After complete collapse of the Liberian state, elections ensued and the country began what seemed like a transition to reconstituting a functioning state. Nearly three years following the presidency of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the country is wavering between a failed state and a false state with baby steps toward a functioning state. Nonetheless, the dominant characteristics of the Sirleaf era are a false state. This paper does not argue that the problems facing Liberia are simple, but rather, that they are complex and complicated. The paper is also not geared toward dismissing strides that have already being made. Admittedly, governance is an act of balancing competing goals and values - and legacy is determined by the goals and values that each government prioritizes. Preoccupation with protecting rights and improving the well-being of the citizen as the end user of government intervention is the hallmark of sustainable democratic change. The question that remains is with certain opposing forces (structural, human, governance approaches) in tact, can concerted and accelerated steps be taken toward genuine change and full inclusion? The answer to this question is a flat out “No.”

Failed and Functioning State Defined

To distinguish false state from failed state raises two important questions. Is the notion of failed state sufficiently clear to enable a discussion of another dimension of nationhood? And perhaps, what distinguishes a failed and functioning state? First, it is important to distinguish a failed state from a false state. A failed state is one that all of the major structures and systems that enable a given government to safeguard the basic freedoms of citizens and provide for their essential needs collapse. Second, functioning statehood suggests governance practices that are rooted in democratic, participatory, and inclusive norms, where not only the needs of citizens are met, but they have hope in the future for themselves and generations to come. Faith in the future is a natural pathway to cultivating stake in society, even amidst structural breakdown and destitution. Governance is deliberate, purposeful, efficiency-minded and goal-driven. Ends are characteristically taken as given, and every decision and public action is justified by the contribution that it makes to the desired ends. Deliberate attempts are made to prevent adverse publicity, and people who draw unwarranted attention to the government are released from their posts to allow for a focus on the common good ad not egocentric self-interests.

False State Defined

What do I mean by a false state? A false state is one where there is an illusion of democracy and all its trappings: naked talk about accountability, transparency, and other forms of stewardship. To the contrary, characteristics which anchor dictatorial regimes and prompt state collapse, including corruption, cronyism, and political muzzling of professionals remains integral to governance. Even in some cases, it gets magnified because the democratic expectations of the citizens go unfulfilled. Another major feature of a false state is that those in leadership create foxholes for themselves and are surrounded by cronies, including relatives and friends: and public decisions are made largely in those circles rather than through participatory processes. Some public officials convert government agencies and ministries into individual fiefdoms, and then construct direct pipelines to the president, carving an imperial presidency, intentionally or unintentionally. Government officials tend to nurture limited cross-sectoral planning and governance and as such cultivate silos. Many public officials use their so-called special link to the president to excuse themselves from professional and political failings at the expense of less-connected professionals, even when culpability is nearly glaring to the lay person. When speeches built as policy statements break no new grounds and decisions become predominantly divisive than decisive we are living in a false state.

Subverting the National Interest

The national interest becomes subservient in this kind of atmosphere because it is simply one where the primary ethos is “I for myself and God for all.” Duty, honor, loyalty to the state, and integrity are mere catchwords. Professionals do not thrive in a false state. Politicians doctor well-considered professional judgment and get away with it. Professionals that thrive in this atmosphere backstab one another and compromise their integrity. The state is unable to protect principled professionals and ordinary citizens who dare speak up. Public officials who have a penchant for nepotism and corruption become heroes. Citizens are mere commodities and their well-being is secondary to that of public officials. Seldom do people back up their words with action. The dwindling number of Liberians willing to commit to nationalism stands in stark contrast with those committed to parochial identities.

Outdated Mindsets

Within false states, the modernizing vision needed to foster a functioning state is missing. Archaic practices like a fixation with top-down governance approaches and exclusion lead the way. Moreover, some “big shots” in Monrovia have drivers that work for 12 hours a day doing a mix of public and personal chores. They lose time with their families while catering to the families of others. One wonders if these kinds of practices contribute to the weak family structure that has become endemic. How about the possible danger of a driver burning out and the negative implications for road rage, unsafe driving practices, and the safety of their passengers and other road users? What would the savings be, if government employees, ministers included, were to drive themselves and park government cars at six o’ clock in the evening, except duty demands after hours work?

A Chilled Citizenry

A false state seems to have a psychological effect on many within the citizenry. Some get chilled and unable to stand up even when their rights are trampled severely. They acknowledge that their rights have been violated, but act out of political expediency and survival instinct. You wonder if the current generation of leaders is capable and most importantly willing to deliver the country from the kinds of learned responses that have become the order of the day. One step further, you watch the youth and young adults and see that they too have been short changed with skills and nationalistic spirit. Many twenty year old Liberians, even thirty year olds, might just not be ready to accept leadership roles when the requisite academic and civic preparation is in short supply. You only can feel a tremendous sense of nationalistic pain and agony, wondering if your country will overcome the movement toward a failed state. Why should it take so long to fire failed leaders of institutions that are obviously under performing? Why are they rewarded with new government positions?

Perverse Priorities

How would that happen if in one breath, we are saying that government lacks money to care for the severely deprived, but every senior government official rides a government-owned luxury vehicle, some two - which are used for work and to conduct personal business? Could we derive savings from even the gas usage to help lift some of the destitute Liberians out of poverty? In a society that has become so audit-proof, where leaders have blind spot for habitual law breakers, how would we ever make the transition to a functioning state? Is it possible to ever remove the chains of a failed state when some internationals choose to close their eyes to the very governance values that they espouse? Is the skill and competence gap so grave that international interns with limited or no substantive professional and contextual understanding of Liberian society advise senior government officials and they swallow their counsel slavishly? Is the level of subservience that some senior government officials show to internationals an indication that the vetting process for positions that should require a considerable level of competence poor or politicized? Worse, what is the fate of a country like Liberia, when some international organizations charged with protecting rights and erecting the structures of transformative change have the tendency to connive with locals in muzzling professionals into silence when an obvious ethical wrong is committed? To whom can locals who believe in the value of their craft and resist any and all political interference turn if they feel hamstrung and cheated?

Cliques Resistant to Change

They construct cliques and harden them against penetration by anyone who seeks change. It is easy to find government agencies where the minister or director and the deputy are personal friends and/or relatives and one serves as an onlooker for the other among agency staff. Professionals can get muzzled around with a person evoking their ties to the powers that be and face no repercussion. And because people know that, even internationals, they fold to the tradition and become tight lips even in the face of outright violations of ethics or rights. In some cases, an audit-proof system has been constructed that there are ways to develop paper trails to cover corrupt acts. Someone will pay a staff or vendor a legitimate debt and then turn around and ask for their “cold water.” Any talk about changing these unproductive ways of governance meet strong resistance from some in authority. Some public officials go the extra miles to maintain special ties with the president or her powerful under links to protect their self-interests.

Queasy Impunity

What does it cost those who indulge in these types of activities for abusing the public trust? They do this with impunity. Some even grow in boldness and confidence by ignoring public oversight and single handily carrying out functions that require more than scores of other people’s oversight. The government distracts the public by focusing on the ills of past governments, which it should. But troubling is that it ignores the wrongdoings of its own officials. A phenomenon that I have come to call “wealth boosting” is also a part of the conditions of a false state. Public officials use their government connections to obtain contracts for their private companies and accumulate maximum wealth in the shortest possible time for themselves and their relatives and friends. Sadly, people who under perform are allowed to stay in their positions for so long that they ruin the fabric of the institutions that they are entrusted to oversee before they let go or transferred to another institution.

The most perilous effect of the impunity is that it results in the poorest citizens getting much poorer; and the divide between the ultra rich and the severely destitute widens - increasing the dependency ratio and associated pressures on the middle class. As destitution deepens and gets widespread, massive disenchantment emerges among the marginalized. The middle class gets wiped out because it lacks the capacity to absorb the weight exerted by the high rates of dependency. Immediate and decisive actions to send the strongest of warning to predators especially repeated offenders in the existing government, never occurs. The citizens keep waiting for the moment that would bring the impunity to a halt. A special kind of violence happens in the lives of nearly all people, but especially children and youth. The future generation of leaders sees little or no examples of civic citizenship. They then grow up believing that the only way out is to mirror the illicit behaviors of their elders. Impunity begets impunity and the vicious cycle is hard to break. What good is it to declare one’s assets at the beginning of an appointment, when there are no ongoing and routine checks and balance?

Nationalistic Anguish

If one line summarizes this paper, it is that the overriding interest pursued by people in government is not that of the country, but personal and parochial interests. And this nuanced understanding of the plight of the Liberian state gives useful context to the challenges that lie ahead. Whether or not the Sirleaf administration will take it as constructive criticism is a matter we must wait and see. Colleagues have lamented that by challenging a government minister who have shown a pattern of arbitrarily usurping professionals, I have closed the doors to future opportunities in business, government, or international work in Liberia given his clear passageway to the president. Surely, lifting my voice in this article might make me a sore thumb in many circles. I prefer to be treated this way, than to live with an inner pain that our beloved nation is headed in the wrong direction and neglect bringing it to public awareness. My single good is less worthy than that of the Liberian people who have endured the ravages of war and emerged resilient. Perhaps, this is the nature of the transition from a failed state to a functioning state. But I feel a depth of nationalistic anguish that I have never felt before and tears sit in my eyes as I watch the nation that I love so dearly gradually travel toward a third wave of implosion, once again providing no foundation for those coming after this generation to inherit. It will require political will on the part of our president to undertake a transformative sweep of her administration. For those that were entitled to political payoffs for their campaign-related or friendship-related gestures, their payments have lapsed. Let our country begin anew so that the young can inherit a nation that would be meaningful and strong foundation for a functioning state. Let’s not make recovery a hopeless exercise where politics trumps the common good. Beyond each of us are the next generations - my children and yours.

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The Author: Emmanuel Dolo is an International Social Policy Consultant with UNICEF and is leading national and international teams to write the National Social Welfare Policy of Liberia. He is also spending part of the time volunteering at UNMIL Radio as the anchor of its news program called THIS WEEK. He is a consultant in private practice with Lifeworks International Consulting Group, Inc. These impressions were drawn from five months of stay in Liberia. He can be contacted at emmanuel.dolo@yahoo.com.