Written by Allen Teahson
Email: ateahson@yahoo.com
Source: The Liberian Forum
We are into the third year of the wrongful persecution of Hans Williams and Madea Kpayku and our own Liberian government has used every tool in the book to obstruct justice, intimidate witnesses, produce false documents with a ghost pathologist that no one can see, removed two previous judges from the case by the executive branch because they did not like the way the case was unfolding, pressured their own examiner to recant his statements and change his mind about his own examination and its previous results.
Our then Justice Minister Philip Banks openly stated that this case will still go on even if I am removed from the justice ministry because the President will still go after Hans Williams. Madame President even rendered the defendant guilty before a trial could begin. With no scientific evidence or any credible evidence of any kind our dogmatic government instead has chosen to remain steadfast to their bogus claim that one man and his wife raped their young niece, then murdered her to hide the rape and hung her body in the bathroom to allow their then 5 year old son to discover the deceased dangling in his bathroom. All this occurred with numerous people living in the house but not one witness.
Rejecting all forensic evidence brought by Mr. Williams and his Harvard Trained forensic pathologists and specialists from the USA, our government has simply decided to bribe judges and ignore what they do not like. Now the very foundation that the government-appointed judge Blamo Dixon used to issue his dishonorable ruling has been totally discarded as false by the Human Rights Court in the Republic of Ghana from where the pathologist came from. The Ghanaian government and court system have sided with Mr. Williams and has team and declared that the pathologist’s report used by the government of Liberia has no merit, it is totally fictitious, lack any scientific backing and is a total nonsense! To make this matter worse the fictitious doctor used by the Liberian Government Dr. Josefa Hernandez of the Ghanaian police has fled Ghana and is on the run and is being sought by the Ghanaian government. Does any of this give our Liberian government pause to re-evaluate its stance over the years? No. They continue to plough right ahead to exact a political revenge on someone who does not support Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Facts matter Madame President. You and your government are entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own facts. Why should Liberians have to go out of their own country to get justice in their country? Then you hear the same officials lamenting the weakness of our courts when it is the same officials who are manipulating the system for their own end. Do we expect that a strong, just court system will just drop from the sky? No, it takes the concerted will of the right type of rulers to allow the system to work without interference.
The final straw in this fiasco of a case is that the government has now used its influence on the presiding judge to refuse to allow the evidence brought back from Ghana into the case to be presented to the Supreme Court. Yes, that is correct. The Judge has refused to allow the lawyers of Mr. Williams and team to bring into evidence judgements made by the Ghanaian Human Rights Court. Madame President, does your government have no shame at all? Or rather where is the moral outcry from a President who promised to be different than her predecessors? Using millions of dollars in state funds to fight an individual with very limited means your government cannot even make a credible case but yet you want to execute two people just to sooth your challenged ego? Liberia deserves better than this! How can any Liberian feel safe when our judicial system is so easily manipulated by the executive? Just stop the madness
Madame President. Saying I was wrong and I am sorry is not such a bad thing. You cannot plant corn seeds and wait for a million years and hope that it will turn to rice harvest. Truth crushed to earth will always rise. You are a much better person than your actions have indicated up till now. Saying ‘I am sorry and let’s see where we went wrong so that this action is not repeated’ will make you a better person and a better leader. What value is a misguided pride? You can be bigger by admitting what you now know to be the truth and simply saying I am sorry. It is not such a bad word and it can even bring peace and healing. However, you have to be a very big leader to say a small thing like I am sorry, I was wrong, let’s make it right.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
News Headline
Everyone is a genius
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. – A Einstein
Drawing the line in Liberia
Crimes sponsored, committed, or masterminded by handful of individuals cannot be blamed upon an entire nationality. In this case, Liberians! The need for post-war justice is a step toward lasting peace, stability and prosperity for Liberia. Liberia needs a war crimes tribunal or some credible legal forum that is capable of dealing with atrocities perpetrated against defenseless men, women and children during the country's brutal war. Without justice, peace shall remain elusive and investment in Liberia will not produce the intended results. - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Men with unhealthy characters should not champion any noble cause
They pretend to advocate the cause of the people when their deeds in the dark mirror nothing else but EVIL!!
When evil and corrupt men try to champion a cause that is so noble … such cause, how noble it may be, becomes meaningless in the eyes of the people - Bernard Gbayee Goah.
When evil and corrupt men try to champion a cause that is so noble … such cause, how noble it may be, becomes meaningless in the eyes of the people - Bernard Gbayee Goah.
If Liberia must move forward ...
If Liberia must move forward in order to claim its place as a civilized nation amongst world community of nations, come 2017 elections, Liberians must critically review the events of the past with honesty and objectivity. They must make a new commitment to seek lasting solutions. The track records of those who are presenting themselves as candidates for the position of "President of the Republic of Liberia" must be well examined. Liberians must be fair to themselves because results from the 2011 elections will determine the future of Liberia’s unborn generations to come - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Liberia's greatest problem!
While it is true that an individual may be held responsible for corruption and mismanagement of funds in government, the lack of proper system to work with may as well impede the process of ethical, managerial, and financial accountability - Bernard Gbayee Goah
What do I think should be done?
The situation in Liberia is Compound Complex and cannot be fixed unless the entire system of government is reinvented.
Liberia needs a workable but uncompromising system that will make the country an asylum free from abuse, and other forms of corruption.
Liberia needs a workable but uncompromising system that will make the country an asylum free from abuse, and other forms of corruption.
Any attempt to institute the system mentioned above in the absence of rule of law is meaningless, and more detrimental to Liberia as a whole - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Liberia's Natural Resources
Besides land water and few other resources, most of Liberia’s dependable natural resources are not infinite, they are finite and therefore can be depleted.
Liberia’s gold, diamond, and other natural resources will not always be an available source of revenue generation for its people and its government. The need to invent a system in government that focuses on an alternative income generation method cannot be over emphasized at this point - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Besides land water and few other resources, most of Liberia’s dependable natural resources are not infinite, they are finite and therefore can be depleted.
Liberia’s gold, diamond, and other natural resources will not always be an available source of revenue generation for its people and its government. The need to invent a system in government that focuses on an alternative income generation method cannot be over emphasized at this point - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Liberia needs a proper system
If Liberians refuse to erect a proper system in place that promotes the minimization of corruption and mismanagement of public funds by government institutions, and individuals, there will come a time when the value of the entire country will be seen as a large valueless land suited on the west coast of Africa with some polluted bodies of waters and nothing else. To have no system in place in any country is to have no respect for rule of law. To have no respect for rule of law is to believe in lawlessness. And where there is lawlessness, there is always corruption - Bernard Gbayee Goah
If Liberians refuse to erect a proper system in place that promotes the minimization of corruption and mismanagement of public funds by government institutions, and individuals, there will come a time when the value of the entire country will be seen as a large valueless land suited on the west coast of Africa with some polluted bodies of waters and nothing else. To have no system in place in any country is to have no respect for rule of law. To have no respect for rule of law is to believe in lawlessness. And where there is lawlessness, there is always corruption - Bernard Gbayee Goah
Solving problems in the absence of war talks
As political instability continues to increase in Africa, it has become abundantly clear that military intervention as a primary remedy to peace is not a durable solution. Such intervention only increases insecurity and massive economic hardship. An existing example which could be a valuable lesson for Liberia is Great Britain, and the US war on terror for the purpose of global security. The use of arms whether in peace keeping, occupation, or invasion as a primary means of solving problem has yield only little results. Military intervention by any country as the only solution to problem solving will result into massive military spending, economic hardship, more fear, and animosity as well as increase insecurity. The alternative is learning how to solve problems in the absence of war talks. The objective of such alternative must be to provide real sustainable human security which cannot be achieved through military arm intervention, or aggression. In order to achieve results that will make the peaceful coexistence of all mankind possible, there must be a common ground for the stories of all sides to be heard. I believe there are always three sides to every story: Their side of the story, Our side of the story, and The truth – Bernard Gbayee Goah