April 12 Protest Still Stands; But Masterminds Split

Planners of the infamous April 12 protest march have parted ways with diverging positions on the future of the demonstration. The main Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia Monday called off the protest slated for Friday. But a splinter group of civil society organizations calling itself, Grassroots Leadership Network (GLN), says the protest will take place, come what may.

Distancing itself from the group that has called-off the April 12th protest, the 38-member civil society group (GLN) said it remains undeterred and poised to stage its “peaceful protest” march through the principal streets of Monrovia.

The group in a statement signed by its National Protest Coordinator, Archievego M. Doe, argued that it will be protesting against widespread abuses of public trust, and a prevalent endemic spoil system.

It described the decision taken by the Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia “as a regrettable tragedy engineered by a sense of shameless political whoredom at the whims of hired voices.” 

“The GLN believes the discredited pronouncement of the cash-hustlers lends credence to earlier suspicions that they were initial recruits of the state, implanted within the debates and orchestrated to mislead public opinion about a pretentious advocacy designed to undermine the efficacy of a viable process, only to discredit it in its finality,” the group said in the statement issued in Monrovia on Monday night.

It continued: “Notwithstanding the degree of compromise, The GLN expresses little surprise in the crumbling of these hired voices on the shelves for sale, and reassures the struggling population that it will not fall prey to the devil’s financial curse as is the case with survivors of these two non-registered, and empty-member,  pseudo-advocacy groups who may now be lining the counters of shopping malls in hot pursuit of buttered bread and cheese, which may have inspired their employment against the general interests of the collective masses.

“The GLN points out this cowardice as evidence of a duplicitous agenda and because of inaction by the President and the entire cabinet of the Unity Party-led government, having miserably failed to tackle corruption and bad governance, must leave power.”

The GLN consequently reaffirmed the planned April 12th protest as on “irreversible course and pledges its democratic peacefulness. The group calls on all its members and the public to remain loyally resolved to stand up against the flaws and excesses of the negative governing experience and the evils crippling our already spoiled system.”
 
One of the two organizing groups of the April 12 protest action on Monday announced that it has agreed to call off its planned march, opting for the continuation of dialogue with the Government of Liberia (GOL).

The Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia’s (CONTROL) decision followed several hours of closed-door negotiations between it (CONTROL) and several women groups. The meeting was held yesterday in the conference room of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).