Liberia’s path from autocracy to multiparty democracy was tortuous, violent, and uncertain. It spanned more than 150 years of the spilling of the blood of reformists and their supporters, the shedding of tears, and the flow of sweat.

Few Liberians stood as trailblazers of that path. Foremost amongst them was Gabriel Baccus Matthews. This week, his progressive colleagues memorialized him; but observers say they actually immortalized or canonized him.

	Gabriel Baccus Matthews

The Analyst Staff Writer has been leafing through an embodiment of the progressives’ thoughts and ideas about Baccus and the way forward delivered by Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer, Former Interim President and current Chairman of the Governance Reform Commission (GRC).

The “Frontline National Democratic Progressive Forces” of Liberia have launched the Gabriel Baccus Matthews Democracy Foundation (GBMDF) with commitment to use the foundation as one of the instruments for the molding of a new Liberia.

The foundation was launched Monday, this week, under the auspices of the opposition Alliance for Peace and Democracy (APD) to coincide with the holding of the traditional “Progressive Teachers’ Day” in El Salvador and Soweto, South Africa.

Mr. Matthews, a pre-launch statement issued by the Secretariat of the APD had said, was being memorialized for his unwavering fight and crusade for multiparty democracy in Liberia.

Memorialization (Or Immortalization, Canonization?)

But GRC Chairman Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, who delivered a keynote address during what observers called a sober and reflective ceremony, told the progressives community that Baccus meant and stood for more than meet the ordinary eye – that he was grossly misunderstood and vilified for no sin of his own.

Speaking on the theme, The Historical Perspectives of the Struggle for Democracy in Liberia, the Journey So Far, Dr Sawyer reminded Liberians that too much struggle had been put into the achievement of the multiparty system they enjoy today to allow it revert to dictatorship; and that therefore, it was incumbent upon all Liberians to work to sustain it.

He said the launch of the GBMDF in honor of Mr. Matthews at this time in the history of the nation was necessary because it memorialized his landmark contributions to the establishment of a system of democratic governance in contemporary Liberia, that it provided an opportunity for reflection on the ugly political past of the nation, and that it brought the lessons of political centralization in sharp relief.

The longtime political activist and University of Liberia Political Science profession said the existence of more than a dozen active political parties - at least half of them present in the National Legislature – was the ultimate result of the struggle Baccus and other activists mounted initially against the True Whig Party oligarchy in the 1970s.

“This has not happened without struggle. Thousands of people lost their lives to get us to this day. May I ask you to join me in a moment of silence in honor of the memory of all who have given their lives in a quarter-century of violent conflict out of which has come our new democratic beginning,” Dr. Sawyer said.

This single act of silence, observers said, was actually an act of canonization of Mr. Matthews and others or the immortalization of Mr. Matthews’ dream and struggle for a wholesome functioning pluralistic democratic Liberia.

Baccus: Misunderstood and Condemned

Dr. Sawyer likened Mr. Mathews to Liberia’s first dark-skinned President, Edwin J. Roye, who he said fought and uprooted Liberia’s autocracy only to be vilified as demagogue, a confusionist, a violent opportunist, and worse.

“Much like Roye in 1870, Matthews was vilified and demonized by the establishment… But he commanded the respect and support of the rank and file of the Liberian people as they knew that the time had come to establish a multiparty democratic system of government in Liberia,” Dr. Sawyer said.

He said much of these criticisms of Matthews’ political struggle were vain and resulted largely from prejudice or gross misunderstanding of who exactly the man Baccus was.

“If there is any serious criticism to be leveled against those in the progressive movement who led efforts for political change in Liberia in the 1970s, your humble servant included, it is that they overestimated the institutional strengthen of the TWP in the society and underestimated the vehemence of the popular will for change,” Dr. Sawyer said.

“Matthews eschewed violence. He never sought the violence that ensued on April 14th 1979. I say this unequivocally because I was one of those who interacted with him and with President Tolbert during that period,” Sawyer said.

He said Baccus rejected the military shortcut to democracy and never joined or supported any warring faction. “He did not even support the Interim Government of National Unity’s organizing of the Back Beret.”

Rather than being the “power-hungry and intolerant” politician his detractors called him, Dr. Sawyer said, “Baccus, as I knew him, was always in search of a consensus, a middle course. He always wanted to know where everybody stood and how, therefore, to craft a compromise.”

He said Baccus even sought a coalition government that would comprise the TWP and the Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL) party. He however noted that Baccus had what some would consider his dark side.

“In my view, if there is a certain political behavior that Matthews could be accused of, it is that he always sought to be a relevant actor in the political developments of his time. And he was right for always wanting to be relevant because he always had something to offer in the search for compromises in the promotion of democratic governance,” Dr. Sawyer clarified.

Given the demands of the struggle for democracy and current efforts to perfect good governance in postwar Liberia, the GRC chairman said, all Liberians must dedicate themselves to ensure that the multiparty democratic system which Gabriel Baccus Matthews helped to put in place in Liberia will not revert to a one-party state, a dictatorship—even if benevolent.

“Too much blood has been silt, too many lives have been lost and wounded to allow a relapse,” he said, adding that the question then was not how to build multiparty democracy but what do Liberians need to do in order to avert a relapse.

“How did the rank and file of the Liberia military, unprepared as it was, become the instrument of change? Given the dynamics of the situation, could the process of change have been directed to achieve more productive outcomes?” he said were amongst questions, answers to which required sober, penetrating and dispassionate analysis as the progressives launch the GBMDF.

In his view, this national exercise for the survival of democracy was necessary because Liberia was founded on autocracy, not on democracy, and that there were chances of relapse unless Liberians took consultative actions across all spectrums and divides to perfect the political union and seek peace and reconciliation amongst themselves.

He said one area in which the consultative actions could be directed was the completion of the process of the restructuring of the political jurisdiction begun in 1964 by President William V.S. Tubman.
He said since the demise of Tubman in 1971, “There has not been any significant effort to complete the process of bringing parity to sub-national political jurisdictions. This process needs to be completed”.

Reasons for Political Struggle; the Way Forward

“Imagine living in a Liberia in which you had to own land in order to be eligible to vote---not to run for office but to vote. Imagine living in a Liberia in which there was only one political party and you had to be a member of that party in order to successfully run for elected office,” Dr. Sawyer said, illustrating graphically to young Liberians the forces that pushed the progressives into action.

He continued, “Imagine living in a Liberia in which you were compelled to make a contribution of one month’s salary to the ruling political party which you did not belong to or sought membership in. Imagine living in a Liberia in which to speak out against the wrongdoings of the government was considered sedition, a criminal act. Imagine living in a Liberian in which a man of indigenous background, though having served the ruling party faithfully for decades, could not ascend to its chairmanship”.

He then ended by stating that that was the Liberia of the 1970s, and that that was the Liberia in which the progressives of the day sought to transform justice just as the TWP progressives of the 1870s struggled to dismantle the stranglehold of the JJ Roberts mulato-merchant regime.

“Therefore, building a conducive security environment for all Liberians is indispensable for the consolidation of our multiparty democracy. In order to achieve this goal, we need to implement our security sector policy and strategy in a manner that involves all Liberians. At the end of the day, all Liberians need to have a sense of physical security and an opportunity for economic security,” he said.

He said not only do Liberians need to build a more cohesive society with a stronger sense of identity, but that Liberians also needed to confront themselves and their past in view of the historic and contemporary divisions that led to the violent breakdown of the system of governance and the rupture of the Liberian society.

“Out of such national self-examination, we must fashion a national policy on reconciliation and national unity. Such policy must not be simply a government policy; it must be a national covenant. We need a vision of what kind of Liberia we want to build and what kind of people we want to be. We need to inspire ourselves to pursue this vision,” the longtime political activist and reformist said.

He said like President William R. Tolbert did upon assuming political leadership, it would be out of place to place the rebuilding of Liberia solely on economic development and neglect the nation’s political restructuring and development.

“Related to rethinking our policies and strategies for economic recovery and economic governance, it is critical that we address, as prudently and expeditiously as we can, the numerous land-related challenges that confront us,” he said.

He disclosed that the National Legislature was on the verge of enacting into law the land commission. On fighting corruption, Dr. Sawyer said encouraged the Sirleaf Administration to develop the appropriate institutions, tools and processes, including strengthening the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission, the judiciary, the media and other relevant institutions.

“Our Legislature needs to act convincingly on the side of the fight against corruption by enacting into law, without further delay, the national code of conduct for public servants. There is also need to remove the growing public perception that there is unevenness, perhaps, even selectivity in the targeting of acts of corruption to be addressed,” he said.

He then reminded Liberians that democracy springs from the people and that there was need to broaden the space for meaningful participation of the grassroots and local communities in our decision-making processes.

“It is not good enough for our government to strive to deliver development to people. The people must become co-producers of development with their government, he said, noting that development delivered to the people by the government or by international partners will not be sustainable.

“Our challenge is to strategize and act to empowerment our people so that they would be able to initiate development activities and sustain their outputs and outcomes,” he noted further.

Meanwhile, the GRC chairman has called for the establishment, within the executive branch of government, of an office of legislative affairs. He said the office could be tasked with the responsibility of coordinating the executive’s agenda with the Legislature as well as providing relevant information and tracking and monitoring legislative activities.

Such office, he said, would assist in reducing the logjam and occasional confusion that sometimes attend legislative executive transactions. He gave no details.

Finally, he told the progressives that in the days following the launch of the GBMDF they were under obligation to commit themselves to transcending narrow partisanship even as they build effective parties.
“Let us extend our hands in reconciliation to others even as we seek to strengthen our internal solidarity. Let us seek pathways to cooperation with others in national development even as we craft party policies and manifestos.

“Let us strive to mold a new Liberian who is tempered by the pains and anguish of war yet motivated by the opportunity to build anew and inspired by the prospects of what Liberia can become.

“Let this foundation, the Gabriel Baccus Matthews Foundation be one of the instruments for the molding of this new Liberia. We could offer no greater memorial to Gabriel Baccus Matthews or to ourselves,” he said.

Others who made remarks during the solemnity were former chief justice and chairman of the Progressive People’s Party, Chea Cheapoo, and former PAL executive Oscar J. Quiah.