People desirous of holding public offices in Liberia must be examined by psychiatrists,
National Security Advisor, H. Boima Fahnbulleh recommended to Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Fahnbulleh, a founding member of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA), said those vying for public offices that will wield immense power must be looked at by a team of psychiatrists so that mad men will not plunged the country "into the depth of darkness."
Dr. Fahnbulleh testified Wednesday at the ongoing TRC Thematic and Institutional Inquiry Hearings at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion on Ashmun Street.
"My recommendation to the TRC, people of Liberia and the world is that we have to insert a clause in whatever by-laws you produce that before anybody hold public office with authority in this country that person must be examined by a psychiatrist," he said. He added that it is a dangerous thing to give absolute power to mad men and women.
Dr. Fahnbulleh: "You can have the most refined Constitution; you can have the most productive arena for political interaction. If you miscalculate and elect a mad man who does not know what to do with power; not only will he abuse power, he will abuse the dignity of those who give him the power. Probably with all our thoughts, brilliant political scientists, brilliant economists, brilliant lawyers dealing with the question of political socio-economic transformation, my little bit of advise is that we reach a point that we examine public officials, candidates for the position of President, other high offices including Senators, Representatives and let them have a clearance from doctors."
Dr. Fahnbulleh cited the Russian called Rasputin, Germany's Adolph Hitler who plunged Europe into war that massacred millions of Jews, gypsies and people who did not agree with his ideology as mad men who have held power in history.
He also named Russia's leader Stalin who massacred all the members of Lenin's party. "Mad men have a way of taking power," Dr. Fahnbulleh, the first Minister of Education after the 1980 military takeover said.
"Right here in Africa, we know the case of Uganda's Idi Amin Dada; we know the case of Jean Bedell Bokassa of Central African Republic. Within your urge, you were to elect mad men to preside over your destiny, you have no one to blame but yourself," he said.
Under the theme: "Understanding the Conflict Through its Principal Events and Actors," the ongoing hearings will address the root causes of the conflict, including its military and political dimensions.
The hearings are focused on events between 1979 and 2003 and the national and external actors that helped to shape those events.
The TRC was agreed upon in the August 2003 peace agreement and created by the TRC Act of 2005.
The TRC was established to "promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation," and at the same time make it possible to hold perpetrators accountable for gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003.
