As politics divided the electorate of Montserrado County’s district #4 among 28 representative candidates in the October general elections, Representative Michael M. Thomas has begun reconciling the district’s citizens; writes Ojuku Silver-tongue Kangar, Jr.
“We said to our people that first on the agenda is for us to reconcile our people, and we have jumpstarted that process by hitting the ground running with the first stakeholders’ consultative interaction with the candidates in the just-ended elections,” Representative Thomas said in a unifying mood. “This is a first step of a journey of a million miles. So next in line, if you listen to radio, you will hear announcement where the sitting representative of the district will be having similar consultative engagements with all of the legitimate or acting leaderships of all of the communities within the district.”
The meeting, which was held at the Sammy Dukuly High School in Soul Clinic community, brought together a huge number of defeated representative candidates who contested for the district representative’s seat, which Representative Thomas won. However, former Representative, Rustolyn Suacco Dennis, did not attend the meeting; likewise representative candidate Lyee Bility, among others.
With array of things to be captured during the meeting, ranging from reconciliation, development, electrification to scholarship and illicit drugs combating, Representative Thomas said he will reconcile the over 35 communities within the district, adding that his leadership will be inclusive to keep him from being a political demagogue over the people in terms of decision making.
“I was clear that I don’t want to be that demagogue or that super representative: I want to be that person who will be a humble servant, leader, that will be able to network, consult, interact with every stakeholder in the district, that we all can make our impact and our presence can be felt, as it relates to the management and operation of our district,” Representative Thomas revealed. “We want to change the dynamics and dialectics of politics of our own district so that we can transition from having one person to be Pharaoh to that person who will be a David that will be able to work with the people to seek their interest and connect and interact with all sectors of the divides for the development and transformation and rebranding of our own district.”
Three of the defeated Representative-candidates said that the meeting was the first of its kind since the formation of the district—for a newly elected representative to reach out to those who contested against him.
“I actually appreciate the honorable Michael Thomas for calling all the candidates that contested against him during the 2023 elections. So his call is welcoming. I feel he is a reconciler and has decided to reconcile our district,” former Representative-candidate, Richard G. Sumo, said. “…I think Michael Thomas is the first person to call for a reconciliation meeting. I believe that the path he is starting with will make his leadership to succeed.”
“First of all I want to disabuse the mind of those who said we were not successful. I believe the achievement of Michael Thomas, being the victor of the election, means well to every one of us, that we all have won. I won the election by the district winning,” Benjamin S. Thomas, former Representative-candidate of the district, said. “In a sense that Honorable Thomas won, we all have won the election. I say thank to Honorable Michael Thomas, who has thought it wise to call all the candidates for reconciliation.”
Reconciling every community will have impact on the district and community leaderships as they will have direct interaction with the representative and will diagnose the district’s nightmare.
“We are going to sit and discuss those major fraternal issues as they relate to the current leadership status of all of those communities, where we will take into consideration communities that currently has leadership crisis, what is the cause of the leadership crisis, look at those issues and see how we can be a part of resolving some of those issues as it relates to the conduct of elections and the rest of it,” Representative Thomas said. “Following that, we will also have another youth summit where we will bring all of the young people together in the district and look at the issue of drug abuse in our district and people living with disability. We will have a broad-based consultation with every sector of our district so that we can understand what are the prevailing circumstances we have in the district so that we cannot be making decisions from the blue—we can be making decision based on the calisthenics and also the matrix from our interaction and broad-based consultation with the entire district.”
He reminded the electorate that he still remains Michael Thomas and has not changed, likewise all his campaign promises. He assured that “we will strongly engage in keeping with the campaign promises”.