Anonymous writer at Sierra Leone open forum drives home some harsh truths to SLPP extremists praying for the government to fail

Cocorioko cannot help bringing the thought-provoking and instructiive article underneath from the BINTUMANI FORUM where it was posted by an obviously very brilliant and splendid political analyst who left no stone unturned to drive home some harsh truths to extremists of the opposition SLPP ,who often confuse loyalty to the nation with unflappable and unalloyed loyalties to region and party . . The question we have always asked , relative to political partisanship, extremism, tribalism and regionalism , is where is PATRIOTISM ? Where is the national interest which should supercede all other parochial  interests ? We invite you to read the article patiently and carefully to see how this paper has been exonerated for constantly trying to drive home this same message to SLPP supporters. Thankfully, there are other Sierra Leoneans who think alike as COCORIOKO. We will however publish Dr.John Mannah's response to the article to ensure balanced reporting and fair play ). 

 

Dr. John Mannah, Posterity shall prove you wrong again

 

I hope you did not consider our debate over, after your gallant rebuttal to my previous piece. Your services to the Sierra Leone People’s Party are unparalleled. I am confident that your pristine knowledge of economic matters can help manage the inadequate resources of the Sierra Leone People’s Party. You are an asset to SLPP, and you promulgate the ideologies of the party very well. Despite this rave review of your activities within the SLPP, I am very doubtful of your patriotic stance. Your rebuttal points to a classic SLPP stalwart who only sees the palm tree as the epitome of Sierra Leone. A true patriot would avoid statements like, “And they are going to fail again”. Your longing for the failures of the All People Congress administration is depressing, unenthusiastic, apathetic, and unpatriotic. There are no reasons to believe you have Sierra Leone’s best interest at heart. What is clear is the fact that you are an inflexible SLPP extremist, who is predisposed toward the stalling of the nation’s development in order to prop up his party as the “ONLY” superior party in Sierra Leone. Dr., your rebuttal reminded me of Rush Limbaugh wishing that Obama and his administration would “FAIL”. Nevertheless, posterity shall prove you wrong again, because President Koroma and the APC administration will succeed developing Sierra Leone. The APC shall demonstrate excellent governance in the south, west, east, and north of Sierra Leone.

Before your response, you were disturbed at my reference to the SLPP 07 defeat. In my comeback, I reminded you of the fact that it is difficult for you (specifically) to discuss the contemporary APC without going back to the old ways of the APC during the Stevens and Momoh era. It is infuriating that while you want others to forget about the recent past, you feel justified judging the present administration on Stevens’ and Momoh’s record and legacy. Maybe this will be a revelation to you; you and other SLPP extremists are guilty of stereotyping and stigmatizing all members of the All People’s Congress. The tribalism and regionalization your party frowns at, you and others in the SLPP camp are equally guilty of engaging in the same practices. There is a high proclivity in your camp for “categorical thinking”. Some of the unconscious statements made by SLPP extremists go beyond bigotry; it is unqualified tribalism, stereotyping, prejudice, chauvinism, nepotism, despotism, including the other isms and schisms your party is hypothetically opposed to. You and other SLPP extremists are fond of making emotionally charged statements that are nothing but generalizations and preconceptions as opposed to concrete facts and unbiased judgments.

Is it true that all “Jews are short, smart, and money-hungry”? Is it also true that all Native Americans are “stoic, violent, and abuse alcohol”? Is it true that all African Americans are slothful, aggressive, drug addicts, and cannot keep a job? Is it true that all APC are violent, unintelligent, crooked, uncivilized, devious, tribalists, and unfit to govern Sierra Leone? Dr., such one-dimensional attribution of others is treacherous and leads to the intolerance and isolation of others whose ethnicities are different from ours. Therefore, I am less impress by rhetorical statements like, “Our unity is not only a strength to our country but our ethnic and cultural diversity is wealth that we must utilize for the good of all our people”. Yes! I am not convinced that you believe your own statement, “Without respect for our diversity, we will never build our unity”. Your form of “Southern” unity is not inclusive of Sierra Leone’s diversity. It is ambiguous because you have prejudged Sierra Leoneans who are not of your political persuasion as being less than perfect to unite, develop, and provide good governance for Sierra Leone. Until you and others of similar urging respect the intrinsic value of other ethnicities in Sierra Leone, the lament over tribalism, regionalism, and nepotism will remain unresolved in Sierra Leone. “Look under you foot”. You cannot correct in others, what you are guilty of yourself.

Frankly, I found your alluring narration of the SLPP’s eleven years rule, fictional than factual. Your distortion of actuality brings into reproach the high standard of morality you tend to propagate. Whereas you may feel confident being the moral police of others, I aspire to become an advocate for grace knowing that, “there is more hope for a confessed sinner than a conceited saint”. To know the truths about the ‘visible’ corruption of Kabbah’s administration, and other melancholies that plagued SLPP leading up to 07, and now give the snake oil inkling that it was all-good, is as bad Dr., as doing wrong and trying to point out the shortcomings of the current government. Many do not share your opinion about the character of JOB. Except for SLPP extremists, JOB has a broken record that dates back to 1992. You and other SLPP fanatics can shout Hosanna to your most high chairman JOB. His interrogation before entering the US the last time is indicative of the fact that his conked out past, makes him an unhealthy choice for any political leadership in 2009. Dr., there are no examples to be copied from JOB. He knew he had no business serving as Finance Minister after his questionable involvement in Kabbah’s scheme in Makeni. He and other were unable to touch the Koroma family because the eyes of the world were fixed on the crooked ways of your party.

You opined, “We are a decent crop of people”. I ask where the harvesting field is. Is it in the South? You say “we put country before individual animus and party considerations, thus our motto: One Country One People”. Where is this One Country One People fallacy taking your party? It appears to me, it has gone south as evident in the infighting within the SLPP. It is looking like the ‘burden’ being carried by your party is how to destabilize Sierra Leone as long as the APC is in power. Dr., I beseech you to snap out of the Kum Ba Yah dogma, and know that but for the SLPP vinegary and grieve stricken play cookers and party poopers, infrastructural development, advancement, food security, and progress, are what peace loving Sierra Leoneans are pre-occupied with, not the start of another unjust war. Instead of advising that the APC leadership be changed, why not concentrate your efforts on alleviating the turmoil within SLPP. Using the APC’s legitimate right to rule Sierra Leone, President Ernest Bai Koroma is our leader. “With a measure of maturity and modesty”, President Koroma is the incumbent who will lead the APC’s ticket in 2012.

I found confusing your explanation of how the concept of oligopoly applies to the negligence of your party to provide the staple food of the nation, RICE. I could not believe when I read, “this is how it is supposed to work”. Are you justifying SLPP’s inattention to the food crisis by stating it is supposed to work that way? What? I cannot believe that a Sierra Leonean with high integrity and moral standards is endorsing the “invincible hand” theory when the hands of the four Lebanese were visible in creating a serious food shortage. The adage goes, “It is a thousand times better to have commonsense without an education than to have an education without commonsense”. Another one reads, “Commonsense is the sixth sense, given to us by the creator to keep the other five from making fools of themselves and us”. Dr. Mannah, it would have been better to ignore completely the rice issue than force a ridiculous and callous explanations of the gross disregard of the SLPP administration. This issue validates the opposite of good governance. It shows terrible, bad, and poor judgment by your fictional SLPP good government. Your attempts at spinning the facts, exposed your misuse of the virtues you eloquently affirmed, thereby making them appear like superlative vices. From my commonsense perspective, I rather see the visible hands of Sierra Leoneans (the Koromas or whoever) providing the staple food for the nation than the invisible hands you want to teach me about. It is a moral imperative that the people of the nation are fed by their own people, and not through the indomitable maneuvers of foreign nationals. Perhaps good governance for the SLPP was four Lebanese feeding the nation. This is not the example the All People’s Congress intends to emulate. Under the All People’s Congress, Sierra Leone will be a nation run by the visible hands of Sierra Leoneans for the benefit of all Sierra Leoneans. Are there Sierra Leoneans feeding the Lebanese in Lebanon?

In actuality, you and other SLPP extremists are so power hungry, until you are overlooking the realities of the Sierra Leone that voted your party out in 07. SLPP extremists are hoping to paint the APC as unfit to lead with broad strokes while decorating the SLPP as the party of ‘prosperity’ for the nation. Did I just say prosperity? Were you not the one who argued that Solo-B should be elected (rewarded with the presidency) so that he can lead Sierra Leone into prosperity? You spoke about the removal of Banya. Good for you! Why did you ignore the autocratic and dictatorial selection of Solo-B? You made the puzzling claim, “And the party was better for it”. You must be joking that SLPP is better because Dr. Sama Banya stepped down as the chairman in 06. I am interested to know how you will explain the PMDC breakaway. Perhaps I am too down-to-earth to get your intellectual drift, but all signs are indicative of the fact that the SLPP has been adrift since 06. The nauseating thought is that SLPP extremists have the unsound perception that unless the SLPP rule Sierra Leone, war is the option to secede from APC rule and the northwest.

I find your statement “The SLPP alone should not carry the burden of good governance in S/Leone”, very troubling. It is disturbing because your constructed antipathy of truth about Sierra Leone impairs the variables you use to deduce issues of national significance. Your capricious point of view prevents unbiased predictions for the entire Sierra Leone. To assume that only SLPP has carried the burden of good governance in Sierra Leone is mythical. It also put on display a kind of overconfident attitude that good leadership in Sierra Leone can only come from the cream of the SLPP crop. Your statement implies that Sierra Leoneans who are not SLPP members are political subordinates and flabby for excellent leadership in Sierra Leone. I have serious reservations about your nationalism and patriotism as a Sierra Leonean. You have constantly revealed an inclination for no other political administration but the SLPP in Sierra Leone. I assume if Sierra Leone was a one party state and SLPP was that party, it would be all right with you. I cannot say it enough: you and others SLPP extremists promote indirectly the regionalism and tribalism you find vile in APC.

Dr., posterity is about to prove you wrong once again. The All People Congress government of His Excellency President Ernest Bai Koroma will succeed to develop Sierra Leone. It is not within the SLPP to prevent progress in Sierra Leone. History will authenticate that the APC administration of President Ernest Bai Koroma succeeded in rapidly developing Sierra Leone. History will also validate that this new APC provided the excellent governance of Sierra Leone than any previous government. If you are wishing for Sierra Leone to deteriorate so that SLPP can have an argument in 2012, begin crying at once. Fervent prayers are being offered for Sierra Leone daily. Moreover, there are constructive plans for the progress of Sierra Leoneans being implemented as I write. As posterity did before, you will be proven wrong again because the new APC administration of President Ernest Bai Koroma will succeed in most of their endeavors. The firmness and triumph of Sierra Leone cannot be hindered by your selfish desires. APC shall succeed. Happy Thanksgiving!

CULLED FROM THE BINTUMANI FORUM

Editor's note : To ensure fairness, we will publish Dr. John Mannah's response to this article.

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