By: Rancy S. Teewia
The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Dr. Daniel E. Cassell Foundation and the political Leader of the newly established People’s Liberation Party (PLP), Dr. Daniel E. Cassell said his desire for the presidency of Liberia is not to loot but to transform the country, improve the lives of the people and ensure equity amongst the people. He also promised that he will not compromise with or entertain corrupt people, those with tainted records for pecuniary ground.
Dr. Cassell made the disclosure when he appeared on the OK Morning talk-show in Monrovia Monday, March 22, 2021 in Monrovia. He indicated that his primary objective is to impact the lives of Liberians, although he clarified that he does not have the power as inherent in the Executive and Legislative Branches to transform the entire country.
“My desire for the office of the President is not to loot the country but to change the country and to transform the lives of every Liberian,” he said.
The philanthropist who said he came to the country as a professional, a successful person and a man with international contacts, pointed out that he returned to Liberia, knowing that the country is his patrimony to which he should contribute his quota.
“This is where I am coming from and it will be a good thing that I help to do something about my country’s situation,” Dr. Cassel asserted, adding, “I think the calling is not from myself; it is from above.”
As an individual, he said, his activities can only make an impact on our fellow Liberians to some extent considering that the country’s present situation is systemic, to the extent that he cannot change the system without being in a leadership position which he said is required to effect that desired change.
“I am doing what I can do as an individual with my expertise to help impact the people,” Dr. Cassell reiterated, and further said there are several things that are systemic that the previous and present administrations have failed to do that should have been done to set the country on the path to development amongst others.
The head of the People’s Liberation Party said his institution is significantly different from the other political parties, recounting as the vision bearer, that the establishment of the party is grounded on integrity, transparency and honesty, and that he is also a man of accountability.
With all of these positive attributes, the humanitarian cum politician said all of those who desire the party’s leadership should have the same characteristics which he pointed out the past administrations lacked.
“As vision bearer of this party who is a man of integrity, transparency, honesty, and accountability, I expect that those who are coming into our party’s leadership exhibit the same attributes”, he said.
Apparently, the PLP political leader said the people are languishing in poverty and facing acute hardship because the past and present administrations lack these virtues significant to improving the living standard of the people, and pointed out that such is the difference between PLP and the other Political Parties.
Dr. Cassell also stressed that all of the political parties in Liberia are full of recycled politicians that will always produce recycled administrative strategies that will carry the country nowhere. A lot of them, he maintained, have taken power and ruled before with Liberians experiencing no change.
The track records of the former ruling parties, the National Patriotic Party (NPP), Unity Party (UP), and the current Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Dr. Cassel said, speak for them. He believes that considering where the country is now, Liberians are no longer fools that they will further support their own suffering as they are now seeing for themselves and the extent to which these administrations have impacted the country and their lives.
Dr. Cassel promised that with the country blessed with the resources, he will not compromise with corrupt people coming into the PLP with money that will damage the party’s image, or will he allow anyone who does not have good moral ethics to come in the party and play any fast game with him at PLP.
“God has blessed me with the resources and I am not going to be compromised because I have seen money and I have my own; so no one will come and play a fast game on me – thinking they are bringing in money,” he promised.
He said he will draw around him like-minded people who want to have this kind of opportunity that he has provided but couldn’t because of their alliances they have in some parties where some people are bringing in money but they are so corrupt with their character, in their work ethics and in their past work history within government and private sectors.