THE CLEAN SWEEP of the Ministry of Justice and its auxiliary outlets instituted by President Sirleaf recently has brought onboard the Liberian bureaucratic platform a fresh team of persons to preside on the judicial dispensation of justice, a highly contentious human rights and development commodity. The lineup includes Justice Minister Designate Cris Tah, Solicitor General-Designate Wilkins Wright, Deputy Minister of Justice for Economics Affairs-Designate, Sam Ross and new Police Director-Designate Mark Amblah. They all have been appearing before the Senate for confirmation and have spoken fondly of their new assignments, promising to protect and defend the Constitution and laws of Liberia.

THE PRESIDENT’S HUMAN resource reconfiguration at the Ministry of Justice comes in wake of hilarious reactions that have greeted the administration’s gross shortfall in the fight against crime and the prosecution or dispensation of justice for criminals. Since the inception of the Sirleaf administration, the Ministry of Justice under the command of successive administration heads, continues to be criticized for rising tides of criminality and the loss of landmark cases that set potential miscreants off the hook. Some citizens have charged the government prosecution and law enforcement personnel of arbitrariness and abuse of power. Yet, others say the state prosecution and law enforcement mechanisms are weak and not proactive.

WITH THE APPOINTMENT of a new corps of justice and crime-fighting strategists amid the aforesaid mixed signals in the public domain, it is left to be seen how the tributes of Ministers Tah and Ross, Solicitator General Wright and Police Director Amblah will be read in the next couples of weeks and months. Wha's, however, sure is that Liberians are hopeful that overzealousness and bigotry which has robbed prosecution and law enforcement their virtuousness and focus in Liberia for a long time now will be tempered with maturity, soberness and balance of thought.

THIS ISSUE OF justice and law enforcement in Liberia has been perverted by successive political administration from the early days of the state till now. The bloody civil crisis has done little or nothing to instill into political power wielders that ordinary Liberians are humans to be respected and not things to be used. Even under the full glare of the international stabilization force, Liberian law enforcers are maximally replicating the traits of coercion, banditry, mayhem and extortion of their pre-war and war predecessors. From the days of ex-Supreme Court Chief Justice Frances Morris to second-time Attorney-General Philip Z. Banks, law enforcement and justice dispensation have sparked both national and international condemnation.

IT IS HOWEVER good to hear the new team of crime fighters and justice dispensers, particularly Justice Minister-Designate Tah, speaking tough, and sounding conversant of the criminal and justice intrigues afflicting post-conflict Liberia. Apparently sufficiently briefed on the root causes of the failure of her predecessors, Tah told Senators at her confirmation hearing, “I am not going to prosecute a case that I do not have enough evidence on. If a case is brought to me, you'll have to prove to me that we have probable cause to take this to trial. I am not going to waste my time, waste government money; I am not going to ill advise the president to go witch-hunting if I don’t have the evidence to prosecute a case and I am not convinced that the person that we are going to prosecute has been involved in a crime.”

REGARDING ORDINARY LIBERIANS’ prime nightmares, armed robbery and corruption, which are their dominant concerns, Tah said: “We are concerned about armed robbery; we are concerned about corruption; we are concerned about rape; we are concerned about any kind of violent personal crime. These are pressing, I think citizens have the right to be able to sleep in peace at night; they have the right to have their life and their property protected, and we feel responsible for that, coming in so that’s one of our priority, but that not the only thing. I see myself working with the judiciary to help with some reform in the court.”

WISHING TAH AND her team well, we simply just want to hint that Liberians are pretty familiar with those kinds of rhetorical excitements. President Sirleaf in a flowery inaugural oration three years ago declared war on corruption and swore to eliminate the pandemic at all cost. Former Justice Philip Z. Banks at his confirmation hearing declared war on armed robbery, betting that any armed robber who fired a single shot at Liberians or lifted his sword against unarmed citizens would be doing so for his last time. Thank God Tah concerned about these two nightmarish cancers and joining the bandwagon of war against them. She and team would have come to their placements if those promises of the President and Banks were fulfilled.

THUS, WE ARE wishing her and her team well, and counting the days and incidents which armed robbers and cash robbers will strike or not strike while they sit at the throne of justice and crime fighting, to see whether their performances wouldn’t be the cause of another clean sweep in the days and months ahead.