Musa Jeng ( G-L Community):
Your observations about the political situation in The Gambia is
compelling and shows balance.  It is the mark of a person, who despite
his critical views about the regime provides both the positive and the
negative that afflict the regime and our society.  Blind opponents or
devotees to Jammeh do not help the situation much.  Below, I share a
section of of my longer article on "The October 2001 Presidential
Election in The Gambia," (p.27).



"But does Jammeh’s mandate to rule for the next five years suggest a
latent, perhaps overt contempt for the PPP and the things it stood for?
Are Gambians not concerned about their individual/collective human
rights and the events of April 10 and 11?  Anecdotal evidence suggests
that Jawara is still loved in The Gambia as a father of the nation, but
despised by many for his relatively poor performance record.  To many
Gambians his rule engendered “peace and tranquility” but also visited
much misery to the mass of the population in the rural areas,
especially.  Thus, human rights and democracy as conceived in the more
traditional sense and made popular by Jawara, meant little to the
average Gambian concerned with the next meal.  To that effect, debates
over human rights during the campaign were only philosophical debates
among well-fed elites that use a language and frame of reference to
which the majority of Gambians had little organic connection.
While the bulk of Gambians regret and mourn the deaths of the students,
they were, like many of their counterparts elsewhere, concerned with
bread and butter issues, or put another way, rice and stew issues.
Comparatively, in the eyes of the average Gambian, Jammeh despite his
faults, has delivered and is preferred to the thirty-two years of Jawara
or any who may wish to bring him back or his type of political and
economic dispensation.  This specter will continue to haunt any
politician associated mildly or even remotely with the ex-president and
his party.  This could change in time, however.  Yet, Jammeh’s humble
beginnings, his relative lack of formal education, finesse and his bold
entry into the political scene, taken by many of the elites as
stigmatizing the country, may in fact, have some appeal with the average
Gambian.  In the end, it appears that the Gambian people, (assuming the
absence of gross electoral irregularaties), made a strategic choice and
decision for the next five years in voting for Jammeh.  Not that they do
not value peace and tranquility, but because peace and tranquility
without sustainable development, however, defined, is tantamount to
continued poverty.  Paradoxically, increased poverty and poor economic
performance characterize Jammeh’s tenure. ("The October 2001
Presidential Election in The Gambia," p.27).

Abdoulaye

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