Statement Issued On the Occasion of the formal Launching of
Liberians United for National Reforms (LUNAR)
By William G. Nyanue
Interim President
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Fellow Liberians and friends of Liberia, on behalf of LUNAR, Liberians United for National Reforms, I welcome you to this world-wide press conference, and we thank you for honoring our invitation.
For several decades, Liberians have been struggling to remake our nation. Liberia, as many of you know, was founded with great promise and hope. It was a beacon of freedom for black people the world-over, particularly on the African continent. The country represented an unambiguous repudiation of the racist held view that black people were incapable of self rule. So, our nationhood inspired black people everywhere to aspire for self-government.
Unfortunately, while our independence was inspiring many around the world, at home our nation’s founders were perfecting a system of governance that was the complete antithesis of the very spirit and values that the nation was to represent--liberty, justice, equality, etc. After more than a hundred years, Liberia’s national leaders succeeded in perfecting a system of governance that consigned the majority of the nation’s people to perpetual poverty, ignorance, and literal servitude. But in the process, they unintentionally succeeded in building a highly charged powder keg. That powder keg exploded on a grand scale first in 1980 and then again in 1989, devastating the nation in the process. Today, the nation is slowly rising from the ashes of the devastation.
The national tragedy that began in 1980 was possible because of the ruling elites refused to heed the clarion calls for change, to create a new Liberia. The cause for a new Liberia was championed by university professors and students, as well as several civic groups who eventually mustered the courage to challenge the establishment. By publicly questioning and sometimes out rightly challenging the actions and policies of the national government, these groups inspired many heretofore timid and intimated Liberians to begin demanding that the ruling hegemony be dismantled to create an inclusive and open government. Those brave souls who championed the cause of a new order were our national heroes. Their deep understanding and scholarly diagnoses of the nation’s ills gave deep roots to our aspirations for change.
But the last twenty plus years must have taught us that building the just and more equitable society that we crave is a much more difficult task than diagnosing the ills of the country and the failure of its leaders. During the past 15 plus years, most, if not all, of Liberia’s best known social critics and champions of the new Liberia have had a shot at trying to remake the nation with very little success. And while the current government holds some promise, if the last 15 years are anything to go by, chances are the idea of a new Liberia will continue to be just that, an idea, by the time the government’s mandate expires in 2011.
What we need to achieve the noble goal of an equitable and just society is to remake our nation into one that has its mooring in the rule of law. But because the rule of law is like a two-edged sword which cuts both ways, it seems the closer one gets to the seat of power the less clearly one tends to see its value, at least in our Liberian and other African societies. Nothing makes this point more clearly, in my opinion, than the deafening silence of many of the champions of social justice who now find themselves in the government of the day to the recent incident at the University of Liberia where students and journalists were reportedly brutalized by government security. It is because of this strong tendency to be blinded by power and privilege, to which we are all susceptible, that the work of reform, especially in Liberia, cannot be left to any one group of people, no matter how progressive and learned its members.
You see the rule of law and the open and predictable society that it engenders expose the mighty as well as the ordinary to the same public forces, demystify the art of governing, and make governing a privilege to be enjoyed subject to the uncorrupted will of the people. They reduce leadership to its core, which is character-based influence. It is only a society of this kind--one where both the governors and the governed are judged by the same standard----that guarantees long-term peace, stability, and prosperity. To create this society in our current context, we need to institute reform measures that will leave our government no option but to operate in a way that is open and transparent. We also need to reconfigure our governance structure to move some power away from the center to the local level. Creating this new governance order---a living and functioning democracy---has been the essence of the Liberian struggle, and we launch LUNAR today in furtherance of efforts to help win this struggle.
LUNAR was founded out of our recognition that:
In functioning democracies, the governors often do the right thing not necessarily because they love the people but because there is a real possibility, presented by the existence of serious and credible political opposition, that they---the governors---will lose the privilege to provide leadership if they are unresponsive to the needs of the people.
Democratic dispensations are impossible in the absence of an informed citizenry. The governors can only be held accountable by a people who understand that they are the employers of every public official and that they, the citizens, are endowed with certain rights which their government was instituted to promote and defend.
LUNAR’s two-fold mission is, therefore, to assist in the development and sustenance of credible political parties by providing resources, information, programming, and networking opportunities; and to empower the Liberian citizen to become an informed, active, and responsible participant in the management of his or her country. To accomplish this mission, LUNAR’s program goals include:
Developing and/or disseminating democracy-related educational programs and information. As part of this program goal, LUNAR will facilitate the printing and distribution of the Liberian constitution.
Facilitating and/or supporting the development of programs and youth organizations that instill democratic values in young people at an early age. This program goal will focus on establishing Democracy Clubs in schools throughout Liberia.
Providing democracy-related training and networking services. The long-term goal under this program item is the establishment of a Democracy Resource Center (DRC) which would be LUNAR’s hub for democracy-related training and programming.
Providing information and programs to de-stigmatize opposition politics.
Providing voters’ education.
Advocating for the enactment of legislations that support the development of democratic institutions and values. One such legislation would be the requirement to teach the Liberian constitution in every high school and making the passing of the constitution class a requirement for graduation.
Advocating for the decentralization of political and economic powers.
As shown by the above program goals, LUNAR’s approach to national reforms will not be by policing the government. Even though we intend to engage the government on specific policy and program issues from time to time as conditions demand, our primary focus will be to work with various groups and individuals to provide information, education, technical expertise and other resources, and to support the enactment of legislations that will empower the individual Liberian citizen. We are convinced that once empowered, Liberians will demand and help develop in an organized, peaceful and persistent manner reform measures that are necessary to remake our nation. We believe the remaking of Liberia has to be a fully participatory process which should involve all segments of the society.
We launch LUNAR today fully aware that many Liberians are skeptical of, and some even out rightly opposed to, organizations such as LUNAR that have their roots in the Diaspora and that advocate for political and economic reforms because many such organizations are faulted, rightly or wrongly, for some of the nation’s problems. Moreover, many Liberians saw some of these organizations in the past being used as mere springboards for lucrative government positions.
We realize that proving that LUNAR is different will be a major challenge, but one we believe we will successfully meet. We believe we will succeed because we will hold ourselves to a standard no less than that we will demand of our government. Because we are convinced that national reform is both an institutional and personal exercise, we believe that those who require their national leaders to be responsible stewards of state powers must themselves be good examples of the values they espouse. Today we make a solemn pledge to uphold the principle of “Charity begins at home“.
We are convinced of the nobility of LUNAR’s mission but we realize that nobility of an ideal does not guarantee success. We embark on this journey aware of the many challenges that lie ahead, including the possibility of being misunderstood and demonized, possibility of verbal and even physical attacks, fundraising, and even the possibility of individual members of LUNAR betraying its cause and values. But as Theodore Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” We pray that history will judge LUNAR one day as a Liberian organization that is true and faithful to its mission and values, no matter the challenges.
Membership in LUNAR is not necessarily a life-time commitment. With time, some of our members may decide to move on to other endeavors that they may find more challenging and appealing, or take on other responsibilities or level of service in building the Liberia we desire. Some might even decide to pursue political careers. LUNAR’s pledge to the Liberian people is that the stewardship and conduct of those former LUNAR members who choose a career in the public sector will be evaluated through LUNAR’s prism of values and principles. Our commitment is to ensure that LUNAR remains an institution, not an organization that is tied to any one individual.
Let me close by inviting you to join us in this noble undertaking; let‘s together build a truly professional and nonpartisan empowerment organization that will have a staying power and that will help solve our nation’s governance problem. If you need more information about LUNAR, or would like information on how you can become a member or contribute to LUNAR’s programs, please contact us at info@lunar06.com, or call us at 847-644-0920. We also invite you to join us in Baltimore, Maryland on Saturday, August 4, 2007 for LUNAR’s first convention.
Thank you and May the Almighty bless our nation.
