Absentee-In-Chief

In an alternate universe, a real president would care. They would have shown up to receive the petition from the protesters and join the march. Before that, they would have given a major speech. In that speech, they would underscore that rape is unacceptable. They would have called for attitude change, humanized rape victims, and called on us—especially men— to be better. In that speech, they would admit that behavioral change is not enough without reforms. They would offer initial ideas for sexual health, criminal justice, and sex education reforms. They would set up a committee to investigate and recommend substantive ideas. Before that, they would have met with rape victims and their families, with activists and civil society leaders, with young people in town hall meetings.

Before that, they would declare rape a national emergency.

But we live in reality. And in our reality, our president has abdicated his responsibility to protect his citizens. He has been silent. He has shown little compassion. So far, the president has released a flyer that says, “Real Men Take No For An Answer.” The flyer was an epic fail, a demonstration of the president’s lack of awareness of underage rape and the insufficiency of his attempt to lead.

Our president was never fit to be president. He reminds us every day, but during moments of national crises—moments that define presidential tenures—the president has demonstrated his inability the most. 

When the nation faced an imminent threat of economic collapse, the president was silent and absent. It took many weeks before he gave a speech to tell us what the government was doing. This came after repeated calls on social media for the president to say something. With one speech, some stability returned to the exchange rate market. 

When people protested against economic hardship, institutional breakdown, and corruption on June 7, 2019, the president was silent and absent. He did not show up to receive the petition but tried days before to prevent the protest.

When protesters showed up on Capitol Hill on January 7, 2020, the president was silent and absent. He released the police to disperse the crowd. 

During COVID-19, the president maintained a low profile. His two speeches have been full of avoidable errors and confusion. While other leaders, for better or worse, have used the crisis to regularly talk to their citizens, our president leads by sending out press releases.

There is a pattern: in crises, the president shows poor judgment, displays his disdain for free speech and the exercise of civil liberties, and downplays legitimate grievances by arguing that protests are “politically motivated.”

Even if he has not said it, the president thinks the anti-rape protest is politically motivated. His surrogates have said as much on social media. They have turned rape into a partisan issue, and they won’t back down. They ordered the police to arrest protesters calling for action against the increasing number of rape cases. By not speaking or showing up, the president has encouraged and allowed the other high-profile men and women in his party to do the same. Where is Speaker Bhofal Chambers? Where is Mulbah Morlu? Minister Mamasie Kaba had one paragraph about rape in her Flag Day speech – one paragraph at the end of her speech. But this is still more than the president.

Maybe the president is right that the two previous protests were politically motivated. After all, opposition political leaders were front and center during these protests. But what is the president’s excuse for not leading on rape? What is the president’s excuse for his silence? What is the president’s excuse for his absence? What is his reason for sending the police out?

At the end rape protest on August 25, 2020, I heard men (some while protesting) say women shouldn’t wear short clothes, women shouldn’t stay out late, subsequently trivializing the issue at hand. These are the people we needed the president to speak to, these are people we needed the president to reach.

But the president and his party have missed a golden chance to lead, and our women and children will suffer because of this. I hope we won’t forget this moment. I hope we won’t forget that instead of consoling, the government used violence against them.

In an alternate universe, the president would have been Liberia’s Feminist-In-Chief, leading the charge for dignity for women, fighting for laws to protect women, and leading the government to unequivocally say, “ENOUGH.”

But we live in reality. And in our reality, the president is not big enough for the moment, not strong enough to care, not sure enough to lead. As someone said recently, he is the “Absentee-In-Chief.”

Authored by: Demosthenes