certificates that were issued to Liberian Government employees by the Administration of the Military Government of Head of State and Chairman of the People’s Redemption Council, Samuel Kanyon Doe purchased by deductions from our salaries. They were scheduled to be redeemed first in 1987 and lastly in 1989 but to no avail. LD$1,400.00 was deducted from my salary during the administration of the late Finance Minister, George Duyen who initiated the idea as Minister of Finance and, I still have my certificate.
- It was President Tubman who organized and brought about the Liberian Maritime Program which led to Liberia succeeding Britain in the largest number of ships flying its Flag under the open registry system. The Liberian Maritime Program today is the economic bread basket of Liberia without which income no Government of Liberia would hardly survive.
- The Monrovia City Hall was erected by the President.
- The now destroyed Five Star Ducor Intercontinental Hotel was built
- The International Trust Company Bank was established in Monrovia.
- Chase Manhattan Bank came into being in Monrovia.
- The Sea Port of Buchanan was constructed in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County by LAMCO. for shipment of their iron ore.
- Tradevco Bank was opened in Monrovia.
- The Masonic Temple was constructed.
- The True Whig Party Building was built by the Party on Ashmun Street.
- The United States Agency for International Development was established in Liberia.
- Railroad tracks and cars were built by the Liberia Mining Company and LAMCO to transport their iron ores to the Ports of Monrovia and Buchanan respectively.
- Pan American Airways, KLM, SAS, Air France, Swissair, Air Leban and Sabena Airlines established regular flights to Roberts International Airport respectively.
- Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain along with her Husband paid an Official visit to Liberia upon the invitation of the President which yielded some economic benefits to Liberia.
- Vice President Richard M. Nixon of the United States visited Liberia in 1948 to turn over the Freeport of Monrovia to the Liberian Government on behalf of his Government.
- It was during President Tubman’s Administration that the United States famous Department Stores of Montgomery Ward, Sears Roebuck and Company and Belles Hess developed so much confidence in the Liberian Government to the extent that Liberians of all walks of life used to order goods from those Stores from their catalogs even on COD basis through the then famous Monrovia Parcel Post which was under the able control of the late Collector of Customs, Mr. .C. G. Bryant, Sr., father of former LNTG Chairman, Charles Gyude Bryant who was popularly known as Collector Bryant. It is unfortunate that since the first civil war began in 1990 though each Government of Liberia continued to appoint Ministers of Postal Affairs, letters are no longer being posted to and from Liberia to foreign parts including domestic mails. It is only of late that one can post letters by EMS through the Post Office which the average citizen cannot afford the cost of US$34.00 some of which letters we have learned are usually tampered with and intercepted. Foreign letter carriers like DHL and FEDEX, currently operating in Liberia are practically usurping the functions of the Postal Ministry while they should be only optional means of posting by choice and not by compulsion as is the case now. The Liberian Government is also losing much needed revenue due to its inability to provide full postal service to the people while the foreign postal service institutions are having a monopoly advantage over our foreign postal service. This is a challenge to our new Minister of Postal Affairs who recently visited the United States. If I had my way, I would have the National Legislature to amend the law creating the Ministry of Postal Affairs as a Cabinet post by dissolving it and creating a Liberian Postal Service as a Public Corporation with a Post Master General heading it along with a Board of Directors as is done in the United States for the purpose of non political and efficient operation. The former Department of Postal Service of the United States was a Cabinet Department but it has since been dropped from a political bureaucracy to a very efficient and competitive Agency of the United States Government. I would privatize all of the other Public Corporations placing them in the hands of competent Liberians who would own them on competitive basis with very honest and strong Regulatory Agencies of Government to oversee their operations make sure that they follow the guidelines set by Government.
- Last but not the least, and, above all, President Tubman maintained peace and political stability in the country throughout his Administration. He boosted the economy of the country and Liberia became prosperous and economically viable due to his proper management of the economy. Liberians were respected all over the world as proud citizens of the country. Liberian citizens received visitors’ visas to travel to America and Europe just upon applying with no hesitation on the parts of the Consulates of those countries to issue the visas during the Tubman Administration.
As President Tubman never preached perfection nor infallibility in the execution of his duties during his Administration, he left a message of apology during his Funeral in 1971 for anyone that he might have hurt while serving as President to forgive him. The goodness he did by far outweigh any errors of judgment he made. I believe that is why when the 1980 coup de tat took place, the Military Government composed of young soldiers saved and kept only his official Portrait in the Executive Mansion and, unfortunately, destroyed the portraits of all of his predecessors and then honored his eldest son, former Senator Wm. V.S. Tubman, Jr. by dispatching a delegation to Roberts International Airport to receive him from a trip abroad and crowned the honor up by allowing him to keep his Senate Office in the Capitol Building as long as he wished. But as soon as Shad cleared his personal effects from the Office, he gave it up with thanks to them. The President was highly loved and respected by his people, the Army and the international community. He kept Liberia at peace with its neighbors.
We Liberians have to learn to give credit to our former leaders who did extremely well in uniting us and giving us equal opportunities never heard of prior to Tubman’s Administration. Do you know what it meant for the women of Liberia especially the native people of Liberia to have been denied their constitutional right to vote until Tubman came and abolished that undemocratic practice? Do you know what it meant prior to his administration when it was the country people inhabiting the then sub-political divisions called Provinces which label led them to be treated differently as fewer citizens than the settler inhabitants of the original Counties? Yes, we claim that we are enjoying plural multi-party democracy today in Liberia, but how many precious Liberian lives have not been taken during the period from 1979 to 2005 while armed robberies and illegal occupation of other citizens’ bona fide homes and houses by ex-combatants and others remain the order of the day? Law and order were maintained to the letter and there existed no armed robberies and the rate of unemployment was very low during the Tubman Administration.
For those who call President Tubman a Dictator for staying in power for a long time and allegedly denying the formation of any opposition political Party and silencing newspapers that were critical of his Administration which is not true as he was democratically elected through a democratic multi-party political contest. Just to name one instance, “The Friend “newspaper published by the late Mr. S. T. Richards was the mouth peace of the Independent True Whig Party (ITWP) of the late former President Edwin Barclay who ran against President Tubman in the 50s. The Friend published every critical article about and against President Tubman and the TWP unmolested. Can you trade the peaceful and prosperous years that President Tubman and President Tolbert led Liberia with that of later years during which period hundreds of thousands of Liberians were massacred by inhumane people?
There are no basic telephones, electricity, water and sewer systems, properly functioning ELBC, no ELTV, no decent and safe streets to neither walk in nor ride on after the destruction of what they erected. As for rural Liberia especially Lofa County, those who invaded that area most wickedly destroyed the poor people’s huts and homes in their Cities, Towns and even their remote villages and also destroyed their schools and Churches including the beautiful Lutheran Training Institute (LTI) which was one of the best high schools in the country erected and run by the Lutheran Church. How in the world can you say that you love any place that you claim you came from and then turn around and kill the people there and destroy their thatched huts when they were only subsistence farmers? God in his own time will render to those responsible the sorrows they deserve that reconciliation cannot compromise. We have seen the unbearable pictures of skulls of good citizens in mass graves recently in Lofa County and we understand that some of those who committed the gruesome acts and those who know who did them are still around. Some are penitent while others are intransigent. But God’s time is the beast for those massacred beings who were defenseless, innocent, unarmed and non combatant citizens.
When I visited my County of Lofa in April, 2005 after 14 years of absence beyond my control and saw the cruel destructions they committed for myself and took note of the thousands murdered, I shed bitter tears. It is therefore very saddened that the Liberian people would exercise the same sad slogan they used to elect Charles Taylor President of Liberia, “you killed my Pa, you killed my Ma, I will still vote for you” this time around again. Except you were born as blood thirsty men and women and a thief, I am sure you do not sleep soundly at nights with the thoughts of those whose lives you took and the illegal wealth you amassed by looting the economy of the country. They did not leave a single hut untouched in my home Town, Kiliwu including my decent house only the walls of it and my water tower are standing up. They took away my generator and all of the electric wires that I connected the Town with that provided light on the main road in the Town. They committed the cruel acts of destruction to nearly every Hamlet, Town, Village and City in Lofa County. I believe Lofa County got the hardest hit among all of the Counties in Liberia.
Some of Taylor’s fighters, upon reaching to Monrovia, in July, 1990, abducted my two innocent, unarmed and non-combatant brothers whom we have yet to find and are now presumed dead. We therefore welcome the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which I believe those of our relatives who witnessed their being taken away will be given the opportunity to testify before the Commission. I hope the hearings will be conducted live on television as the radio stations cannot satisfactorily give the masses of the people the opportunity to watch the hearings. I therefore hope that the Government will delay the TRC hearings until ELTV is restored to give the public the opportunity of seeing and observing the testimonies and seeing the aggrieved and the accused as they answer to the charges.
President Tubman is not responsible for the political unrests that have permeated Liberian life since his demise. If his critics insist that he were responsible, let them think twice and remember the vast and indispensable contributions he made that all Liberians benefited from and are still benefiting from 25 years after his unfortunate death. Some political leaders of the world served longer than President Tubman and left behind hardly anything desirable of any use and benefit to their peoples but abject poverty and degradation. They did nothing to unite their people but kept them ethnically and politically divided. He did not tolerate ethnic hatred and did not encourage nor condone murder of others.
President Tubman did not force himself on the people that led to his re-elections willingly by the Liberian people. President Barclay, after serving his second term when he had served out the unexpired term of President King, wanted to run for a third term and as powerful as he was, the Liberian people indicated to him that they did not want him to serve another term. He therefore had no alternative but to allow the Liberian people to choose another leader. The Liberian people did not make a mistake in re-electing Tubman over and over because he remained committed to his platform and beyond it in the interest and welfare of the people. President Tubman was a man who loved his fellowmen irrespective of their social status even prior to his becoming President. He was able to hold the Liberian people together and protected them throughout which, in my opinion, mattered most as the Liberian people are still we are presently finding it almost impossible to hold together.
An example of his political popularity was exhibited when the people of Maryland County declared, “No Tubman no Senator” when some politicians who disliked him personally did not want for him to even run for the Senate safe to say for him to be elected Senator. And, until he was elected Senator, Maryland County refused to have anybody else to be nominated nor elected Senator. As a result, Cllr. Tubman was elected Senator for Maryland County and those who were opposed to his election had no other alternative but to give up their opposition He was serving his people very well in the Senate until he was appointed by President Barclay as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia. It was from that none political position, one rarely can be elected to a political Office not counting the Presidency of Liberia, that he was elected President of Liberia.
There are those critics who allege that it were President Tubman who caused the Liberian people to achieve nothing from the iron ore mining companies which is also far from the truth. The companies were not prohibited by the President from employing Liberians and if those who were around and worked there failed to put what they earned to use, the President cannot be fairly blamed for that. The very reason why the President had those concessions to begin operations in those areas was designed to create mass employment opportunities for Liberians and thousands of Liberians of all walks of life did work for those concessions. It was not the desire of the President for those concessions to have left the depleted mines ghost towns. We Liberians, in general, have the bad tendency of not taking advantage of opportunities afforded to us and fail to make good use of them. We have to remember that those concessions operated under written contracts and agreements. Therefore, if any clauses of the agreements were not enforced in favor of the Liberians, let the critics point them out. The Firestone Agreement was signed for 99 years in 1926 prior to the Tubman Administration and even though that agreement has about 8 more years to expire, while the employees were crying foul, the LNTG went ahead and made an addendum to the said agreement before the end of the existing agreement without taking care of the workers demands and it is only the coming in of the current Administration about five months ago, the workers are striking.
As long as we continue to be ungrateful to the past peaceful existence of Liberia that President Tubman and others promoted and maintained and the numerous progressive and economic contributions he made to Liberia and the Liberian people and refuse to give him the deserved credit and are unwilling to follow the good footsteps he left behind, we will continue to experience bad omens. Liberian political leaders now and to come would be successful if they give the “Oldman,” some credit publicly for the invaluable services he and his Administration rendered to the country and the Liberian people.
I am aware of the official celebration of the late President’s annual birthdays as a national Holiday which I know is a credit given to him. But I am talking about those critics who are still writing and falsely accusing him of evil things he did not do by unfairly putting him practically in the same category with former President Charles Taylor considering the fact that both of them cannot be compared by any means in terms of the proper and progressive administration of Liberia at peace and tranquility with all.
In consideration of the international recognition and high esteem in which leaders of the world held him, he was extended Official and State invitations to visit numerous countries of the world and was awarded many high decorations by those Governments including the United States where Presidents Harry S. Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Richard Nixon respectively invited him to visit their country. Several of those Presidents lodged him in the White House and others lodged him in Blair House, the official guest house of the Presidents of the United States. President Tubman addressed the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council on many occasions.
In Europe, President Tubman was invited to pay Official visits to practically every European Kingdom and country including the United Kingdom of Great Britain where he was the only African Head of State that Queen Elizabeth II received in person at the London Harbor upon his arrival from where they rode the Royal Coach to Buckingham Palace where he slept for the three nights of his Official visit there. He slept in the Royal Palaces of the Kingdoms of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Belgium respectively and was also a guest of the Presidents of France and West Germany respectively. The President also paid Official visits to the Ethiopian Empire upon the invitation of Emperor, Halle Salasie, The Island of Madagascar, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gabon and Togo respectively. The President also paid an Official visit to Israel, Cameroon, Jamaica and other countries that time did not permit me to list.
One of the secrets of President Tubman’s successful administration of the country was that he never failed to reply any letter addressed to him by anyone if received by him if nothing but just to acknowledge receipt of the letter irrespective of the status of life of the individual who wrote it. No individual was too small for him to allow him or her to see him wherever he was at home or abroad. As a result of that policy, he made everybody to feel that he or she was somebody by recognizing him or her. Little people or ordinary citizens were proud to receive “Green Letters”, the official color of the letterheads the Presidents of Liberia write on from their leader in reply to their letters. Some of them went so far as to frame the President’s letters and hung them on their walls as is done even in the United States. That was the same way how President Tubman treated telegrams received by him. He was an extremely kind man and never looked down on his fellowman prior to becoming President and during his Presidency. He personally sponsored many students prior to and while in Office from all over Liberia in school and some of them stayed with him at the Executive Mansion including your humble Servant. But you can rest assured that it is not because of his personal kindness to me that I have written these facts as I got to know them personally about his Administration. I also read many of the good and false things written about him in books and news papers. Some of the things I have written in this article about President Tubman on events of 1943 to 1947 were only read by me during my research because I had not seen him before 1948. From 1948 until the President died in 1971, I was very close to him and even served as one of his special Bodyguards of the SSS under the Directorship of the late James P. Bestman after I graduated from the University of Liberia in 1955.
It is unfortunate that some of the young people who were not born during Tubman’s Administration as well as those who were little children at the time might know very little about him and the great things he did for the country and its people except the negative things some of them were told about or read about him. That is why I decided to enlighten those who are open-minded and know nothing much about the facts regarding the good that he did. There are those who for some personal reasons continue to say and write some negative things about President Tubman and are doing everything they can fruitlessly to overshadow the great things he did for Liberia which all of us are still very much benefiting from and cannot do without for the time being 35 consecutive years after his unfortunate passing away. Whether or not his avid critics are still against his Administration of Liberia and I recognize their constitutional right to freely write or say anything negative about him, the fact is that he was elected President of Liberia during a multi-party political raise from which he and his TWP emerged victorious and the concrete development and economic policies he initiated , implemented and left behind in the best interest of the Liberian people are still here and we are still benefiting from them. Associate Justice William V.S. Tubman, in 1943, was competitively and democratically elected President of the Republic of Liberia through a free and fair election in a multi-Party political raise against powerful, influential and wealthy opponents.
May his soul continue to rest in peace and light everlasting continue to shine upon him.
Culled from The Analyst
Superbly writing article.
Greetings to All Readers:
With all due respect to Hon. E. Sumo Jones, I would like for him to publish the final report of the League of Nations where that body states that they found Charles D.B. King “guilty of force labor and slavery”. This is all that I would like for him to publish, because as he states, we want the younger generations to know the facts, so lets see the source of this information. This should not be too big a task, especially when the reputation of a person is at stake here. Kind Regards Charles E. King