By Mark N. Mengonfia
ASHMUN STREET-Human Rights Lawyer and former President of the Liberia Bar Association (LBA), Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe has weighed in on the ongoing impasse at the House of Representatives over the removal of Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa by a group of lawmakers acting under the canopy of “Majority Bloc” on allegations of corruption and undermining the sanctity of the august body.
The imapsse which began last month appears too far from being over in spite of streak of intervention and mediation efforts as well as public anger and disapproval of the action of the Anti-Koffa Bloc, as the Majority Bloc of about 42 lawmakers are referred to.
The tension has stalled lots of government operations including the submission of the National Budget on grounds that the Government is cut between the scissors, either to do business with the Speaker or the Majority Bloc few members of the Executive Branch recently appeared before.
President Boakai
Cllr. Gongloe has however expressed permission about the government’s handling of the matter, accusing the Unity Party-led administration of building a terrible profile that Speakers of the House of Representatives are often ousted only during its reigns.
Recall that two different Speakers, former Representative Edwin Snowe then of Montserrado County 6th District and J. Alex Tyler of Bomi County 1st District, were ousted during the first reign of the Unity Party as a government in power.
Cllr. Gongloe, former Solicitor General of Liberia, told journalists in Monrovia that it is becoming a regular habit of governments of the Unity Party to oust Speakers of the House of Representatives.
This action, according to Cllr. Gongloe, is becoming habitual on the part of the UP, urging the government to check itself and not allow such embarrassment to happen this time around.
Gongloe, one of the presidential candidates in last year’s elections on the ticket of the Liberian People Party who did not make to the runoff, supported the Unity Party and his candidate in the second run of the poll, which it won against the then incumbent ruling CDC government headed by then President George Manneh Weah.
The lawyer believes that the Party is building a terrible profile, as the ousting of Speakers did not happen during Samuel K. Doe regime; although there was an attempt during Charles G. Taylor’s administration to remove the Speaker, unless for the Senate Pro Tempore who was removed.
Cllr. Gongloe
Although during the National Transitional Government (NTGL) of Charles Gyude Bryant, Speaker George Dweh was removed, Cllr. Gongloe did not take that into consideration on grounds that it was a transitional leadership.
He said apparently what seems to happen is that the UP is interfering with the activities of the Legislature because there are members of their party who are part of the legislature.
“Because it is only under the Unity Party government that two Speakers removed and there is now an attempt to remove the third under the Unity Party government, I think the party needs to check itself,” Cllr. Gongloe said.
For the past weeks, members of the House of Representatives have been at each other’s throats over their quest to have the Speaker of that body removed.
The Speaker and his supporters are finding it hard to hold session due to lack of quorum while the majority bloc are holding session in the Joint Chambers but is not recognized to the full extent as per the law and its own rules.
Cllr. Gongloe advised: “What I told some of them is that the law says you should have two-third of the majority. And if you do not have it now, maybe you can have it next week, a month or a year later and maybe the Speaker will antagonize some people and they will join you; but if you do not have the vote in a country of law, go back to the assembly and do the business of the assembly in the House”
He said their action to have session outside of the main chambers when they lack the required 49 votes is illegal and should not be backed by the Joseph Boakai government.
Some members of the executives have already started appearing before the ‘renegade lawmakers, which implies that the President or the Executive Branch is in cohort with them, supporting their action to remove the Speaker.
Instead of agitating over the removal of the Speaker, Cllr. Gongloe called on the lawmakers to place focus on looking at the budget and performing their oversight functions, adding that the current impasse is causing serious delay to the functions of the government.
He said the lawmakers’ action sends bad signal to the outside world that the country is unstable, even if there were positive outcomes from all of the trips the president made around the world.
