In what was or must be the most unfailingly enlightening passage of his
Discourses, Machiavelli commented: "A multitude is strong while it holds
together, but so soon as each of those who compose it begins to think of his
own private danger, it becomes weak and contemptible."
Indeed, time and again, we always run the risk of such private fears running
amok and causing the collective will to suffer. The single most important
contributory factor for breeding such private fears within the Opposition is
when some Opposition members collude with certain APRC elements within our
midst - like the evil Pa Modou Gassama - and begin to second-guess the
monstrosity or lack thereof, say, a future UDP gov't - especially one which
is allied with a resuscitated PPP. What is the premise of this? Some always
clog their mental horizons with phobic images of PPP corruption and abuse of
power to the point that they can't even tell what is and ain't a legitimate
demurrer given the expediency involved in getting things to move ahead and on
time. I have since the early days of the abrogation of Decree 89 warned
against the futility and dangers involved in playing political punditry and
second-guessing the motives of Decree 89 politicians. Indeed, i forwarded the
argument that an Opposition Alliance is the safest bosom and bet for the
Decree 89 politicians. There was never the need to perversely and arrogantly
slight any Decree 89 politicians to publicly make a committment to the
Opposition Alliance.
Therewith, the only group that gains from any post-mortem of Decree 89
politicians is the APRC and the insincere ones within the Opposition. For if
you bring up inconsequential academic stuff that arise out non sequitur
arguments, it merely succours the APRC in its false belief that it was right
in hijacking power in the first place. Such non sequiturs like the
eligibility of Jawara or lack thereof have the effect of us arguing back and
forth over issues that can never be settled whilst the mortal enemy of all
Gambians - as it happens, Jammeh - still has the wherewithal to inflict
damage on innocent Gambians. A pity it took correspondence upon
correspondence for my compatriot, Kebba Dampha, to bring home such a salient
point. Jawara has no powers to harm Gambians; Jawara can only help aid and
complement our legitimate efforts to bring back Gambian sanity and decency
back to that hijacked country. More's our pity that in pointing out this
fundamental moral truth, you are caricatured as a PPP hired Stalinist
re-writer of Gambian history to the effect that those of who see sense in
Jawara's return back home are ready to excuse or approve everything that
chanced during the Jawara days. This was never the point. Point always been
that we've recognised the chief mortal enemy of all Gambians as Jammeh and
we prescribed a medicine of folks putting aside past moral and personal
arguments and join together to combat this mortal enemy and all he stands for.
Issues certainly were not helped when some of the second-guessing involved
disparaging the motives of those Decree 89 politicians who have not publicly
committed themselves to the Opposition Alliance. Imagine a Ms Diop pouring
scorn with such perverse arrogance on the likes of Dibba on the false premise
that his [Dibba's] and others' silence denotes greed and other malevolent
personal agendas. How does disparaging Dibba in this abominable manner help
bring him on board? Especially, if the disparaging is so perversely
misinformed to the point where you engage in moral excoriations about the
highs and lows of Decree 89 politicians during the First Republic? Nor is
matters further helped if you arrogantly argue on such morally slippery
premises like saying all parties should throw their weights behind the UDP
because it has garnered more votes in the last elections; it had persistently
campaigned for the abrogation Decree 89; and that the party's leader has
sacrificed a career to fight Jammeh. Once such perversions enter the
negotiations, all bets for a collective spirit of cooperation are off and a
flotsam and jetsam of personal stuff gets in the way.
These are precisely the ingredients Machiavelli had in mind for the breeding
of private fears which ends up reducing the collective will to the
contemptible and consequently flunking in such collective endeavour and
spirit of pragmatic political cooperation to combat a common mortal enemy. In
order to move on to the great task that lies ahead of us in this march in
solidarity and collective will, we simply have to get a grip and snap out of
this funk. All hands on deck doesn't mean individuals retain the moral high
ground to slight and bash those they perceive of as uncooperative. All hands
on deck means we positively and diplomatically work together to win the
support of those constituents and players we need in our struggle to
decapitate a common mortal enemy.
Admittedly, negative engagements by Opposition members with the collusion of
our mortal enemies have dented only benignly the collective spirit to
cooperate. This is all partly due to the wisdom and patience exercised by
Decree 89 politicians as they were thrown every unsavoury epithet that can be
found in the book. Decree 89 politicians have shown great equanimity given
the pressure and the unproductive comments and misgivings expressed about
their role or lack thereof in the scheme of things since the abrogation of
Decree 89. If anything, Decree 89 politicians has shown during this very
brief period of their emergence as polititical forces to be reckoned with,
the extent to which one negotiates or enters in political negotiations to
reach pragmatic political compromises. Pragmatic political compromises are
not reached because some self-righteous person engages in a perverse tongue
lashing of political constituents and players who need to cooperate to combat
a common mortal enemy. Such self-righteous and perverse moralising are what
breaks the collective spirit. Pragmatic political compromises are reached
only when constituents and players are enthused enough and or made to realise
the common grounds of mutual cooperation they share in their struggles to
avert similar predicaments. That is what makes the collective spirit.
As things stand, we could do well by emulating the noble manner in which
Decree 89 politicians comported themselves since the abrogation of Decree 89.
We must exercise restrain and patience in the long haul to October. Singling
out politicians and making perverse demands on them helps no one in the
scheme of things; it will only help alienate some major constituents and
players. Matters are not helped either when we second-guess personal motives
and begin to drive underground the social ethics of seeking a pragmatic
political compromise to combat a common mortal enemy. Or worse, perversely
waxing lyrical and indignant about inconsequential academic stuff that arise
out of non sequitur arguments only serves to give allure to our common mortal
enemy - especially in its misguided belief that it has every right to hold
Gambians with such ignoble contempt.
Hamjatta Kanteh
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