Joseph Hill commonlky known as CULTURE died on saturday August 20. He died in Berlin in the middle of a Culture -European Tour. Joseph Hill culture just visited The Gambia a short while ago. His on Kenyatta is now leading the band.
He was a Rastafarian and honoured by The Jamacian government during his life time as a great contributor to Reggae Music. He was the man !
May his soul rest in peace.
Two Seven Clash
abdoukarim sanneh <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Gambia and the genesis of dictatorship from military to constitutional coup d’etat. By Abdoukarim Sanneh
The political terrain in the Gambia since 1994 is a transition from one form of coup d’etat to another. I always feel over-whelm with astonishment when our elite politicians usually in constructing their feverish political debate keep quoting section after section of the bogus and philistine 1996 constitution as if Gambia under Yaya Jammeh is operating as a constitutional democracy and shows the political will to respect that document. The Gambia is not a functional constitutional democracy and that constitution is been manipulated and hijacked since the word go to consolidate dictatorship. The only changes from military rule to so-called constitutional democracy is Yaya Jammeh’s APRC having jettisoned the letter ‘f’ but his absolute power and dictatorial tendency remain unabated time after time. What we have seen is unrealistic metamorphosis from a soldier in uniform to a soldier in plane cloth.
The 1996 constitution has gone through amendment after amendment all aims to legalise dictatorship of one form or another. The first manipulation was the removal from the document on matters relating to trial by jury, which further prolong the treason trial and illegal detention of Dumo Sarho et al, for more than two years. The constitution has indemnified members of Arm Force Provisional Ruling Council which many seems so ridicules. Why should our people not probe on crimes such as mysterious death of Finance Minister Ousman Koro Ceesay, the extra judicial killings and other crimes such as Gambia’s missing millions which politicians attempting to discuss the issue in parliament were prevented from doing so by the disgrace Former Speaker Sheriff Mustapha Dibba. It is not a rocket science to determine whether the regime of Yaya Jammeh is corrupt and has blood in their hands. Accountability, transparency and probity will continue and every crimes committed in the name of
our freedom will be shed to light.
Another manipulation of the 1996 constitution is the removal of the provision that limited the term of presidency. The criminal regime has not and will never honour its promises to Gambia people. Yaya Jammeh initially promised that his AFPRC would be back in the barracks within few months. In those days at The Daily Observer office, many of us who are familiar with issues of military and its machinations of African politics are very cautions because of what we saw as blatant disregard for democracy and civil liberty. As Yaya Jammeh began to build his own personal fortune by looting our national coffers in a true African leadership style, all acts were design to entrench his dictatorial powers. It is that machination process which leads to imposition of the 1996 constitution and its entire deficit on the people, leading to the evolution from military dictatorship to the present dynamic of constitution coup d’etat with amendment after amendment. In the first instance, the
constitution is manipulated to disadvantage the fledgling opposition parties. I can fully remember even amnesty International criticised moves to ban three opposition parties and the content of the constitution.
The enactment of military decrees and imposition of such decrees as statuary codes in a parliamentary democracy have further reduces the function of parliamentarians. Military decrees are undemocratic statuary codes, which are never put into scrutiny by our parliamentarians. The 1996 constitution recognise all those decrees as legal binding statuary codes without giving the public or lawmakers to diagnose their efficiency in our democratic environment. In today’s Gambia, a law relating to both presidential and parliamentary election is/are administering by a military decree called electoral decree. It is this electoral decree and the constitution which give the president absolute power to appoint and sack members of the commission. Gambians have witnessed within this few years, three chairman and members of commission sacked. What is the relevance of a military decree in civilian government? The army of mercenary lawyers and judges, which came from Ghana, Nigeria and
Sierra Leone, have done all forms of work to strengthen and legitimise despotic regime and the way forward for its continuum.
The enactment of decree 70 and 71 and its replacement with the media commission was nothing order than undermining freedom of press and free speech. The enforcement of decree 70 and 71 and the registration of media houses with astronomical sums of money end up as a news black out for weeks in that country during the transition period. The great beauty of freedom of expression which literally means telling people what they do not want to hear or read, that becomes a norm that began to maelstrom after the take over of 1994, to enhance transition process to viable democracy began to be threaten by censorship. The first test of Yaya Jammeh’s unrepentant, immature and brutal character was tested on the Daily Observer, which is today turned as one of his fortunes. When the newspaper ran a story suggesting the cut of foreign aid would be bad for the country, Mr Kenneth Best the Former Managing Director was arrested and deported then war torn Liberia. Repetition of such actions
becomes to be an indication of his leadership style.
On the local government matters, efforts to decentralised local government was seen by the regime as a threat. Divisional Commissioners who are civil servants become involved in nothing order than APRC Party matters. Campaigning in the party platform and intimidating rural folks to vote for Yaya Jammeh becomes another job description for these people who are none fit for purpose. District chiefs becomes available vacant position for any individual manifesting himself as a strong APRC militant, the appointment of which is gone by the president rather than been voted into the office. All with caution has any divisional commissioner or district chief suspected as opposition supporter or sympathiser is either sacked or detained by NIA. In Banjul, even with the fact that Pa Sallah Jeng is the elected choice of the people of the city, the criminal regime and its elements of sycophancy did not allow the gentleman of the highest order to continue his function. All the relevant
charges against the Mayor were thrown in the highest court of law in our country and court order for him to resume his duties in his capacity as the Mayor of the city of Banjul is still been violated. All over the world more emphasis is given to local or regional democracy as a vehicle for greater participation and grassroots empowerment but for Gambia under Yaya Jammeh that is contrary a different story. United Nation Development Programme funded Decentralisation project which aims to reform the local government sector was undermined and subjected to manipulation and no positive impact was achieved up to the time that project phases out. Saikou Sanyang, the first administrative Secretary of APRC and failed party parliamentary candidate for Bakau was the person appointed as the project manager. At the lunching of that project in Mansakonko, Lamin Waa Juwara and some members of UDP as stakeholders of the project were invited by UNDP but before the start of the meeting, they
were arrested in Soma by Baba Jobe and July 22nd Youth Movement for setting their foot in Lower River Division.
The constitution of the Gambia has gone through numerous amendments by the rubber stamp parliament, the vast majority of which are APRC parliamentarians whose political maturity is questionable. This bunch of nonentities and political prosecutes who can even sacrifice their own born children to the butcher of Kanillai without reasoning for nothing order than political power. It is most of these parliamentarians who once act as errant boys to the former majority leader Baba Jobe and later discard him when he fall apart when Jammeh. It is mentioned in the internet discussion that on today’s Gambia, a friend can sacrifice you for nothing order a mobile phone, which rationally I am intending to belief. These character is manifested by our lawmakers on and on as their hands are twists to subscribe to dictatorship in our country, enacting all types of draconian laws which aims to retard civil liberty, functional democracy and enhance the abuse of power by the executive. Every
move of this rubber stamp parliament is motivated by greediness, hate, anger, jealousy, egoism and systematic selfishness, which are a continuum to destroy the fabric of our society.
There is a need to re-demarcate constituency boundaries in our country to reflex the demographic realities contrary to what is stipulated in the bogus 1996 constitution giving Foni more representative than Kombo North, Kombo South and Kombo Central, each with a voter population more than Fonis in totality. All the changes to that document before been subjected to referendum subscribes to handy work, crude and divisive policies of Yaya Jammeh’s mechanisation programme. After removing the possibility for second round of voting, recent amendment of section 63(2) is just a formality having successfully grip on the so-called Independent Electoral Commission, it is about time to forget about advocating for free and fair election in that country.
The disunity within the opposition has further remote the course for the emancipation of our people. Their indecisiveness and indifference to the plight of the Gambian people and their wishes, epitomizes their wishful thinking, their ignorance, their unpatriotic and love for our fatherland. Democracy is numbers but not also the winner take all. In a democracy, the majority leads but the concern of the minority should be properly looking into. But in the NADD coalition, many within that coalition are rather blinded by their own naked ambitions and desire for power than allowing the major opposition leader to lead the coalition. It is the attitude of some of this politicians and their personal infighting within PPP, which lead to the unfortunate events of July 1994. They extend that same indifference and mistrust into NADD without reasoning how fragile is our situation. NADD then has a government in waiting, does not know what is mean by confidentiality and classify
information. Many in the internet discussion forums on Gambia and related matters started trivializing the affairs of NADD by concentrating on personalities. Every minute of its meetings was declassifying as headline news both in local papers and on-line journals. This makes the function of the coordinator so redundant without smelling the facts that break down of such a noble ambition is in the making. He keeps giving us the assurance in one press briefing after another that everything is fine and there is no discontent within. It is unfortunate that with all the present realities, we did not have politicians with kind of heads that would have been amendable to banging. They were just too big I imagine. Gambians are raven or hungry for change. It is only history that will dictate that, as nations change in months, years and decades, I am certain that people’s power is inevitable with the struggle for bread and butter becoming more and more difficult for average Gambian
families.
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