By Bill W. Cooper
A member of the 54th Legislature has sharply reacted to United States Ambassador to Liberia Michael McCarthy strong worded statement against that body thus describing it as “unfair and misleading.”
Representative Rustonlyn Dennis of Montserrado County District 4 maintained that while she acknowledges the many works done by McCarthy and team in transforming the bad state of affairs of the country, his latest comments are blanketed just by naming the entire members of the Legislature.
However, her reaction comes barely 24 hours following the unprecedented statement issued by Ambassador McCarthy, in which he lambasted the lawmakers and other government officials for spending US$65 million for their own benefits.
He also accused lawmakers of only being concerned about themselves stating; “And I am quite sure they have not been told that the Legislature has spent more every year for the past three years buttering their own bread, allocating over US$65 million in 2022 for salaries and operations.”
“That’s correct -while hospitals went without and service centers withered on the vine, the 30 senators and the 73 representatives spent sixty-five million U.S. dollars feathering their own nests,” he added.
But on her official Facebook page in what she referred to as an open letter yesterday, April 25, 2023 to Amb. McCarthy, Rep. Dennis clarified that it was her opinion that the Ambassador’s statement was deliberate by mixing the bad fruits with the good fruits as well as full generalization which has frustrated her and other conscious-minded persons.
“Your judgment is not only unfair but highly misleading in some areas. You have confused the citizens more than alerting them because to have mentioned that lack of alarm being raised indicates a syndicate involving players at the Legislature,” the lawmaker expressed.
“To have even mentioned that 30 senators and 73 lawmakers spent 65 million feathering their nests proves the agony and bitterness that took hold of you because the country’s budget passed by the Legislature is never 65 million as mentioned by you,” Rep. Dennis asserted.
She stressed, “Let me state unequivocally herein, the budget we passed is never 65 million, next the 40m+ that is passed is not for 30 Senators and 73 Representative, and rather it’s for the over four thousand workers in central administration and all the legislative staffers of each member.”
“Also monies received legally for operations can’t be cruelty when your very country has monies allotted to congressmen and congresswomen for operations, except in your country your citizens want policies and laws and in our country, the citizens want legislative impact projects,” she roared.
“Your failure to analyze those legislative engagements funds, four thousand plus central administration staffs as well as individual members’ staffers led to your blanket categorization of the Legislature,” Rep. Dennis intoned.
The Montserrado County lawmaker further noted, “Don’t get it twisted, there are totally bad and corrupt people in the Legislature and equally so there are members who do not support corruption, misappropriation of public funds, and poor implementation of legislative allotments.”
She added, “The Legislature is a democratic institution, not every budget that is passed meets the approval of all members and by that, you should know that there are gallant men and women therein.”
According to her, before the coming of the U.S diplomat to Liberia, she and other colleagues had advocated strongly especially the likeminded lawmakers, emphasizing, “So, your blanket statement did not only hurt or weaken us, it was intended to frustrate our efforts and destroy our public images in the eyes of our constituents with all the sacrifices.”
She added, “Even in the Western Bible, there was the blood of lamb on the door post to separate the good people from the bad people before the pestilence could manifest in the darkness- when I see the blood I will pass over you.”
“In your case however, you have destroyed those who raised these alarms in the Legislature, decried corruption and malpractices and looked up to you for help when those alarms were raised. Again, criticism is meant for improvement and not tearing down. The rest is for this corrupt government to handle, and let posterity be the judge,” Rep. Dennis concluded.
