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Betrayal and Subordination of the Public Interest - I beg to disagree...
May 21, 2008
Joseph Toe Tehmeh
Why was it okay for ULAA to participate in the peace talks in Ghana, but not in the interim government that ensued? I will challenge you to explain your logic on behalf of you and your supporters.
Here are some hard facts:
There is nothing in the constitution that says that a sitting ULAA President may not resign his position at any time he or she finds it necessary;
To the best of my knowledge, there was also no limit set by ULAA to the level of participation of the delegation sent to Ghana;
According to your notice here, the Kromah led delegation should have come back to the States to consult with you and others on how to fill the seat allocated to ULAA? How would you have gone about filling the seat with "more qualified" people? Can you please explain this within the context of everything that was happening at the time to and about Liberia?
If you insist that ULAA should not be used as a stepping stone to for those who want to serve in Liberia, what should be? What theater of leadership do you see for future leaders of Liberia? Please say why ULAA should not be seen as a theater of leadership;
The heading of your release states "Betrayal and Subordination of the Public Interest." Which Public are you referring to here? I will jump at it and say that you are talking about the Liberian public here in the US. What makes the public here different from the public back home? Let's discount that we earn more money here on average than we would earn back home. What is the difference?
I will have to conclude this by saying that I see no basis to any criticism thrown at Mr. Kromah and others who have gone to put in their little bit to help out in Liberia. The fact is that if not those Liberians who are best educated and most exposed, than who? Or is it okay with you that our affairs are always decided and finalized by outsiders? How do you suggest that Liberians go about cultivating leaders for themselves? Why should ULAA officials be excluded? How does it benefit us?
My point is that there is no basis to your criticism.
Joseph Tehmeh
ULAA: Betrayal and Subordination of the Public Interest - Why Doesn’t Kromah Get It?
A Commentary - By James F. Kollie, Jr
On last Friday night, we had the opportunity to listen to officials of ULAA through the far sighted engagement of Tarpehdoe’s Liberia ’s Speak. ULAA was represented by two contrasting worldviews: one buried and anchored in past and another looking far ahead to see what can be done to bring this organization alive.
Chairman James Larsah recognized everything that is wrong with ULAA, appreciate the rich history and contribution of the organization, but looks pointedly ahead to what can be done to make this organization more vibrant and relevant. He sees a promise in the Union and wants us to clinch it. He came from this forum as a man of substance and someone who is willing to venture into new territories, gain new gro unds, broaden the base and appeal of the organization, and break away with the failings of the past while still appreciating the gains of yesterday.
Under Chairman Larsah and the new breed of leaders on the Board, I see a new organization on the horizon; I see folks who want to move away from protecting political tuff and embracing the critical and dissenting voices that are intended to change the Union for the better.
However, on the other side of the debate, I saw a former ULAA president, S. Mohamed Kromah (2002-2003), come across as someone prepared to keep the organization in the past. He was audacious enough to inform listener that abandoning the Union to take on a government of Liberia was part of his grand plan.
Kromah was responding to a question that Robert Sayon Morris had asked about why he left the Union ’s Presidency in exchanged for a job with Bryant’s government and if he (Kromah) did not see this as betrayal. Kromah answered, No! “In fact this is the reason why we came to this country ( US ); to prepare ourselves and then go back home to help our country. If none of you want to go back to help, let me inform you that this is why I came here. So, No, it was not a betrayal because that is what ULAA is about.”
In my short political career, this is the most politically incompetent and insensitive respond I have ever heard from someone who led a Union of this sort.
Does Kromah understand that what he wants personally is quite different from what the Union stands for? Is he telling us that he used the Union for his personal gains? Does he know that when the people elected him they placed TRUST and CONFIDENCE in him and when he abandoned them to seek his personal life’s goal that this was a betrayal of the highest order?
It was okay for ULAA to be present at the peace talks in Accra; it is was even okay that ULAA was given a seat in the government; but what is not okay is for the sitting President to use his position in the ULAA to take that seat especially if he is doing so to satisfy his personal ego. ULAA could have gotten more respect if the President had come back and recruited someone other than himself to serve in whatever capacity ULAA was called to serve in the government. It would have been seen that he was serious person and that he meant well because the Union would still have benefited from his leadership and at the same time be represented in the government.
But it seems that the opportunity was too real for Kromah to pass unto anyone else. I am sure that he wasn’t the most qualified person in the Union at the time but it is all too clear that he was most self-interested person in the leadership at the time.
Kromah, your respond to the question and along with other assertions that you made during the forum demonstrate that you are one of those people who have kept ULAA backward for a protracted period.
I can only hope that none of present presidential aspirants share your political and selfish views.
Today, for the first time, I will end my commentary by declaring you as the most self-serving ULAA past leader that I have come to know. You could used your own knowledge and experience to get whatever position you got in Liberia but when you use ULAA, you crossed in the line. It is okay to for anyone to go home and take any government job but please don’t use position and power that has been given to you on the basis of TRUST. This is betrayal and I hope you come to recognize this sooner rather than later.
Good Luck!
James F. Kollie, Jr.
2001 Brookdale Drive
Brooklyn Park, MN 55444
763-443-8846 (cell)
763-208-1078 (Home)
jfkollie@yahoo. com
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