Gambia speaking
truth, Mr. Jones?

By Baba Galleh Jallow

It is sometimes hard to avoid reacting to the words of
people who make statements not out of any particular knowledge beyond their
narrow professional occupations, not out of reasonable familiarity with the
situations they address, but simply as a consequence of their ideological
positions and within their narrow political contexts. Moreover, the fight
against injustice necessarily entails a corresponding fight against those who,
wittingly or unwittingly, aid and abet injustice. The recent statement to the
Iran-based Press TV by Bill Jones of the UK-based Executive Intelligence Review
that Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh spoke “truth to power” in accusing the UK
and US of plotting to overthrow his government smacks of the age-old
condescension that Western experts betray when talking about Africa and African
issues. Is it not ironic that Mr. Jones uses the same “imperialistic” language
that Jammeh habitually rants against to defend Jammeh? How does Mr. Jones know
that Jammeh was speaking the “truth” in accusing the UK and the U.S. of trying
to overthrow his government? What evidence did Jammeh provide to convince Mr.
Jones that he was not lying? 

Does Mr. Jones know how Jammeh reacts to people speaking
truth to his power? Does Mr. Jones know whether Jammeh is in fact a believer in
the idea and legitimacy of speaking truth to power? Does Mr. Jones know how
many people Jammeh has jailed, killed, exiled, caused to disappear without the
due process of law? Is Mr. Jones suggesting that Jammeh has the legitimate
right to be in power for twenty years? Would Mr. Jones support the practice of
indefinite one man rule or sit-tight dictatorship in his own country? Would Mr.
Jones support the practice of arrest and indefinite detention of citizens
without charge or trial in his own country? Clearly, Mr. Jones’ answers to
these questions have to be either “no” or “I don’t know.” Government practices
that are unthinkable in countries like Mr. Jones’ are considered unproblematic
in African countries. Does this not strongly suggest the kind of arrogant
western exceptionalism that characterized the early colonial encounters and
remains a key feature of Western perceptions of the other to this day? We
Africans have serious issues with certain elements of Western society; but we
defy anyone to treat Africa as if it is inhabited by savage races that have no
right to the kinds of rights and freedoms enjoyed by Western citizens. We
totally and absolutely condemn as utterly ignorant and totally reject the bogus
notion that human rights, the rule of law and democracy are exclusive preserves
of the West that cannot be “imposed” on the rest of us. Human beings are human
beings to the extent that they recognize and respect the humanity of all other
human beings. Men and women who  strut
about with presumptions of their superiority over others simply because of
their skin color are at best ignorant, at worst, inhuman. If dictatorship is
unacceptable in the west, it is equally acceptable in Africa. In which case Mr.
Jones simply has no right to go about defending an African despot against other
powers, however despotic those powers may be.

Jammeh accuses the UK and US of funding the November 11,
1994 revolt by Lt. Basiru Barrow and his colleagues. What specific evidence
does Jammeh produce to back up his allegations? He accuses the UK and US of
funding the UDP? What specific evidence does he produce to back up his
allegations? He justifies these unsubstantiated allegations by claiming that
these two Western countries are mad at him because they want to exploit
Gambia’s oil and mineral resources. What oil? What mineral resources? Does
Jammeh think that Gambians in this day and age will just swallow his words and
take them for the truth? If he does, he must be kidding himself. Gambians will scrutinize
and analyze every single syllable that falls from his mouth, even accidentally.
They will peer beneath the surface and reveal the deceptive and unspoken
motives for his words and his actions. And they will throw them right into the
open and expose them for what they are. 

Conspiracy theories like the ones Mr. Jammeh utters about Western
plots to overthrow his government are manifestations of the political paranoia
afflicting all dictators rather than any depictions of reality. Mr. Jones is
right that Jammeh should be concerned, especially in the light of America’s
clearly unreasonable demands in the document that he had published in the
media. Why would the United States literally ask to have a totally free hand in
operating within Gambian territory? Well, because the United States reserves
the right to protect her national and security interests from those who would
threaten it. If indeed that document is authentic, it is safe to suggest that
there might be some evidence that Jammeh is aiding and abetting what America
considers “terrorist groups” who are out to hurt the United States. At the very
least, there might be “terrorists” operating in The Gambia, whether Jammeh is
aware of their presence or not. The presence of “terrorists” in The Gambia is
not an unlikely scenario given Jammeh’s unhidden hatred of the United States
and his frequent but groundless protestations of Islamic piety. We have argued
over and over again that Jammeh is not a Muslim in the first place principally
because the uncouth words he utters, the evil acts he perpetrates against
innocent people and the occult activities he engages in are contrary to the
spirit of Islam. But of course, evil people do not know that they are evil. And
since God does not tell anyone that they are evil, wrong or deluded, people
like Jammeh could ceaselessly rant about being friends of Allah and even kill
in the name of Allah. Just like Jammeh reserves the right to protect what he
sees as his personal interests, so does the United States and any other nation
and person for that matter reserve the right to protect their own interests. If
indeed the Americans have credible evidence that Jammeh is supporting people
out to harm the United States, well then, all’s well that ends well.

Indeed, the UK and the US would be doing the hostage Gambian
nation a great favor if they were to help end Jammeh’s reign of terror over
innocent Gambians. The Gambian nation is today held hostage by a tyrannical
regime headed by a psychopath who believes that the country is his personal
property to do with as he likes. Hostage taking, even of an individual, is a
crime that deserves to be punished. It is high time that the world re-evaluates
its concept of hostage taking to include holding entire nations hostage to the whims
and caprices of a dictator whose primary motivation is power for power’s sake. And
the likes of Mr. Jones should do their homework before opening their big mouths
and compounding the problems of innocent millions suffering under the weight of
selfish dictatorships.

 

                                          

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