Complacency like failure has a stench to it. For those with a good enough
nose, the whiff of the stench of complacency is getting stronger as each day
passes since Jammeh was stupid enough to order the shooting of innocent
school kids who happened to be showing their disgust against the tyranny he
had managed to wrought on the Gambian People.
For me the catalogue of recent complacency came to a complete pattern
with yesteryears complacency, when Tombong forwarded an announcement that CDs
or whatever of KAIRO [a word he has helped debased by merely invoking it], a
recording of Gambian artists that his gov't/GRTS had helped produce on behalf
of Gambian artists is now available for sale. But reading between the lines,
and from the bits and pieces I stitched together, I knew this was another
tacky but supersubtle gimmickry by Tombong to paint his master in the light
of benevolence and patriotism who could not be culpable of wrong doing
especially against innocent school children. [I have seen a copy of that
KAIRO tape way back in 1999 which by Gambian standards is good enough and
please don't get me wrong I do buy Gambian artists recording even though I
know most of them only play weedy stuff I would rather not listen to. I only
buy their tapes to show solidarity. No disrespect to the artists who are
doing their utmost to live up to expectations when the chips are so heavily
stacked against them. I hope I'm excused for this blasé declaration.] Upon
reading between the lines and knowing Tombong for his spins, I rose to the
challenge and relentlessly made foolish his announcement by satirizing his
tacky ploy.
Into the picture emerges our own very Katim. He congratulates Tombong and
by extension Jammeh for their good work. For any pat on the back that Tombong
gets from us reaches Jammeh by extension. This he declared is beyond politics
and one must delineate politics from social life. What a load of cobblers! I
might even add COR BLIMEY! to mimic the old lady who used to live near me in
Burnham. To be very honest, I was totally speechless and disappointed that
Katim with all his worldly experience could fall for this sort of school boy
ploy designed and timed to show how much Jammeh is doing for the Gambia. For
all that it is worth, a lady came to the rescue. Someone forwarded a mail
from an Irene who on the face of it seemed to me to be a non Gambian. And as
she cogently put it to Katim, music in modern African politics, is one of the
booby traps that brutal dictators use to whip up emotions of solidarity in
order to cover up their inadequacies and the tyrannical nature of their
power.
If an outsider like Irene could read through Jammeh like this and an
insider and big player/leader in the JAMMEH MUST GO camp could be fall such
cobblers, then we are ready to journey backwards. Welcome to the age of
complacency. After all the hooha, is this what we could manage? Is this what
we owe the slain school kids? I should just add that it just sent alarm bells
pealing in my head. That the zeal is fast ebbing out of us after we all
agreed that the situation back home can no longer be tolerated
I might have shrugged this off as a one off if there weren't forerunners.
However, there is more to the story. But the first person to give Tombong a
pat on the back for supplying twisted facts from Jammeh's office was Katim.
He infact used the word 'candour' to describe Tombong's attitude and
self-serving gestures. And full of exultation for the SOS for Justice for his
empty rhetoric on the dispensation of justice for the families of slain
school kids.
As if this lack of ingenuity and foresight wasn't enough, he together
with other List Managers introduced Neanderthal rules on the list to the
effect that it is simply a pain to send postings on the L. When criticised by
Prince O'Brien Coker for this new rule, arrogantly he said this new rule is
non negotiable so we might as well put up with it. Even as more and more who
care enough came out to whine about it, but to the self righteous Managers,
its case closed. Classic African leadership psyche at work for you. And we
are really serious about developing Africa and turning things around?
Then cometh the Framework For Change he penned. For an academic that he
is supposed to be, I have never read anything as bland and uninspiring as
that paper. That paper was a gross understatement of the tragedy of the
Gambia under Jammeh. Anyway I came to such conclusions when I first read it.
To confirm my judgements, I gave it to one of my tutors to read it as a
petition which he might be interested in supporting. Guess what he had to
say? Simply put, the gentleman merely put it to me that compared to what he
has heard and hears of African regimes, this one [Jammeh's represented in
Katim's Framework For Change] is kind of mild and relatively pales in front
of the others. Is this the sort of message we want send out to people out
there? With such a message who would he even listen to us? Who would take us
seriously with such a petition as Katim's Framework For Change?
And in all this, Katim believes he had taken "the moral high ground" in
the name of tolerance. Tolerance...... a word I adore. As I always keep
saying, the Jammeh regime is Fascism reincarnate. And a by-line of Fascism is
intolerance to anything that is progressive. I might add here that most of my
convictions on tolerance comes from Karl Popper's landmark book Open Society
and its Enemies. This book has enormous influence on my idea of tolerance and
society. This was a book written when Fascist Europe was at its worst. It is
the most definitive statement so far I have across on tolerance and the
ideals of an "Open Society." As Popper himself put it in the book on the case
of tolerating Fascism as people like Neville Chamberlain were doing then, "we
should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate
the intolerant" [see Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), Ch. 7 by Karl
Popper].
As things are, Jammeh happens to be the most intolerant thing to happen
to the Gambia. Therefore it is foolhardy to expect of us tolerance when he is
not ready to tolerate us or live and let live. The day he refused tolerating
us, he ceased the right to expect of us tolerance. This is the central
conceit of my argument that Jammeh must never be tolerated notwithstanding
all the seemingly well meaning gestures that might emanate from him save only
if he is ready to unconditionally relinquish power. This is why I do not
tolerate his sidekicks like Tombong. Simply cos they represent Fascism online
and defend it consciously. They must not be tolerated even if it means
breaking age old links. This should be our stance. I will not commit myself
to nothing less. Any flaccid attempts to look tolerant to the intolerant will
only prolongate our struggles. If young school children can say enough is
enough and refuse to be bullied by this thickos who are we adults to listen
to the self-serving gestures and postures of Jammeh? We CAN and MUST do
better. It is the least we could do for the memories of these school children
who did what most of us wouldn't dare do.
My criticism is therefore not personal but aims at bringing back zeal
into the mission which is beginning to be hard hit at by the usual Gambian
culture of complacency. My singling out Katim is nothing personal but born
out of his tendency to accept the bait anytime it is thrown. If we are GONNA
achieve a different society after Jammeh, it helps for us all to accept
constructive criticism and start thinking differently or else it will always
be a sense of déjà vu with each regime. Attitudes and mentalities have to
change. That's the long and short of it. It is the first and foremost
solution to the African mess. It just doesn't help our cause if we criticise
Jammeh for the same things we allow to flourish amongst ourselves. The we are
supposedly working for must be beyond getting of Jammeh alone. It must go
further than that. It must go as far as attacking our attitudes which are
part and parcel of the problem.
This weekend Africans would gather to celebrate African Liberation Day.
What is there to celebrate in Africa? That we have given birth to more
Hitlers and Mussolinis in the 20th century? That come the dawning of the 21st
century we are still held hostage by hoodlums and monsters? And Pan African
cafe intellectuals would invoke the usual Nkrumah crannies that are not
rooted in today's realities. It is time the rhetoric changes. It is time this
socialist Pan Africanist consensus is challenged and laid to rest. It is time
we realise that there is more to the African story and units of analysis than
slavery and colonialism. These two horrors must not and cannot solely
redefine the conscience of the modern African and Africa. Africans must look
inwardly for the root causes of our problems and stop pointing outwardly for
what is increasingly pointing towards the opposite direction. We simply
cannot have it both ways. This is the message that should be coming from all
the gatherings this weekend. Anything short of these is a mere chafing of the
surface of our problems and giving allure to the likes of Jammeh.
I know it is and could be a pain to have a conscience. Some of just can't
shut it when we feel something is going amiss somewhere. I hope my thoughts
expressed herein wouldn't delist me here. But I'm equally ready for that.
There is nothing far more rewarding than clearing your conscience of all the
shadows of doubt that especially lingered in my whole being the last two days.
Hamjatta Kanteh
hkanteh
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