Barely twenty-four hours after the daughter of the founding leader of the Liberty Party announced her intervention through a ‘council of elders’ to broker peace and unity between belligerent factions of the party, the biggest power base of the party, the Executive Committee, has responded with a pledge to submit to any mediation.
In a release issued yesterday, the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Musa Hasan Bility, said that the Executive Committee welcomed gesture by Ms. Charlyne Brumskine, member of the National Advisory Council, and would cooperate in whatever way the party can be salvaged from its current quagmire.
On Tuesday, Decembr 22, 2021, Madam Brumskine convened an elaborate press conference in which she called upon partisans of the Liberty to eschew confrontation and in-fighting that have engulfed the party in the last few months.
She called on all sides in the conflict rocking the party to come to the reconciliation table because, according to her, the party and its members would be useless if they do not reconcile.
The founding philosophy of the Liberty Party, she said, is based on ‘Four Rs’: Reconciliation, Reform, Recovery and Rebuilding.
“There is a reason that Cllr. Brumskine and the founding members of Liberty Party named reconciliation as the first R,” she said further. “This is the time for reconciliation! This is time to put Liberia and Liberty Party first. There were times when my father faced tremendous opposition, even from within his own Party. There were some who betrayed him, who left him, who lied on him but in the end, he always put those hard feelings aside. In the end he always chose reconciliation.”
Speaking further, Ms Brumskine asked: “What good is a Party with a leadership structure and executive committee recognized by the NEC but who do not have a strong constituent base, what good is a strong and large constituent base with a leadership structure that is not recognized by NEC? We are nothing until we ONE!”
“If we continue to fight like this we are of service to NO ONE! Certainty not any other political institution, and definitely of no use to the country. The masses are looking to us! Our country needs strong political institutions as the prop for good governance!”
The young Brumskine said: “If the laws do not work in the interest of the majority, the Party then decides, through proper governance methods, to change the law. The Party should never change its laws to appease the whims of a few!”
Executive Committee Accepts Proposal
While the Political Leader, Senator Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence, led Liberty Party is yet to comment, the Bility-headed Executive Committee issued a statement yesterday to welcome Ms. Brumskine’s proposal.
The release states: “The Nation Executive Committee of the Liberty Party welcomes the statement made by its National Advisory Committee member, Charlyne M. Brumskine, and her call for a sincere and constructive dialogue in the party. We also welcome her call for the respect for the rule of law and upholding the pillars of our great party – Reconciliation, Reform, Recovery and Rebuilding.”
The statement further avers: “As partisan Brumskine stated, the principles of reconciliation and the rule of law are inextricably connected. Invoking the memory of our founding father, Cllr. Charles Walker Brumsine, we accept and will avail ourselves whenever called upon to begin the process of healing and unifying our party.”
The party has been torn apart by quarrels between a faction headed by the Political Leader, Madam Karnga Lawrence and the Chairperson, Mr. Musa Bility.
It all started when Bility was accused by the Senator Lawrence’s faction that he changed key provision of the party’s constitution reformed during a convention held in January 2021. Bility denied the allegation and there have been retreats to settle the dispute emanating from the allegation.
The conflict increased when Bilility suspended the political leader and other top officials of the party over allegedly failing to pay membership dues. The officials have dismissed the claims, but proceeded weeks later with the dissolution of the Bility leadership elected at 2021 January convention held in Gbarnga, Bong CountyIt is not clear how the proposal by the daughter of the founding leader will resolve the conflict which has run deep and intractable.
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