One of Liberia’s oldest political parties, the United People’s People (UPP), might not have won presidential elections and is struggling to reconsolidate its lost membership to splinter emerging new parties but it still remains an adobe of some of the country’s matured and studious minds. It’s founder, Gabriel Baccus Matthews, who died nearly a decade ago, fathered most contemporary Liberian politicians and is credited for the country’s current multiparty culture. The remnants of the party, apparently blessed with the wise political insight of its founder, don’t appear happy with the state of politics in the country. In the view of the UPP, belligerent optics continue to rise between the ruling party and the opposition bloc, leaving national cohesion and unity in the balance. In a release signed by its National Chairman TQ Harris, as The Analyst reports, the UPP is calling on politicians to temper their rhetoric with a sense of peace and stability.
The United People’s Party (UPP) says there are worrying signs of instability and chaos looming over the country and there is an urgent for the meeting of the minds to circumvent them.
In a release issued over the weekend in Monrovia, the UPP pointed to what it considered “creeping signs of instability that could further intensify, if the country remains on the current acute polarized trajectory.”
In its press release, UPP intimated that the Liberian political pendulum is swinging to the extremes, and cautioned that Liberians need to seek the center point–the tolerable middle ground, where all the people can feel at ease, and thereby keep the country quiet and stable.
The United People’s Party further indicated that while it is the constitutional duty of the citizens to, amongst other things, “petition the government for redress of grievances…,” there is equally a need to exercise restraint on the part of the people and the Government in light of the country’s current fragility.
According to the UPP the issues of concern that are consistently flagged should not be ignored, reminding the Liberian people that in September 1987, about two years before start of the civil war, it warned that: “…any change of national leadership outside the constitution will delay [the progress of] this country…”
In light of lessons learned over the past 32 years, UPP is again cautioning Liberians to avoid a repeat of history.
“We want to admonish all political leaders in the country—those on the left, right and center—to work together in a prudent manner that ensures the preservation of the state,” the UPP said further in the press release signed by its National Chairman, TQ Harris.
“Our leadership role in the long turbulent struggle to create the space for multi-party democracy in Liberia, compels us to preach continued engagement with other pro-democratic elements, to discourage any attempt at reversing the hard earned gains in institutionalizing democracy and the rule of law in Liberia,” the party asserted further.
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