Press Release
The Association of Sierra Leone Journalists in Exile
(Sydney, Australia)
We as journalists-in-exile living in Sydney, Australia, are not encouraged by recent news reports about Sierra Leone as the nation awaits the presidential run-off election. We are concerned about the safety of innocent citizens who are still trying to mend the wounds inflicted by the ten-year brutal war. The violence and brutality, which are caused by politicians and their supporters, can be worrisome to all peace-loving Sierra Leoneans.
We feel that this is the right time that Sierra Leoneans should be given the free will to choose their own political leadership through the ballot box and not one imposed on them. We ask that politicians, whose popularity with the people has expired, should step down and give way to those the people want.
The use of the concept of “landlord” and “tenant” in the present Sierra Leonean politics is parochial and illusive and a reversion of the noble conceptions of democratic principles. We would like to make it clear that Sierra Leone is no one person’s or group of persons’ personal property nor is it still living in the twentieth century where and when people were compelled to cast their votes to suit the whims of over-ambitious, corrupt and greedy politicians. In this present era the choice should be left entirely in the hands of the long-suffering Sierra Leoneans who, for many years, have been yearning for a leader of their own choice.
We insist that the incessant intimidation by whichever political party or parties against the electorate be halted and the people given the chance to vote peacefully on the day of the run-off. We implore the electoral commission and the police and all other concerned bodies to maintain the neutrality they had exhibited in the August 11 2007 elections.
We abhor the frequent reports about some old and worn-out soldiers of the defunct NPRC government mingling in the politics of the country not as good citizens but as agents of ill-motivated acts, after squandering all they stole from the country’s coffers in their halcyon days.
Furthermore, we are not in favour of the reports of the frequent use of government funds for bribery and use of government property, like vehicles, for campaigns by the ruling party at the detriment of opposition parties.
We further condemn the sharp prominence of tribal, sectional and religious divisions that have embraced the politics of Sierra Leone in recent years. We believe that all Sierra Leoneans are one and the same irrespective of tribe, section or religion.
As the run-off election approaches, the crucial point of the whole electoral process, we appeal to all Sierra Leoneans to cast their votes for the person or party they feel will do better to rehabilitate their dilapidated lives.
Finally, we appeal to the international community to maintain the vigilance they displayed in the last presidential and parliamentary elections and we solicit that more international observers be sent into the country for the presidential run-off, apparently the most unstable and critical part of the whole electoral process in the country.
Signed___________________________
Edison Yongai
Signed___________________________
Edmondson Sonny Cole
Signed___________________________
Prince George-Coker
Signed___________________________
Tony B. Conteh
Signed____________________________
Abdulrahaman Jalloh
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