Liberia History & Information

Party Prepares for Elections; Conducts Seminar on Political Education

By Swenju Juah

WASHINGTON, DC, March 31, 2001––Two years before Liberia’s general elections, the United People’s Party (UPP) meets to discuss its philosophy in the 21st century and the need for a more inclusive and people-centric national leadership, according to its representative in the United States of America.

Under the theme, “UPP: New Mission in the 21st Century,” the weekend seminar on political education will be conducted at the Enterprise Center, 4548 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, Saturday, April 14, 2001.

“During the meeting, we shall consider when to declare open our national election campaign, moving expeditiously to encourage disillusioned partisans to rededicate themselves to the struggle for human dignity which has been an essential part of our achievement that lives in the memories of the Liberian masses,” says Bodioh Wisseh Siapoe, acting national chair of UPP’s U.S.-based political action committee.

Siapoe

“We shall also challenge ourselves to find the appropriate democratic strategy and language for renewed resistance and empowerment of the people, leading to a genuine social transformation of our war-weary nation. Through our national leadership, the committee shall encourage a candid discourse on the democratic values and dimensions of Liberia’s civil society to conquer the forces of evil that continue to surface in postwar Liberia,” he said.

The political action committee is hosting the seminar. Attending the workshop are Wesley M. Johnson, national chairman, United People’s Party; D. Karn Carlor, veteran political activist; D. Steve Quoikapor, former vice presidential contender; Nathaniel Beh, former protocol chief of the Republic of Liberia; S. Sando Wayne, former assistant minister of state for public affairs, Interim Government of National Unity; Teah Nyenapoe Jardia, secretary general, Coalition of Progressive Liberians in the Americas (COPLA); Gerard T. Wiah, senior propagandist, among others.

A grassroots institution which derives its strength from the impoverished Liberian masses, the political organization was defeated in the 1997 elections. During the seven-year rebellion, many UPP partisans and well-wishers felt deserted when the organization voted against armed incursion as a means to power. Some fought in the war but have come to realize the reason that prompted the party’s official stance against undue military subversion.

Those who took up arms and others who did not believe that the battle for a truly representative democracy and simple justice has not ended with the elections of 1997 but that it has hardly begun. They appear eager to resuscitate Liberia’s dormant political juggernaut this year.

The party’s history reveals the range and depth of struggle that have merited the exceptional esteem in which UPP is held by Liberians. This esteem is a result of the institution’s unimpeachable valor with which it has publicly confronted turbulent political events in Liberia at the turn of the 20th century.