COMMENTARY  THE MEDIA AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN GAMBIAA PARTNERSHIP FOR POLITICAL DECENCY   By Sarjo Bayang, United Kingdom

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December 1, 2005
Where serious political decency counts, this tiny West African state called Gambia has only a name to boast. Civil society participation in politics has been nothing more than fulfilling the desire of vote hungry politicians whose ultimate goal is to get-rich-quick by ascending on the political platform. The media on its part simply played the story-telling function by reporting events as they unfold rather than provoking debates that give civil society a forum for progressive debate. It remains a ball game in which one sector of society is being used for the gains of a tiny minority in what can be seen as the politics of deception.

That has been the character and conduct of politicians in Gambia at least for a good part of the 30 years spell of the PPP administration (1965-1994). Political participation of Gambian civil society was reduced to a game of great personalities. Those who commanded the noise also commanded the votes. Being voted into political office equated to becoming part of a ruling kingdom. Up to the invasion of the military junta in what they called a bloodless coup carried out by soldiers with a difference (1994), only a people's representative could serve in position of state ministers and other parliamentary responsibilities.

The Jammeh administration decided to change the rules in a cunning way of fusing power in the sole hands of the presidency; in this case in the whole and total grips of Yahya Jammeh, head of the junta who transformed himself into a cosmetic civilian president. Many at the time could read the signs properly when the military decided to step on a constitutional platform calling for a referendum to end the transition from uniformed military leadership to a non-uniformed military dictatorship which remains until today. It was fair enough to let Gambian civil society know about a military rule with a difference. Whatever this difference stands for, the new millennium Gambia does not deserve being robbed and sanctioned by a junta whose principal desire is to rig, rule, and continue to wreck an already ailing economy.

But did it all start going wrong? Who do we blame? Rather, do we tackle the problem and later talk about whom to blame? For now, the blame is a shared possession. One person that is not to blame is Yahya Jammeh, president of Kanilai (Gambia). To Jammeh Gambia (the country) is Kanilai (the little village). That is translated in his efforts to boost the image of Kanilai and he calls this developing Gambia. Special prices, free meals, zoo, food for animals in Kanilai and none for people elsewhere in Gambia are all evidence of Jammeh's perceived equation of Gambia to Kanilai. Gambians knew by consideration that this man Yahya had no claim to having managed even a simple social relationship with anything to call a success. On the social front, it was known that the man suffered broken relations that he could not patch even when he came to become president. At work, he was not managing any strategic responsibility. In the real world of the military, Yahya, we are often told, has not been
 in the army proper. That was why up to the time of Gambia's military take-over in July 1994, Jammed was not even a captain later he promoted himself to the highest military title while still serving as head of state.

To win support, the military regime quickly embarked on raising physical structures to show Gambians that what the former regime (People's Progressive Party- PPP) could not do in 30 years, they (Arm Forces Provisional Ruling Council) could do in less than five years. In practice, this is what happened. In principle, it was carried at the most expensive misallocation of resources. Committing the leftover resources of the former regime has carried a lot of the work. The start Gambia's military regime demonstrated the emergence of real white elephant projects as in the number of schools buildings, rural hospital, and monuments like the Arch 22 that is unsafely swinging on the soft sand at the entrance of Banjul, the capital. As at now, the entrance to Banjul through the Independence Drive high street is restricted to on Presidential parades and special occasions. That diversion of traffic is a cost requiring the country's good brains to sort out. Nobody is talking about because the
 emperor Jammeh thought it was significant to the 22 July military rule. As you approach this notorious Arch 22, you are greeted by the stature of an unknown soldier meant to remind us of the ugly event of 1994 July 22 military take-over.

While boasting of his regime's capability to inaugurate a new project every six months, Jammeh embarked on the restructuring of Kanilai his known village. Since the transformation of Kanilai from a little unknown, "unmotorable" village to Jammeh's version of Yamusokoro (the creation of former Ivorian president Ouphet Boigny) there has not been any call to celebrate projects in Kanilai. For Jammeh, it is normal that a president develops his home village to prove that he is proud of being village boy turned president. Nothing wrong with that so long the funds come from personal sources. Nobody remembers a Yahya Jammeh building even a hurt or buying a bed to make Kanilai a home in all his working life. Now as president, Jammeh has no demarcation between state resources and personal funds. All state contacts are personalised. In Gambia of today, only two entities exist. Jammeh is one entity; Republic of Gambia is another entity. To Jammeh, these two entities are one and the same. This is
 all the reason why what belongs to the state can be easily mishandled by the president with nobody to question it. In that scheme of things, the laws, the administration, political positions, and everything of the state is now at the total disposal of president Yahya Jammeh. This is how things stand in Gambia from 22 July 1994 to date.

The media has a role. Civil society also has a role. People have been making high or low tone gossip about Jammeh and his grip of Gambia as a nation. The military character of the Jammeh regime has spelt perpetual state of fear. Mysterious disappearance and death of innocent persons solidifies this fear further more.

It has come to a point now when Gambian have to take fuller responsibility. Many will tell you about the role of international bodies and the diplomatic community for salvaging Gambia from the hostile grips of the military. For more than a decade, there is no sign to lead to any reasonable hope of intervention by an outside body to salvage Gambia. Other countries started just the same way Gambia is today. The only time international attention is paid to situations like this is when real war breaks and news -mongers employ their men and equipment to tap information and produce news products for the benefit of media enterprise gains.

In this era of advancements in the media environment and facilities, we cannot wait to see Gambia rot for someone else' news making. The media and civil society partnership is one platform on which the case of Gambia can be a difference. Other countries have failed to intervene in the process leading to their ruin. There are significant advances in the way the media is contributing to averting catastrophe-befalling Gambia. Civil society must take centre stage in the process. The advent of online media facilities creates an enabling environment. While Jammeh fails to pick the signal right, this is not about him. Platform for civil society media partnership is for a new generation political participation in Gambia. The means of outreach are enormous. There is no political force that is capable of baffling the course of decent politics in Gambia any more. Politics of deception is not sustainable for now and later. The media and civil society partnership can be enhanced for the better.
 Now that Jammeh and his lot are getting to go, politics of decency must replace the ruins of politics of deception. It is up to the people. Those in the media are after members of civil society who simply hold the instruments of communication for betterment of society.

In subsequent issues, strategies and avenues for the construction and consolidation of this media-civil society platform will be further examined.




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