Preface
Distraction from Gambia-L, even for two weeks, like in my case, can be
costly. Reason? Chances are you'll miss sailing on the eddies of infrequent,
rational public opinion, occasionally enlivening Gambia-L and spontaneously
propelling its readership into spurts of literary crossfire and
tongue-wagging.
Yet again, my learned friend Halifa Sallah, has come under fire for
canvassing for support of, and supporting, the 1997 Gambian constitution,
which betrayed Gambian public opinion for presidential term-limits,which
gives President Yahya Jammeh and Co. carte blanche to rule unstoppably
indefinitely,which entrenches an Indemnity Clause which says that Jammeh and
ex-council colleagues cannot be held accountable for their actions in the
past,which is derelict with obnoxious military decrees out of sync with
democratic governance. Halifa also stands criticised for playing footsie
with Jammeh over the president's litany of excesses, which merely exist on
the fringes of Halifa's and PDOIS' political imagination.
This time around, Saul Khan and Hamjatta Kanteh are putting the political
geezer on the bridle and saddle of intense scrutiny. I have been down this
polemical terrain before with Halifa on this same forum. Well before I
joined Gambia-L, another Gambian, on this forum, had also taken Halifa and
Co. to task on the same issue. Inside The Gambia, Halifa has had to flicker
away numerous criticisms on his transitional role from some of his political
opponents.
What started as a trickle has now turned into a torrent. Years hence,
Halifa's transitional legacy - marked by unquestionable patriotism and
self-effacing leadership on one front, and political deviationism and death
of outrage on the other - will continue flashing on The Gambia's political
radar screen. History continues...
And now this:
Halifamania
Time was, I was afflicted with an ailment called Halifamania. Looking back
over the years of my high schooling and long before I ever became a son of
ink, I used to be a dire-hard PDOIS supporter. I would trek near and distant
places just to hear Halifa and colleagues speak on the hustings. I would
mill around PDOIS'offices with a hushed zeal to peek into the to-ings and
fro-ings of PDOIS leaders inside their offices. One day I got in there with
the help of a dear friend. It was a scintillating experience. My good friend
Haruna Farage, now working with the Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal in Tanzania,
also enabled me to get cosy access to Sidia Jatta at his Bundung residence.
Sidia and I would discuss Gambian politics while he plays his Kora under the
mango tree.
Only my lacking of a voter's card prevented me from voting PDOIS in the
1987/92 general elections. But my exuberance over PDOIS was unassailable. I
hung onto Halifa's and PDOIS' political vocabulary fore and aft, thinking
that whatever they said was the gospel. Was the truth. Was unquestionable.
Was irreplaceable. My affinity with PDOIS was just too much for me to submit
myself to dissension over the party's policies and its leaders' political
behaviour. Silly me.
But dilating too much on our affinities with PDOIS, a political party whose
emergence in the 1980s, helped spruce up Gambian political
consciousness,makes us merely peddlers of banal banter. It is meaningless.
Understandably, a chunk of PDOIS supporters are prepared to adore and
sanctify Halifa and Co. regardless of their political follies. I no longer
belong in that category. That was then.
And this is now. For much of this year, I have been very critical of Halifa,
first on his role during the transition period, a subject currently
rejuvenated on this forum, and on his incontinent Pan Africanism bereft of
objectivity and dissension. Each time I have taken Halifa to task, I have
noticed some rumblings of discontent, emanating perhaps from die-hard PDOIS
fanatics. Probably they are miffed that Halifa's poverty of thinking as
depicted in his arguments or his political follies, are being hit and hit
hard. To be sure, Halifa is a public figure commanding a following. So it is
only natural that some members of this following, more infatuated than in
love, with Halifa, to react viscerally rather than rationally, to anything
critical of Halifa and PDOIS.
Consider this: "Your article contains no iota of truth ....you should be
objective, give the man the credit he deserves....he is not an opportunist."
Bass Ndow was commenting on my piece regarding Halifa's rejoinder to
Ayittey's and Shirima's article. He thought I had a private beef with Halifa
and his party. He imagined I was being dismissive of Halifa's sacrifice to
return to Africa and work for the continent. As if Halifa's patriotism or
willingness to return to his homeland formed the crux of my piece.
I am an opinion writer, who makes no fetish of personalities. I don't care
whether it is Koli Tengela or Halifa Sallah, Nelson Mandela or Otto Von
Bismarck, Cherno Baba Jallow or President Yahya Jammeh. I go after issues,
never mind their criticality or controversiality. Throughout my years of
writing, I have learned never to give in to majoritarian tyranny, or shy
away from speaking my mind on issues even if my opinion runs counter to
popular opinion. There comes a time when you have to be on your guard, or to
borrow a popular refrain from Halifa, be a 'master of your own destiny.'
Leave aside personality worshipping. Leave aside also the game of chicken
and sugary love. let's debate the issues head-on. Halifamania has the
tendency to sap our frankness and objectivity. To idolize Halifa or anybody
else for that matter, without even a whiff of dissent on their misguided
deeds and sayings, is to fall prey to lovey-dovey cronyism.
More reactive than assertive to Saul Khan's and Hamjatta's Kanteh's
challenges to Halifa,Alpha Robinson recently remarked petulantly: "Halifa,
whatever you decide, be rest assured that there are many Gambians and
non-Gambians who treasure your role in our history ....no one can turn us
against you." Such convivial banality and sycophantic hobnobbing can be
fatuous nonesense. Of course, Alpha's choice to place Halifa on a pedestal
is his legitimate perorogative, but it is imperative that our public figures
be held in intense scrutiny. No democracy, if it is to be well-variegated in
accountability and transparency, can thrive with an electorate eager-happy
to exchange pleasantries with its leaders, and not rational skepticism on
every action and saying of those in leadership.
The solace is Halifa received Alpha's panegyric stakes with a pinch of salt.
Halifa is a politician not too enamoured of praises nor does he take
criticisms lying down. Put him under fire, and Halifa degenerates into
vintage Halifaism: chest-thumping, table-pounding and grandiloquent,
rhetoric. Intellectual arrogance and pomposity beomes his last bastion of
hope to ward off critics. But atleast, paying lip service to praises should
enable Halifa realize one thing: a public figure who is constantly in search
of fame and glory, and who blushes and pleases anytime a supporter throws
him tossed salads of plaudits, is one that risks valuing his beliefs and
principles largely on the direction or misdirection of received opinion,
which can be sycophantic, subjective and gibberish.
Therefore: Halifa must continue resisting every urge, every attempt, every
whisper, from his loyalists and fanatics, to elevate him to sainthood or
celebrityhood. Because he's neither a saint nor a celebrity. He's a public
figure who has demonstrated unflinching keenness in the pursuit of better
governance for his people, but who also is prone to human failings,
intellectual follies and immaturities. And who aslo stands criticised for
the not-so-impressive-part of his role during the transition.
PS: Saul Khan and Hamjatta, I am enjoying the debate. Keep up the momentum.
And don't let yourselves be distracted by comments that add nothing to the
debate. Sometimes the best response is no response at all.
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