Note: the article below was first published in last friday's issue of the
Daily Observer.
Questions for Jammeh
by Cherno Baba Jallow
in Detroit, USA.
Participatory democracy is the natural precursor of representative
democracy. When people freely and fairly decide who should decide for them,
democracy has reached half circle. The other half connects, when elected
leaders, humbled and galvanized by the trust and responsibility bestowed on
them, and by dint of hardwork, succeed in meeting the electoral demands for
which they were elected, or that failing, vacate the political scene.
But since neither my MP from Basse nor any other representatives, have shown
the parliamentary moxie and ideological acumen, to articulate my needs and
aspirations to the Chief Executive and his government, I herewith do so, out
of sheer helplessness. Leave aside my role as a chronicler and critic of
Gambian society. I communicate my thoughts here purely as a citizen with
voting rights and powers unsurpassed by those of the presidency.
It's my fervent hope that President Yahya Jammeh understands my unbridled
quest to ask him pertinent questions pertaining to political realities in
The Gambia. I am an elector, and like all other electors, I have the power
to seat and unseat public trustees, and hold them accountable for their
actions. Thus, the President cannot escape the lenses of private and public
scrutiny. Jammeh is accountable to the Gambian people. Or so he should be.
Mr. President, it's been five years since you came to power. Recently, you
celebrated the fifth anniversary of your coup of July 22, 1994. Presumably
you still are in a celebratory mood; and it will be opportune to take you on
a historical tour of the halcyon days of your coup.
In 1994, you promised the Gambian people: "Henceforth, it will be a new era
of freedom, accountability, transparency and probity." Well, what are the
principles of accountability and transparency? When ministers of a deposed
government throng before commissions of enquiry? Confess to misappropriation
of funds and dereliction of duty? Is that the meaning of the twin democracy
principles? Are you accountable and transparent to the Gambian people?
Well, you promised - again: "As far as accountability is concerned, all of
us, including myself and all members of the Council, will have to pass
through the Commission." Have you or any of your ex-council members appeared
before commissions of enquiry to divulge information pertaining to
government corruption? Misallocation of scarce government resources?
Soldier-beatings and killings? Human rights violations? Leadership
wantonness?
After painstaking national efforts, the Gambian people produced, and, voted
for a new constitution in 1997. Was it right for you to dictate what went in
the constitution? Why did you entrench the Indemnity Clause in the
constitution? To protect you and your colleagues from being held accountable
for your actions? Is this democracy? Are you a democrat?
You detained opposition leader Lamin Waa Juwara, for 13 months without
trial. During his incarceration, he suffered mental torture, physical
manhandling, and, family pain and misery. He sued your government for
wrongful detention. The suit was thrown out not because it lacked merit, but
because justice could not be dispensed when the Indemnity Clause protected
you from being held liable for your actions.
When the suit was abrogated, did you jubilate? Or did the Indemnity Clause
you created and shielded with, make you blush? Do you know the political
theory 'absolutism?' Has it occured to you that you've given yourself and
your security enforcement community, dangerously limitless powers? What is
the first and foremost function of government? Is it not the protection of
the liberty and freedom of its citizens? What recourse to justice can a
helpless citizenry take against a government that is too powerful, too
intrusive, too intimidatory? Is this not a recipe for societal instability?
And you told Gambians, yet again: "Criticise us anytime we go wrong, we
don't want your praises." But was your promise to respect the existence of a
free press realistic? Are you allergic to dissent? Do you know in five
years, you've have caused more destruction to the Gambian press than Jawara
ever did in three decades? When was the last time you spoke to the Gambian
press? What's your understanding of the role of a free press in society?
In five years of your leadership, rampant human rights violations and other
government excesses, continued unabated. Recently, government thugs abducted
opposition activist Shyngle Nyassi. He spent a month in NIA captivity,
without being charged with any crime. Nyassi's case was peculiarly
unprecedented, but attempted kidnappings were common in your five-year rule.
Worse, your late finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay, died mysteriously
after seeing you off at the airport.
Are you still investigating his death? Is your government responsible for
his gruesome death? Does it strike you that Koro's death under dubious
circumstances, represents one of the darkest moments of your rule? Are you
complacent that the furore that greeted Koro's death now exists on the
fringes of our nation's imagination? Is it clear to you that someday,
circumstances surrounding his death will be known? Have you compensated his
family for the terrible loss of their son while in the service of the State?
Your government must be congratulated on recovering the $3m that former
AFPRC spokesman, ex-Captain Ebou Jallow had wanted to pilfer from a secret
bank account in Switzerland. But did Jallow deposit $21.7m in accounts in
Switzerland under your name? What has happened to the $30m that Taiwan
loaned to The Gambia, which went into a special development account in a New
York bank? Is it true that you've multi-million dollars stashed in a Swiss
bank? Why are you so reticent about Gambia's "missing millions?"
Oftentimes, you like to vent spleen on Western democracy. It has now become
part of your presidential vocabulary to lecture and hector Gambians on the
need for "African Democracy." By your reckoning, Western democracy is alien
to Africa, and you keep harping that we had better return to homegrown
democracy that Africa knew in the past.
Precisely, what's democracy? Better still, what is homegrown about
democracy? Do you subscribe to the philosophical argument that Man is either
free or not free? Is democracy not in the vanguard of liberalism and dignity
of man's existence? Are Africans not in need of liberality and
constitutionality? Do you know in the days of Africa yore, our elders would
gather under the tree and debate issues about the community until a
consensus was reached? What's more democracy than that? Are you a consensual
politician? How consensual is your National Assembly?
Using soap-box oratory, bereft of congruity and diplomatic sensitivity, you
have now taken to chastising the West for their social ills, and
inequalities on the world scene. Does that make you more presidential? Are
you an international revolutionary thinker? Do you want to be regarded in
the likes of Sankara, Nkrumah, Lumumba? Is it knowledge to you that those
leaders had vocabularies well suited to their political times? Do you know
the cold war, colonialism, neo-colonialism? When will you and other African
leaders stop blaming the West for all our woes? When will you embark on the
process of nation-building for your people?
Political scientist Max Weber argued that public figures are not judged by
their actions, but by the consequences of their actions. Your overthrow of a
corrupt and decrepit rule was indeed a bold action. However, you shouldn't
be judged by your successful, "bloodless" coup, but rather by the
consequences of your coup.
In five years of APRC rule, The Gambia now has a television station, a
university, and many more schools. Good Job. But I should be wary of
showering you with too much praise on a raft of leviathan projects, whose
cushioning effects on our society's abject povert and economic decadence,
are rather miniscule.
By the way, are these projects including the July 22nd Arch, your great
accomplishments? Were their commissioning justified by economics? What are
your other achievements in five years of APRC rule? Do you know there is
more unemployment now than before you came to power? While luxuriating in
your plush office, have you noticed the economic hopelessness that now
afflicts Gambians? Do you blame western countries for this? Are you reliant
on donor loans and grants to kick-start Gambian socio-economic development?
How good are your micro and macro economic policies?
Weren't Gambians freer then than they are today? Weren't they safer then to
express their political feelings without dreading being eavesdropped upon
and detained by an intrusive, swashbuckling security agency? Aren't you more
unaccountable than Jawara ever was?
Do you agree that the promises you made in the early days of the coup now
exist on the edges of your leadership's political consciousness? Is it your
opinion that you've failed the Gambian people? Can you do better than this?
Think about that.
_______________________________________________________________
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