The Trouble with Snowe

Okay, at the risk of making a grave error and tarnishing the name of one of Liberia's senior politicians, or several of them, I have decided to address an issue head on that has been bothering me for a while. It may surprise you to know that corruption is not the issue. While Liberia certainly does have a lot of issues to deal with, and not the least of which is indeed corruption, let's ignore that well chewed topic for today and focus on a different one, inefficiency.

Before returning to Liberia in 2006, one name I had been hearing a lot was that of Edwin Melvin Snowe, Jr. His name was usually not related by the media in a positive context and I came to associate it with corruption, power politics, and behind the scenes maneuvering of a negative nature. Pictures of him dressed in a black suit and wearing a top hat did not do much to improve his image in my opinion.

Then one day to my great surprise, as I was walking by ELWA junction, who should appear at the gas station to address the people as the market people were being driven back from the road by the police? Snowe. The very same man I had only previously seen in newspaper pictures was there in his black suit (minus the top hat) yelling and sweating profusely for the whole world to see. Nobody that has recently been in Liberia can question but that those market people and their stalls needed to be driven back from off the road, but needless to say, Snowe was not very popular on the street that day. Nonetheless, he was there. No other politician was. At the time I did not know whether to criticize his outlandish appearance or be impressed by the fact that he dared to appear there at all.

Another day I was on Tubman Boulevard trying to catch a taxi to Broad Street. I don't need to explain to people in Liberia that you need to be able to run and physically force yourself in to be able to get a space in a taxi nowadays. Who to my absolute utter surprise should stop for me and offer a ride in a large fancy black vehicle? You guessed it. Snowe. One would think I am trying to promote him, but I am simply stating a fact without being judgmental about his motives for stopping.

Having acclimatized myself to many of the changes undergone in contemporary Liberia and with his name fresh in my mind I started to notice that the few bus stops and taxi stations actually constructed (and with cement!), had "donated by Edwin Melvin Snowe and 'wife'," painted on it. Forgive me, I no longer remember which wife, but her name was at the time painted there, not the word 'wife.' Suddenly it hit me, the government can't put together decent stations for public transportation, or even form a public transportation system, but the best looking stations in the country that people were standing at trying to catch taxis all had the name of a specific individual painted on it. Two questions came to mind: what kind of publicity stunt was this and where did the money come from?

Not long into 2006, the great hope I had for the then new president gave way to familiar exasperation and downright apathy. Again, it wasn't the corruption that had me so deflated. First, I was astounded by the inability of the government to assess the national and international situation and take appropriate measures for the benefit of the people and country. The best they could do was through its incompetence try to hold the United Nations personnel in place for as long as possible with little thought as to what would happen if and when they decided to pull out. I wondered that the people in government did not seem to realize the United Nations has never been dependable anywhere in the world. Did they not realize that at the first sign of serious conflict the UN would pull out all non-essential personnel and business people would be running behind them? And if things got worse, the UN troops themselves would leave in a hurry? How many countries would let their troops die on Liberian soil?

Thank God the people themselves were tired of fighting and after so much destruction it was no longer productive, even to the warlords. The general consensus among them seemed to be: why fight when your position is secure and you have a more safe and dependable source of income in government, even as the opposition? Don't get me wrong, anything that can keep the warlords and the rest of the people from fighting is good. If we must bribe them and keep them in government to put down arms, so be it.

The problem was not only the incompetence of the government but what I viewed as very misguided policies and even worse implementation. The policy of globe trotting when there is an acute need to roll up one's sleeves and do work at home is just plain wrong. The excuse for it was the need to generate international support and encourage influx of business and investment. Has that been forthcoming? I venture to suggest more would have been accomplished by investing in better websites, slashing the bureaucracy involved in opening a business, establishing a better tax system, simplifying the procedures for importing, or best of all, establishing the necessary infrastructure for internal transportation and industrial zones. With the exception of establishing an infrastructure, all the above would have cost far less than the budget for traveling abroad and would have been far more productive.

Very well intentioned but probably worse was the decision to radically alleviate Liberia's debt problem at the expense of national development. That comes from over-identifying with the bank's perspective. In effect, it killed all prospect of generating much needed influx of capital for development projects. So the United States goes hat in hand to China to beg for a loan to save their economy, the Chinese take years to build roads they promised in Liberia that they potentially could have overnight because funds they hoped to receive were not forthcoming, and we Liberians stand there looking helpless and stupefied. The up side is the president actually kept her promise — no loans.

So much has been said about the high number of educated and qualified young Liberians that have studied and gained experience abroad. Let me put that case to rest quickly! If you are not on the ground, you are not relevant. The Jewish people have been in the Diaspora for 2,000 years. It is only when the doctors and lawyers among them decided to brave the malaria, drain the swamps by physical labor, get dirty and formed little agricultural settlements called kibbutz's that the modern State of Israel was formed. In 65 years, see what they have achieved. However, that is an exception to the rule. Most exiled people vanish within a few generations. How many of those living in the US truly believe their grandchildren will be going back to Liberia? As for prospective politicians living in the US that plan to return home only after winning elections — just stay there. It is better you invest your money and energy to form a US Liberian lobby and rally for your proposed country's financial support.

I am not criticizing lightly. I do believe the President tried her best, and she certainly did not receive all the international or local support she needed and deserved. But the world is a harsh place and lessons must be learned fast. I am proud of the president's public appearance and that of her cabinet. Her visual image is nothing less than spectacular and she has definitely earned her place in the history books. Just by virtue of being a woman, she has earned headlines. Unfortunately, for other reasons, so have Samuel K. Doe and Charles G. Taylor. And poor George Weah who I considered a superstar has managed to descend from superhero status to the pits of a swamp by his totally inappropriate bid for the presidency, and his appalling behavior in the aftermath of the election results that just confirmed he was not the man for the job.

So we have a president and ministers that are all very impressive looking, well spoken and highly educated. Unfortunately, not one of them knows how to change a leaking facet or how to wire an electric circuit. That in itself is not a problem; the problem is they don't want to know how to do it, and they have not provided the country with people who do understand plumbing and electricity. Our leaders should be effective, not just well spoken and impressive looking.

In anticipation of the election fever that will soon be sweeping Liberia. It is time for some hard questions. So what does that leave us to depend on? I suggest a very questionably educated new class of local intelligentsia that are practical, have risen through the ranks and are fully invested in the country. The more successful among them are the most likely candidates. Snowes and such: hence the problem. I heard the rumor that Snowe is afraid of international indictment which is why he won't leave the country. That is certainly food for thought, but the fact of the matter is that the new leaders of Liberia will probably be people that you run into on the streets of Monrovia, not Harvard lecture halls and international conventions. Hopefully they will also be people that know how to fix the plumbing and electricity and not just those who know how to fire weapons.