The Parody of anniversary celebrations, including Unity party's

THE JOY THAT comes with celebrating one's annual birth circle, critically checked, is the combination of merit, flattery and hypocrisy. Interestingly, the ecstasy of such a joy leads to the intoxication of what Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King, Jr. called the drum-major instinct; an instinct that often robs the celebrant the sense of touch and sobriety that deciphers merit and achievements from hypocrisy and flattery. And naturally, though achievements and failures constitute the barometer that measures--or that should measure--the extent of one's joy at anniversaries, the celebrant is often bemused by the mere fact that he or she has life--and the opportunity--to celebrate. At times, nothing else matters, as the right to celebrate fits only in the figment and choice of the celebrant. It is not a matter of majority rule, or the right of outsiders.

IF OUTSIDERS WERE to have a say in the celebratory decisions of others, President Sirleaf and her Unity Party government would have found it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to get the approval of the majority of Liberians, the impoverished masses of the people, to celebrate their 2 nd anniversary. Because, as far as Liberians who are non-top officials of government are concerned, there is not a speck of joy in the minds for celebration. To then, the second year of the government, as is the second, represents a replica of Liberia's past known for political its failure, denial of the vast majority of the people, economic hardship and inequality. In fact, others are saying that if there is anything different from the Sirleaf government and its predecessors, it would only be that the past, including the years of war, from which the President announced a fundamental departure, is far better and worth living than her two years of incumbency. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the regime and its supporters celebrate, while the ordinary people are left to wonder over what good is there to celebrate for.

THE INDICATORS ARE there, and clear, not only from the acutely low number of turnout of Liberians for the celebration, but also from the vexing problems scourging the population. If the celebration was a response to achievements, the appreciative people of Liberia would have turned out en mass as Ghanaians did last year for their 50 th anniversary. Even despite reports that Unity Party stalwarts combed densely populated slum communities and remnants of IDP camps to construct a huge turnout, the streets and celebrations halls appeared virtually barren. The turnout was hardly more than an ordinary graduation procession or a Sunday church service. No doubt, the 2 nd Anniversary of the ruling party was merely a gathering of a very few political diehards, and not, in fact, all its partisans, let alone job beneficiaries of the President and her party.

ONE CANNOT SAY that Liberia 's apathetic response expressed in the low and impressive turnout is ingratitude to the Throne of Power. No. It is rather simply both an expression of non-confidence in the ruling party and a protest to its failure to meet the expectation of the people. It is the people's way of saying, “Hungry beg cannot stand.” It is the people's way of saying, “We have nothing to celebrate for.” It is the people's way of saying, “We cannot fool you, Ellen or Unity Party. We cannot pamper you with dining and winning, while our children starve back home.” It is the people's way of saying, “Left with us, you would put off the celebration in solidarity to those who are dying of hunger, curable disease and motor accidents due to government's neglect of basic social services.”

INSTEAD OF DISMISSING the silent but instructive response of the people as insignificant and uncalled for, the Unity Party-led government, which is so glamorously acclaimed abroad needs to pause and ask why its “second year administration” received cold-shoulders from the populace. The party needs to find out why the second anniversaries of the Samuel Doe-led junta and Child Taylor-headed government, both considered the most tyrannical regimes in Liberia 's history, were celebrated relatively grandiosely than its time. It is only when the anniversary is used as a moment of sober and penetrating self-assessment and comparative analysis with the past, without pretension and superfluity that the Unity Party's third anniversary would come with success and in positive difference and not celebrated in utter parody. We stand corrected.