The_Open_Door_deel1

i -227-
3 prescribing such a review it would not be against any provision
: ] to start or to introduce a review.(The proposed changes were
j aimed at eliminating clauses considered inconsistent with the
|| needs and interests of the country and its people, or which were
|: necessitated by the change of time and circumstances, and the
% introduction of new provisions which would have been better
|s adapted to the new circumstances). It is significant to note that
ll none of the exponents of this new philosophy in Liberia were
|| lawyers. The three leading men in this respect - backed by
pi President William Tolbert - were Stephen A. Tolbert, Milton J.
I Weeks, and Cyril Bright, all three trained abroad and with a long
5 experience in Government. In the early years of the Tubman
% Administration Stephen Tolbert had obtained a scholarship for
i studies abroad. He had returned with a degree in Forestry which,
\ eventually, brought him in the 1960's at the head of the then
> called Department of Agriculture and Commerce. His success in
;• private business activities was mentioned before (see Chapter
•••] 4). When in 1971 his brother succeeded President Tubman Steve
j Tolbert was appointed Minister of Finance (January 1972).
] Among the three men the only trained economist was J. Milton
j Weeks. He had obtained a degree in Economics in the 1950's and
; subsequently, in the 1960's, had headed and organized" the newly
j created National Planning Agency, had become the first Secretary
i of the Department of Planning and Economic Affairs when the
j Office of National Planning was elevated to the status of
; Department, and after that had served as Secretary of Finance,
J (from the late 1960's until the appointment of Steve Tolbert in
| January 1972). Cyril Bright, holder of a degree in Agricultural
I Economics, had been Weeks' successor at the Department of
j Planning and Economic Affairs. The role played by these three
' men in the review of concession agreements in the 1970's is
I characteristic of the changes the Liberian economy and Government
are undergoing. The task of renegotiating agreements is shifted
! gradually, very slowly, from lawyers and armchair-politicians to
a growing group of trained specialists in economic and financial
affairs. The change in leadership of the country was another
important factor. The power and decisions monopolizing Tubman
i was succeeded by William Tolbert who controls the political
• actors on the Liberian scene but who grants his collaborators in
j the cabinet more "freedom".
j Despite this shift, the outcome of the discussions and the
subsequent revision of the 1960 Mining Concession Agreement
failed to bring about substantial alterations in the situation
as it existed prior to the review of the agreement. This does
not imply a contradiction with respect to the developments just
referred to but rather reveals the existence of other factors
which persistently hamper a fundamental change of policy in
respect of the role of foreign investments in the national
development process. This tendency towards leniency was further
enhanced by the physical disappearance of Steve Tolbert, in
1975, and the political disappearance of the other two
Government officials (57). The exclusion of Milton Weeks and
Cyril Bright from active politics is to be explained from
Liberia's internal politics of changing alliances, one of the
hampering factors referred to above.