Burying the Truth with Gabriel Matthews

By Tarty Teh

Mr. Gabriel Bacchus Matthews must have spent a good deal of time in front of the mirror. And you couldn't blame him if he saw what he liked or liked what he saw. He probably did both. That, however, would have been the end of the story if it were not the beginning of Matthews' self-endearment.

Yes, Matthews had an impact on Liberian politics, and a considerable one at that. But his entrance into politics was first calculated as a function of the Americo-Liberian sociometry. Here is how.

Because successive governments of Liberia expropriated the label of “democratically elected” quite contrary to their being conceived of a single party, it became necessary for the then ruling True Whig Party to clone an “opposition” party that also maintained an Americo-Liberian agenda. Matthews fit the bill because, among other things, he was a grandson of a Liberian president -- President James Spriggs Payne.

But the mirage of multiparty democracy materialized only as a sprinter group in the so-called Pioneers' ranks. However, it was a more vicious brand because it had the same DNA or pedigree as Liberia 's ruling class. It therefore penetrated the system much more quickly than a patently external group could have.

After President William Tolbert gave him a grand tour of the country at state expense, Matthews was allowed to set up shop. The underlining assumption was that whatever strain of politics Matthews pursued, the Pioneers' blood would run through it while at the same time the setup would have ended any argument about Liberia's one-party “democracy.”

It is now part of our political history that the virus that the True Whig Party created killed its creator before it reached the general population. Roughly 30 people (This was the Tolbert government's own estimate) were killed in the resulting riots in 1979 when Matthews floated a cheap lie that rice was available at about half the then current price but that President Tolbert would not let it reach the market.

The hungry mob believed Matthews. They did not believe President Tolbert who explained and explained until even I understood the economics of rice in 1979. Of course from that point Liberian politics took a turn for the worse. Barely a year after the Rice Riots, a band of Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) soldiers finished what was left of President Tolbert.

But let us remember that Matthews had been drafted by the True Whig Party to fashion a variety of political opposition to end speculations about whether anyone who became president in a one-party system could fairly and accurately be considered a “democratically elected” president. The governments of Presidents William Tubman and William Tolbert were the results of uncontested and uncontestable presidential “elections.”

So, now that the experiment had consumed its planners, one would have thought that the catastrophe would have given pause at least to Matthews as a survivor. But if Matthews had any reservations about the wreck, it was not immediately apparent. Why? Because while in April 1980 the PRC (People's Redemption Council) gang that had killed President Tolbert was trying to figure out what to do with the country they had just taken over at such high toll in human lives, Matthews was off to Nigeria with Liberia 's equivalent of the U.S. Air Force One -- the aircraft in which President Tolbert flew.

Well, Matthews had a good reason for flying to Nigeria with his presidential-like delegation. An ECOWAS ministerial conference was about to take place in Nigeria -- something the mostly illiterate coup makers had not had time to ponder or whose relevance was probably beyond their grasps.

But Nigeria apparently had a conscience and was therefore still in the grips of shock at the brutal slaying of President Tolbert to grant landing permission to Matthews' plane. When Matthews' plane radioed for permission to land, the tower's reply was no. That proved at least that there was still some semblance of morality in West Africa .

In all, however, Matthews was a needless expense that this country bore; but his genius in self-preservation cannot be denied. To that end, he was great at what he did for himself, often at the expense of his country. Some truth survived efforts to hide the origin of the lies that killed President Tolbert. So, flattering or not, the truth should not be buried with the dead.

Contact Tarty Teh at e-Mail: TartyTeh@aol.com Phone and text: (231) 06-617-433