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The 5th edition of the Intellectual Discourse on Social Justice and Peace under the theme “Commercialization of Politics as a Threat to Liberia’s Emerging Democracy” was truly an amazing and timely one. Every Quarter of the year, an Intellectual Discourse on Social Justice and Peace with varying intriguing and engaging topics is organized by the Faith and Justice Network in honor of His Grace Archbishop Michael K. Francis, former President of the Liberia Council of Churches to create awareness and consciousness in the minds of citizens on the works and teachings on social realities in Liberia by the Late Archbishop.
Early this year, on January 28, 2021, after the Just ended senatorial By-Elections in December 2020 and ahead of the 2023 Presidential elections, the 5th edition of this Quarterly conference was held in Gbanga, Bong County at the Sumo Moye Memorial Hall, under the auspices of the Faith Justice Network, with an engaging theme: “Commercialization of Politics –A threat to Liberia’s Democracy”
This conference brought together two keynote Speakers Rev. Dr. Herman Browne, of Cuttington University and Pastor Dr. Germane G. Getteh, of the Adventist University of West Africa, as well as several other practitioners to present and discuss the theme of the conference. Participants were drawn from a cross-section of religious communities like Christian and Muslim and from the traditional council, government/political leaders, and the student or youth community.
The two speakers had a mastery of the topic under discussion with two different perspectives/schools of thought making the subject even clearer to the participants. Practically speaking, Dr. Browne spoke from a philosophical standpoint while Dr. Getteh focused on the theological standpoint which contextualized the presentation that brought a clearer picture of the electoral system of Liberia.
“Putting Public Interest above Self-Interest”
According to Dr. Browne, we personalize what is Corporate/public and we individualize what is public. We tend to believe that voting, which is our constitutional right is work we have to do, and of course, when you work, you expect to get paid for it. Because we take it as a personal effort, we expect a cut/token. Whether it’s a scholarship, giving gifts to your family, etc., you just want to gain something from it. That is why we see it as an effort, not a privilege to be counted as getting someone to serve the public good. The politician sees the trust and confidence posed in him by the electorates to be a good lawmaker or public figure as a help to him/her and in return gives a token to induce the electorates’ help to him/her.
If we place our personal interest on par with the public good/goal, the danger is we see both of them as equals. That is what I term ignorance. And this is one of the dangers to our society because we no longer have that as a prime or superior value. The danger is what you get in return as a result of placing personal values on par with public values, and this is what I see to be ignorance. Therefore, he added that the common good of our education system should feature a bit more of this awareness.
“The Bible and the buying of Ballots, and its response to electoral Bribery in Liberia”
Dr. Getteh on the other hand took a critical look at the few areas within our electoral system that pose threats to our democracy which include Electoral Bribery, Voter Trucking, and Vote Buying just to mention a few.
Electoral Bribery or Commercialized politics was described from divergent definitions as the English voters(1830) referred to the selling of their votes as selling off their “Birthrights”. One of the most cited definitions on vote-buying defined vote-buying as the exchange of private material benefits for political support. During Dr. Getteh’s presentation, he defined vote-buying as the distribution of money and sometimes other gifts to voters in an attempt to win their votes. Voters trucking is equivalent to Vote Buying because you will have to pay for the usage of the truck as well as give some money to the person boarding the truck as a way of inducing and sustaining the trucked voter during the period of his stay.
He also highlighted the illegalities surrounding the vote-buying and voter trucking as spelled out in the Liberia Election Laws, section 10.4, and spells out the following crimes:
For the purpose of this title, bribery as an election offense is where any of the following acts is committed:
- Offering or cause to be offered money or anything of value or benefit or promise to give anything of value with intent to induce or influence any person, election officer, or poll worker in connection with an election which in so doing will tend to affect the true election results;
- Receiving money or any valuable consideration; promise for the purpose of influencing any vote or canceling or destroying any ballot paper; ballot box; election writs; a signed register with the intent to defeat the election; and
- After the closing of the campaign, and on the day of an election, anyone who offers money or receives money or valuable consideration for the purpose of influencing the voters to vote or not to vote, for a particular candidate.
Any election officer, political party, or any candidate or the agent of any candidate or any person who does any of these acts is guilty of an election offense and is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for not more than five (5) years or both. [Amended in 2004]
In addition to the foregoing penalty, anyone guilty of bribery as an election offense shall be disqualified from holding any elective public office in the Republic of Liberia or from voting in any elections held under this law for a period of seven years. [Inserted in 2004]
The Bible and Bribery
“And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the Just” (Exod. 23:8).
He added, the words “bribe” or “bribery” are found more than twenty-five times in the Old Testament, but not once in the New Testament, even though there are a few examples of and allusions to bribery in the New Testament. Therefore, to discover what the Bible teaches about bribery and what constitutes a bribe, we need to focus on the Old Testament and the Hebrew culture. In the Old Testament, there is a Greek word used to describe bribe or bribery known as “Shochad”.
Shochad is used in five ways in the Old Testament. These five usages constitute the Old Testament boundaries of shochad.
A gift accepted by any administrator of justice that adversely affected the administration of justice was a bribe (2 Chr. 19:7; Isa. 1:23; Mic. 3:11).
Deuteronomy 16:19 says, “Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.” This is clearly the most frequent way that shochad is used. This is normally what is meant today when people speak of a bribe.
A gift that man offers to God to get God to be partial to him in some way was said to be a bribe (Deut. 10:17).
A gift given by one ruler to another ruler so that he would do something to help the first ruler against a third party was called a bribe (1 Kgs. 15:18-20; 2 Kgs. 16:8).
A gift given by an adulterer to the offended husband to pacify his jealousy for the adultery was considered to be a bribe (Prov. 6:35).
A gift offered to a ruler so that he would free captives was also called a bribe (Isa. 45:13).
Recommendations or Solutions
In conclusion, both speakers recommended lasting solutions to this age-old problem in Liberia. They went on to stress that one of the lasting solutions to reduce or bring an end to this menace is to provide awareness and education to the citizenry or electorates.
They also added that the Empowerment of the electorates will not be grounded to the point where they might be induced to settle for anything less than the national interest or values.
Enforcement of our electoral laws and prosecuting violators or perpetrators is key in the eradication of any social vices and it promotes national growth and development.
