ULAA Press Statement ULAA CALLS FOR THE LIFTING OF THE STATE OF EMERGENCY -President Request is a Dress Rehearsal to Cancel 2017 Elections- The Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA), under the garble of President Gaye D. Sleh, Jr., applauds the House of Representative of the Republic of Liberia for rejecting the request of the President of Liberia, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to suspend several provisions of the Liberian constitution. ULAA calls on the Liberian Senate to concur with the House of Representative to prevent the President from the unwarranted assault on the constitutional foundation of the nation. Moreover, ULAA is challenging the National Legislature to not stop at rejecting the President’s request, but to also lift the State of emergency. ULAA does not understand why President Johnson Sirleaf would exploit the tragedy of the people to introduce laws that undermine their resolve, but to benefit only her personal political aggrandizement. ULAA considers the events that are rapidly unfolding in Liberia as a medical crisis; as such the arrogation of additional powers to the President does not provide a panacea that targets the roots of the problems. What the Liberian people need is for their government to provide a clearly defined agenda that provides assurances that this horrible virus will be contained and eliminated, so that they can return to normal life. The Union believes that instead of seeking additional powers, President Sirleaf and her government should appear before the National legislature to explain how the current state of emergency impacts the fight against Ebola and more importantly account for the initial $5M dollars expended by the government, including donations received from individuals, friendly governments, and international entities for the Ebola fight. Clearly, even under the state of emergency, the nation has seen an exponential growth of the virus, causing more infections and deaths in the country. Such trend indicates that the State of emergency is not an effective tool in combating the virus. The Union maintains that an accession to the President’s request, especially as she desires to unilaterally cancel elections, is a dress rehearsal for the perpetuation of her presidency. The Union conceives that if the National Legislature sets such precedent, the President could cancel the 2017 general and presidential elections in the future, using similar arguments. In fact, the Union is saddened that despite numerous calls by the President and others not to politicize the Ebola fight, the President is the one that is contradicting these pronouncements by leading the charge to play-politics on the Ebola epidemic, as evidenced by her desire to arrogate more powers to herself at the expense of the people. It is critical to note that under this unrealistic State of emergency, the nation has witnessed the unnecessary use of force by the military, which has led to the untimely and unexplained death of a fellow compatriot and the closure of media institutions, all of which have no direct connections to the fight against Ebola Finally, the Union calls on President Sirleaf and her government to desist from this strategy of power grab and to redirect her energy to actions that actually attack the spread of the virus, such as the prompt payment of salaries of health care workers, training of health workers, opening of hospitals, building of more treatment centers, procurement of medical supplies and other logistics that are crucial to the medical battle.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 04:45:17 +0000
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