Deconstructing Cheyassin's Dismissal

Hang the intellectuals! Their erudition and sophistication have, times
without limit, come to the aid of leaders, intellectually bankrupt and
malevolently unrestrained. Policy-making is not the forte of leaders, short
on ideas and open-mindedness. So they draw huge reservoirs of talents and
skills from the intelligentsia to perpetuate their mischief. Think about
Adolph Hitler's dependence on his propaganda secretary Paul Joseph Goebbels
to propagate his ideology in Germany. Goebbels, a well-educated man, whose
oratory was second only to Hitler's, helped Hitler in ways unimaginable, to
extend his influence to large swathes of land in and around Germany.

But Goebbels'intelligence helped guarantee the perpetuity of Hitler's
callousness. Or put another way, Hitler's megalomaniac excesses emboldened
Goebbels to prod his boss along the path of graver atrocities. In 1938,
Goebbels, hiding behind a veneer of the assasination of a German diplomat in
Paris, urged Storm Troopers to commit violent reprisals. Following a night
of rampages by Storm Troopers, the SS and the Hitler Youth, 91 Jews dropped
dead, hundreds injured, and 7,500 businesses and synagogues razed to the
ground. Such was the enormity of Goebbels' danger to his society. Consider
this: What if Hitler had sacked his propaganda minister?

Questions multiply. Would Hitler's action have spawned mass euphoria? Would
Hitler have acted to palliate the fears of his people? Should he have
claimed to be a strict disciplinarian? Would Goebbels' departure have been
long overdue? Or would it have been good riddance?

These questions are relevant in pondering over the cause and effect of
President Jammeh's recent sacking of his Attorney General and Justice
Seceretary Pap Cheyassin Secka. In the aftermath of Secka's sacking, it
seemed as if The Gambia had been relieved of the tremors of a volcanic
eruption. Public opinion was full of joie de vivre. Opposition leader
Ousainou Darboe strayed from his usual pungency and waxed ecstatically. Said
he:

[Pap Cheyassin] "should have been removed from the post because there has
been a lot of interference in the judiciary. He has been advising the
government on various legal matters, but one thing that is clear is that
when he became the attorney general and justice secretary, some of us
started losing confidence because of his removal of magistrates and judicial
officers." Darboe was simply regurgitating, without careful analysis,
commonplace public perceptions about Secka's tenure in office. Even the
Independent, which tried to crystallize the APRC government's collective
responsibility for the psychosis of the judiciary, unfortunately rode on the
same crest-wave of mass hysteria against Secka. The paper editorialized:

"There is absolutely no doubt that out of the six attorneys general and
justice secretaries that have been unceremoniously removed from office since
the dawn of the AFPRC/APRC era in 1994, there is none less mourned than Pap
Cheyassin Secka's last Tuesday. Virtually everyone saw it as good riddance
and in the best interest of the country."

Good Riddance? In the best interest of the country? By what measure? The
cumulative effects of the oomph that greeted Secka's collapse reeked of
thoughtlessness at best; hypocrisy at worst. And get this: If there was any
advantage from Secka's sacking, it certainly went to Jammeh. Why? Because
suddenly unscrupulously, Jammeh achieved a public relations scoop. He
coughed up the image of a populist disciplinarian, holding the forte of
accountability and transparency. By sacking Secka and as a consequence,
raking in public hoop-la, Jammeh succeeded even if temporarily, in drifting
attention away from his own culpability, part cause, part effect of the
egregious manner in which the likes of Secka conducted the business of
government.

But make no mistake about it. Secka shares blame for the bad governance in
The Gambia. In fact, few if any, past or present members of the government,
can escape public contempt for working for or refusing to leave a
government, which violates the human rights and liberties of its citizens
with impunity. Such was the weight of Secka's guilt. He was the chief
custodian of the constitution, but his custodianship was calamitous to the
sovereignty of the citizenry and sensible governance.

To be sure, his stint as Attorney General and Justice Minister, opened a can
of worms for the Gambian judiciary and its application of the rule of law.
Yes, under his watch, Dumo Sarho and countless others were detained for long
without recourse to justice. Yes, he foresaw the detention of the UDP
leadership over an alleged murder case, relentlessly trying to block bail
for the accused. Yes, he created a bogus commission of inquiry into the
April 10 student massacres, and later defiled its recommendations. Yes, he
allegedly fired judicial officers.

Thus, it is easy to categorize Secka's excesses and hold him contempt of
public accountability. He helped carry out policies that were not only
detrimental to his own integrity but also to the greater well-being of
society. If he were a stickler for ethics and principles, he would either
have resigned rather than embark on crass judicial duties. But it seemed he
helplessly loved the notoriety of disservice. It is tempting to label him a
victim of his own designs.

But go further. Secka is a victim of the system. His culpability as evinced
by his unpopular decisions, didn't come by itself. Rather, it was deeply
rooted in the disfurgement of current-day Gambian political dynamics. To act
the way he did, and the audacity with which he perpetuated his incendiary
undertakings, Secka must have had the imprimatur of Jammeh and his
government. Actually, it is the nature of Jammeh's leadership, irremediably
reckless, to encourage the sowing and harvesting of irresponsibilities of
those in public office.

The political configuration in The Gambia badly needs retooling. There is
the need for civility of politics, responsibility of leaders, and
sovereignty of the citizenry. That absent, the likes of Secka will come and
go, leaving the political landscape unaltered. Worse still: further
desecrated. So talk of Secka's sacking as good riddance or in the
furtherance of Gambian interest is to a large extent, simply a fleeting
pleasure of the mind. It has the unconscious effect of drifting our
attention, albeit temporarily, from the totality of our arduous efforts for
a quick, complete riddance of the political and economic bankruptcies of our
society. In these troubling times in The Gambia, even a slight distraction
from national efforts to assuage the anomalies of the body polity has
boomerang effects.

The conclusion is this: Jammeh's dismissal of Secka is tantamount to
deception, deception masquerading as rehabilitation of the judiciary. Having
now battered Secka into obscurity, Jammeh is undoubtedly hoping for plaudits
from the public. He deserves none.

Cherno Baba Jallow
Detroit













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