Lauren Gelfand, Mail & Guardian Online
November 18, 2005

Presumptive president-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is looking for a few honest men, and women, to form a government able to tackle the challenge of rebuilding war-torn Liberia, writes Lauren Gelfand for the Mail & Guardian Online.
“There are going to be three basic requirements: the requirement of competence; the requirement of honesty; and the requirement of the regard and protection of human rights,” Johnson-Sirleaf told reporters in an interview at her home.
Resplendent in a sky-blue African embroidered gown and headscarf, the woman most likely to be Africa’s first elected female head of state added: “Anyone who has not met those particular three conditions will not find a place in the government”.
According to Johnson-Sirleaf, who served as finance minister in 1970s-era governments:
“Liberia has had a system so imbued with corruption for so long  that there are good people out there, who meet all the other tests except the test of honesty, but I am just going to have to find people.” In a country where warlords and masters of shady enterprise have been welcomed into office and ministries for decades, writes Gelfand,
putting together a Cabinet to fight poverty and disease, rebuild shattered infrastructure and refill a looted treasury is an unenviable task.
And vowing to do so across the spectrum of political parties while also dipping into the diaspora population could prove to be an endeavor more difficult than winning the presidency itself.

To lead effectively, writes Gelfand, the Harvard-educated technocrat during the next round of the electoral protest will have to reach out to her long-time opponents and rivals, of whom there are many.

Full article:

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=256890&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/