Senator Innis Calls For National Conference The Analyst - Monrovia, Liberia September 25, 2006 In the wake of growing insecurity, economic hardship and mass unemployment across the country, a Liberian legislator has proposed the need to hold a national conference that would involve all Liberians to find a common ground to what he described as a national menace. Grand Bassa County Junior Senator, Nathaniel Innis, told legislative reporters recently that the conference would enable Liberians to sit together and thrash out those socio- economic, political and ethnic differences that are beginning to surface in their midst after years of brutal civil crisis. Senator Innis noted that despite the attraction of goodwill from the international community especially Liberia’s traditional friend, the United States of America, the Sirleaf administration was finding it increasingly difficult to bring relief to the people. Senator Innis, a member of the Liberty Party, said frequent land disputes, religious intolerance, mass unemployment, insecurity, coupled with government downsizing of about one fourth of its workforce, are all indicators of dissatisfaction among most ordinary Liberians. The Bassa lawmaker, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, is therefore calling on the government to host a conference that would bring together local administrators including paramount and clan chiefs, zoes, elders, as well as youths and the religious communities to dialogue on the current state of affairs including the hike in the price of the nation’s staple, rice and other commodities. He said previous conferences held by past administrations had failed to bear fruit due to failures to implement resolutions derived at the end. He made specific reference to the former Taylor administration during which several national conferences were organized and stakeholders were called in to discuss factors that were responsible for the prolonged civil crisis, divisions amongst the citizens and international isolation, but recommendations at the end of the day were kept under the carpet, thus leading to the eventual downfall of that government. The Bassa lawmaker also called on Liberians both at home and in the Diaspora to reconcile their differences to unite for the enhancement of the homeland. Senator Innis cautioned that failure by Liberians to dialogue now could impede the country’s recovery programs and once more lead to international isolation. Source of this story: The Analyst - Monrovia, Liberia