The Scramble for Power: The Loved Tyrant VS the Hated Philosopher
Liberians will go to the polls in October to elect a new president and members of the House of Representative to steer the affairs of the Republic for the next six years. Interestingly, I see the influx of political wannabe touring the urban cities and trekking the rural countryside making the bid for power. Some have set out to promise the people quick fixes to perennial challenges, whether the people will buy into such patent absurdity is a puzzle for us to decipher. It is something that we will weigh in on another time, but my interest is to dichotomize the forces in the political landscape of this country.
As a student of politics, I see that there is an urgency by the diva of the status quo to reinstate the hegemony of the True Whig Party garbed in the garment of other political parties. On the other extreme, I see the other side frantically trying to redraw the power equilibrium, thus arguing for a native takeover of the echelon of power. These two sides represent anarchy and backwardness, and they suffer from split-personality and knowledge complex. For a native takeover of the echelon of power is reminiscence of the reintroduction of sectional bigots, tribal scoundrels and bureaucratic tabula rasas in the affairs of statecraft. Meanwhile, the reintroduction of the hegemony of the TWP is an attempt to frustrate the people’s democratic aspiration, undermining the aura of equality and turning the nation-state into a casino. I dare say that these two sides are bad omen in the democratic life our country.
The good news is that there is a Third Side that has the foresight to transform this space. This side is keen on putting power in the hands of the people, widening the democratic paradigm, obliterating the manacles that have so imprisoned our people in the mausoleum of inertia. This Third Side is the synthesis of the people’s collective quest for a dawn of a new day. This Third Side has under its belly the panacea to make this country impose its towering self in the affairs of humanity, offsetting the power base of the elite and getting rid of monopoly capital. This Third Side intends to halt this scar of reinter economy, in which the value of our resources is understated and depleted by the elements of imperialism along with their native bourgeoisie of the corrupt, the backward, the racketeer and the al Capone.
But this Third Side is faced with a conspiracy that it should grapple with. How this Third Side maneuverers around this logjam is for us to conjecture. Only against this Third Side the First side of the reintroduction of the hegemony of the TWP and the Second Side of the imposition of native scoundrels are prepared to coalesce in an unholy matrimony. At even a more alarming rate, this Third Side is always battered and bruised by the formal media, which is gradually becoming the haven for high school degenerates, college dropouts, racketeer-ruffians and Lilliputians with low self-esteem and intellectual pygmies. In fact, I dare say that the formal media empire is being hired to do the bidding of the First and Second sides against this Third Side. With all fairness, to my annoyance, the media propaganda stray dogs are tearing this Third Side into pieces. Whenever they talk about this Third Side, is either in a dismissive tone or levelling indicting charges on this side.
Again, I have decided to survey the literature to understand the dynamics of the Liberian political situation. I have realized that Plato’s Loved Tyrant VS the Hated Philosopher is an apt description of this situation. The name Hated Philosopher is not that the individual is hated by society, but because the status quo of the media, the power elite, the bourgeoisie have launched a ploy to make him appear ridiculous in the eyes of the people. Plato’s analysis is so associated with the Liberian situation that I begin to wonder whether he knew that this would have assisted in a place called Liberia. I know many of you are inquisitive about knowing how these two labels apply to our Liberian situation.
But before I get there, let me deal with another contradiction that this Third Side is faced with, which by and large, creates certain irritations we should deal with. This Third Side has trained men and women that should be at the barricade leading the young militants in the trenches, but those ones are the most reactionaries of reactionaries. In fact, they are the ones who make the most sarcastic remarks against this Third Side. They are the ones who have thus transformed into first class bourgeoisie, peddling inanities against the Third Side. These shortsighted fifth columnists think that the struggle ends when they leave the wailing walls of the University of Liberia.
What is apparently disgusting is that these little ones who have gatecrashed onto the center stage on the backs of the materials and training instilled in them by the Third Side, are today casting their lots with the side they condemned, burying their heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, engaging in prebendaries on a wholesale. For them it is about launching a frontal assault on the common wealth, while the people who are the owners of the wealth wallow in the pool of penury. This hypocrisy has made these yahoos the latter days Judas Iscariot.
Where in the struggle of classes have we seen militants and cadres of the Third Side denouncing their class but supporting the other two sides that they so condemned when they were at the University of Liberia? When you were condemned and treated with contempt and disdain, this Third class found something in you, for which it trained and molded you to be the person you are today. This Third Side did not subscribe to that myth of historical determinism that you were bound to be at the rung of society. But today those who condemned you are the ones you exalt on center page. Today, those who were dismissive of your strides, are the ones that you elevate to sainthood, bestowing titles on them that they do not merit. Today, you are the loudest voice in the wilderness. When you were wearing tattered t-shirts and what the militants called ‘repeated skip,’ they did not know you. They were not your friends.
Like the TWP before them, the former cadres of the Third Side have set out to create a class system and redraw the power equilibrium. Determined to undermine the foundation of building a society of shared values and seeking the welfare of the people, they have set out to reintroduce this backward concept of other gender being inferior. In fact, the ones who were oppressed yesterday are the oppressors today. Today, they established an organization called the Professional Distinct fellows (PDF), which in true is the masonic craft in miniature. An organization many commentators have said is a breeding ground for retrograde social activities, an assertion I am yet to verify or agree with. Some have even argued that this organization is a cartel for the promotion of negative social behavior, a claim I am yet to confirm. Others have argued that the shortest route to ill-gotten wealth and scholarship without merit is to join that organization, a submission I am still researching.
Many commentators have said so many things about that thing called the PDF, everything pointing to exclusion, the emergence of a new elite determined to reintroduce the pop culture of wearing bow tie, colorful trousers and socks akin to the TWP’s dress code of tail coat and bowler hat. Hence, I am submitting to you that those dress codes are the staple of hard core reactionaries and right –wing bigots. All along what they sought was not to break the power monopoly, but to use their intellect to be co-opted to share in the spoils of the system. What they sought was not transformation but assimilation. What they craved for was co-optation rather than inclusiveness. This is the tragedy we must confront.
The Third Side understands that to dismantle the power hegemony and build a society of egalitarianism, trained cadres will be transformed into feigned enemies. The Third Side knows that many will come pretending to be in support of the cause, but in true are hard core reactionaries. The duty of the Third class is to discern between genuine efforts and irrational extremity. The Third class must begin the effort of distinguishing those who join the cause because of the razzmatazz and those who join the cause because of its ideological genuineness. If those extremities are study carefully, this will guide against the entry of carpetbaggers in our ranks.
Fast forward to the argument of the Loved Tyrant and the Hated Philosopher, the former is adored by society because he represents the kingpin of vices in society. He is given attention by the media because he uses every unorthodox means to maintain his grip on power, either by engaging in looting on an industrial scale or hoodwinking the people to attain power. The Loved Tyrant uses public office to frustrate the people’s quest for self-actualization by looting the common wealth and giving crumbs to the people in return. The Love Tyrant gives out tax break to foreign monopoly capital without sensitiveness to the welfare of the people. The Love Tyrant colludes with elements of backwardness to suck his country dry. The love tyrant is also an accomplice of the terror unleashed on our people by the TWP simply because he refused to condemn that system of suppression.
He is also that glorified octogenarian who has no idea about the transformation of this landscape. The Love Tyrant is that one who has no idea about governance yet he makes a bid for power. The Loved Tyrant is that sectional scoundrel who uses his manipulation of the budget to funnel funds to his private bank account. The Love Tyrant is that pygmy who thinks that occupying reinter corporate portfolio in Bourgeois Corporation qualifies him to contest for the presidency of this space. The Loved Tyrant is also that lousy showman and voodoo economist who used the Central Bank to give out loans to the people under the pretext of eradicating poverty, but creates a monetary disequilibrium which the nation is struggling to solve. The Loved Tyrant is that short-fused echo chamber who thinks he can recreate the NPFL cartel. He is also that psychopath who dreams of himself as a hero of the people of a landmass. The Loved Tyrant is that one who misuses the PFDI funds to pay the school fees of his girlfriend, but who is defended by his propaganda pupu flies that are in the media and the government.
In stark contrast and diametrical opposition, the Hated Philosopher is the exact antithesis to the Loved Tyrant. He is that individual who says I value the republic and its honor more than the friendship I have with a single person. He is that person who posits that to build a fair society the government should place emphasis on engaging in initiatives geared at improving the standard of living of our people. The hated philosopher is that person who prefers to lay his life on the line for noble causes. He is that person who says that public service is not a place to amass wealth but rather to provide services to the people. He thus demonstrates this by abhorring corruption and the trappings of power. The Hated Philosopher is the one who says that to build a collective society power must be placed in the hands of the people. The Hated Philosopher is the one who fought to abolish the property clause and end the class discrimination in this space. The Hated Philosopher committed class suicide, at a tender age with a PhD, he chose to go in the classroom to impact knowledge and expose the contradiction in the system. The Hated Philosopher argued his lungs out and shouted to high havens that the concept of state and government arbors the system treating the people as pariahs.
He is that person who intimate that there can be no equality before the law and political equality when there is no equality of economic condition. The Hated Philosopher is a man who was arrested and detained twice for impacting knowledge into young students. This is a man whose quest for the people has made him to sacrifice his personal happiness for the collective happiness of the people. This is a man who used his portfolio at the Ministry of Education to make strategic intervention in our education system, thereby giving foreign scholarships to the people’s children to specialize in labor-deficient area. The Hated Philosopher is a breath of fresh air.
Notwithstanding that the class enemies appreciate the Loved Tyrant and vilify the Hated Philosopher. We know that the people so conscious determined and united can deal a great blow to any stumbling blocks before them. The people of Vietnam- focused on the objectives- defeated the United States of America, thus marking the triumph of the people into history. In the battle of Adowa, the courageous people of Ethiopia, defeated the fascist government of Italy, asserting the truism that the people are the makers of history. The people of Nicaragua- conscious and determined-afflicted mammoth casualty on the United of America, for illegally occupying Nicaragua and imposing a puppet regime on the Nicaraguan.
To build a great nation, cometh the hour, cometh the man. The people will perfect the act of governance when they choose the Hated Philosopher. We are beseeching our people that this nation can be great when the man of the hour is given the baton of leadership. We can feed ourselves and build better infrastructures when this Hated Philosopher is given the mantle of leadership. We can have a better education system when this Hated Philosopher oversees the society. This Hated Philosopher can transform this space into the production headquarters of finished products of rubber and iron ore. We can transform this country as the hub of elegance in leadership with this Hated Philosopher in charge of the affairs of the state.
