Over the past few days, there have been many back and forth arguments as to whether or not Liberia joined the 77 other nations in boycotting the UN General Assembly speech of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Nethanyahu,.an indicted war criminal. In regard to this matter, Liberia's UN representative, Baba Sillah issued a statement of clarification. According to him, he "personally remained seated in Liberia’s assigned seat in the General Assembly Hall throughout the entire time Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered his statement. Liberia did not exit the Hall, as alleged."
While we acknowledge this clarification made by Liberia's UN representative Silla, we applaud countries that walked out when the ICC indicted war criminal Benjamin Nethanyahu delivered his speech.
Years ago, the Liberian government handed over our former president, Charles Taylor, to the Special Court for Sierra Leone and was prosecuted, convicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to 50 year jail term. If the government of Liberia handed former President Taylor to the Special Tribunal for War Crime, the right thing Liberia should have done in this current case was to walk out on the indicted war criminal, Benjamin Nateyanhu. By staying to listen to this indicted war criminal, Liberia has compromised its position on war crime and crime against humanity. Liberia may as well start advocating for the release of former president, Charles Taylor and dissolve the War Crime Commission it has set up to advocate for war crime trials in Liberia.
A country should not change its position on issues simply because of political expediency. Many people had applauded Liberia, thinking that she did the right thing by joining these many countries to say no to the Gaza Genocide.
While there were many Liberians who thought Liberia did the right thing by boycotting speech by an indicted war criminal, there were others who criticized the government. Such criticism, especially from the opposition which has been milking the situation to score cheap political points, the government has come out with a "clarification." In any case, we say bravo to all the countries that walked out on the indicted war criminal. They did the right thing. They are on the right side of history, while my country chose to be on the wrong side of history as a matter of political expediency.
The question for those people who have been screaming as if the sky will fall if it was true that Liberia joint other nations in boycotting Netanyanhu's speech, was Israel present or was it represented when President Joseph Nyumah Boakai delivered his speech? When I posted this question on my Facebook page, the response was no. Of course, Israel has no reason to listen to any African president's generals assembly speech. We are not that Important on the scales of priority. Given that as a reality, if feels like we are suffering from mental slavery if we put others first who will not blink an eye for us. Our case may be considered as inferiority complex. This is very sad about our culture and tadition.
