Commentary: How To Arrest – Liberia news The New Dawn Liberia, premier resource for latest news

By: Togba-Nah Tipoteh

With plenty of talk about the Agenda ARREST (Agriculture, Road, Rule of Law, Education, Sanitation, and Tourism) of the incoming State Management, one can help Liberia and others engaged in Truth Telling by telling the Truth. The definition of arrest used here is to stop and prevent something bad going on. Therefore, this Commentary is telling the Truth about How to implement the Agenda ARREST by stopping and preventing False Telling in order to improve the living conditions of the people sustainably.

The Truth is helpful. Falsehood is unhelpful. So, let us tell the Truth. Here we start. To tell the Truth, we must recognize that the number one resource is the human resource, not the natural or financial resource. Most unfortunately, the powers that be consider financial resources as the number one resource, and this is their reason for placing the highest interest in getting foreign direct investments (FDI). The powers that be consider foreign ownership as being in their interest. The powers that be are money-driven.

Witness the interest of the World Bank in funding the ARREST Agenda of Liberia. This is funding the ARREST Agenda of the incoming State regime rather than the funding of Liberia. The World Bank is a profit-oriented organization and takes action only when it is profiting maximizing. The Writer of this Commentary served as Chairperson of the African Group of Governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. So, he knows what he is talking about, and this is the Truth being shared here. So when the World Bank funds any endeavor, it is due to its expectation of getting an appreciable profit from such endeavor. Basically, awarding grants by these global financial institutions is a public relations action.

Our children are sitting on bare floors instead of on wooden chairs made in Liberia while Liberia has 200 of the best log species in the world because the powers that be promote the importation of plastic chairs rather than the promotion of Liberian-owned and made wooden chairs. The powers that be promote deforestation rather than reforestation. Liberians’ logs are being exported by trucks through villages, creating bad sanitation from the dust on unpaved roads with no health centers. Women in childbirth lose their babies because of the absence of health facilities, making Liberia have one of the top ten childbirth fatality percentages in the world. The record for one of the highest teenage pregnancies in the world belongs to Liberia because of the lack of awareness within the bad cultural concept of the role of women in bearing children and preparing food. It is within the bad Western cultural concept that tourism is promoted under the ARREST Agenda.

However, the Western cultural domination of education and governance in Liberia is being transformed into a Liberian-based cultural concept through the awareness raised by people who love Liberia. This awareness-raising is seen in the non-re-election of members of the National Legislature of Liberia and the election of candidates who want to be re-elected and elected. This trend is highly likely to continue in future elections.  This awareness raising is also seen in the headwear, clothing, and footwear of many Liberians, resulting in the ownership, employment, and production of Liberian-made products and services, thereby increasing Liberian production and decreasing the importation of foreign goods and services, with prices coming down and living standards going up, removing Liberia from the prevailing state of poverty generation and placing Liberia into the enduring state of poverty alleviation.

This raising of awareness from the state of poverty generation to the state of poverty alleviation is taking place, as seen in the transformation of the prevailing unfair electoral system into the enduring fair electoral system. It is only through this transformation that persons with good records can get elected to bring in the system of Justice, the indispensable ingredient for Peace and Progress in Liberia and in any other country.