Truth and Magic
By Tarty Teh

Would you believe that the subject of my commentary which triggered this government-sponsored harangue was titled ‘‘It’s Your Chance’’? But I guess I am, in a way, a happy-condriac – optimistic enough to see only a little dark cloud in a massive silver lining. I am optimistic because, after President Charles Taylor declares a ‘‘Cyber War,’’ I meet a battalion of tyros armed with words and phrases that would not have found employment in more active minds.

I therefore take comfort in the fact that any engagement between an experienced person and a neophyte is a learning one for both the beginner and the veteran. I had my Stanton Peabody of the Liberian Age to throw things at; now LINA has me. Some of the LINA crew are now where I was thirty years ago when a sought a chance to be heard. Stanton gave me a chance – abuse and all. I took it. So it’s worth taking notes; it’s only a chance.

Yes, I agree that useful information can be passed along by the government, but only as a distilled knowledge. In fact there is a good example of a Liberian government’s effort to reach the population with useful information and knowledge. I saw it, and it came out of the Ministry of Information. Mr. Bai T. Moore headed the Fundamental Education (FE) project in 1957 that spread all the way to Pallipo. The Ministry of Information had a publication called News Day, edited by Mr. Banna Roberts, which was a part of the FE project.

That publication was a ray of hope for knowledge, and it shined into Pallipo. We looked forward to receiving a copy (just one copy for the whole school) to catch up on what was happening in the world and in the process learned to read. The News Day would break down a big word it could not avoid using. One of the words I remember was ‘‘protectorate’’ which was used to describe a country that was a U.S. possession.

In 1983 I was Director of Research for the Ministry of Information when I met Mr. Banna Roberts for the second time in my life. The first time I met Mr. Roberts was I believe in 1959 when he went to visit the Pallipo FE project. On his way out of Pallipo, I had escorted him all the way to Webbo, about 40 miles from Pallipo.

Mr. Roberts took me to a Lebanese store and bought me a pair of trousers; a T-shirt with horizontal, alternating blue and white stripes; and a belt. He also taught me a song in Lorma, but that was back in Pallipo and before the journey. I still remember the song today, as do some of my brothers and a couple of FE schoolmates.

The notion of simplicity through which the News Day was offered has suffered, at least in the minds of the current Liberian government decision-makers. Bai T. Moore and Banna Roberts knew a bit more about tailoring information and knowledge for the knowledge-hungry and impressionable population. Since then, nearly every conduit capable of bearing information has been laden with servings from the official menu for the purpose of obtaining otherwise unearned glory for government officials.

To that end, President William Tubman was first on the billboards around the Liberian capital, then on to the front covers of schoolchildren’s notebooks, and finally on to the lappas that tribal women wore. President Tubman was the lead story of every ELBC broadcast, even on the days the he did absolutely nothing. And there were many such days. If we had our own bank notes back then, there is a good chance he would have been on them too. Those are the trappings of backwardness for a country like Liberia. We don’t have a very clear idea about what is important.

The News Day was written in simple English, but not the kind of simple English that the Liberian Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) sanctioned, which has the ruinous effects of spreading the corruption of the language over the airwaves to schoolchildren who should be forming good habits in the spoken words.

Through the same broadcast medium, the Voice of America – despite good intentions – had its version of ‘‘simple English’’ which, though written well within the bounds of good grammar, was delivered at such a slow pace that the accustomed compactness and rhythm of the American speech was lost because words stood needlessly separately and naked. And so, we have been treated to all manner of degradation despite good intentions toward correcting our perceived deficiencies. So even private media sometimes miss the point, but the Liberian government always has the agenda of making the president bigger than life. When presidents get that big, they turn the media into mere choirs in a cathedral called a nation-state.

There is much wrong with how we are sometimes taught, but what we are taught is perhaps more important. The government should not, therefore, be licensed to offer information that may very well form the basis for determining whether or not it is a good government. That job is still best done privately by the independent media.

We often assume the truth when we use the word ‘‘information.’’ For that, LINA may be the arm of the Ministry of Truth. But information is often only the raw material in the search for the truth. In that regard LINA and I are not in agreement that what it distributes is quality information, let alone the truth.

We, however, don’t always know exactly what we have by the time we are scheduled to release some information. We therefore at some point don’t know for sure that such and such is the case. And so if the source has a good record, we leave it at that source while we seek further verification.

Distribution of individual responsibility calls for attribution through bylines. I have my name attached to articles bearing my opinions. I can make a name or ruin the one I have worked for so far. In that light, I don’t know who bears the ‘‘LINA’’ byline, but I can wager that this LINA is not Jeff Mutada.

From the last LINA dispatch, I was able to determine that Jeff Mutada is the Assistant Minister of Information for Public Affairs. Jeff has offered very interesting arguments for a) why the Taylor government is within its right for refusing to implement the Abuja Accord, b) why the blames we have apportioned for President Charles Taylor properly belong to the ‘‘international community,’’ and c) why the restructuring of the Armed Forces of Liberia is moot.

I have to remind myself that President Taylor has declared a ‘‘Cyber War,’’ and the Information Ministry’s LINA thinks they are winning for having launched a Web site to host their online bulletins. If this is war then I must mark LINA while Siah Nyanseor takes on Jeff Mutada. Jeff needs no double team because Siahyonkron, another friend, is a handful.

To his credit, however, Jeff can discuss a seemingly improbable situation with such flair that it may grow the wings of truth. That talent works even better when there is a modicum of truth to begin with. Without the truth, it’s merely a magic show. But I have lived long enough to be entertained by magic without buying it. – Tarty Teh [Washington, D.C., April 4, 2000]