As a Gambian who voted for the opposition in this past presidential
election, I am seriously re-thinking my vote. Elections, like most
people have stated before, is only one of the functions of any thriving
democracy; therefore the business of fighting for people’s rights, and
ways and means to look for answers to our developing challenges should
be on going activities, so I thought.

During the days of the campaign, opposition party leaders echoed their
commitment to the protection of my rights, highlighting their platforms
and policies and what it would mean for me as a Gambian citizen. Some
even threw the gauntlet by saying that there would be lots of widows if
the election was to be rigged and our rights are violated. The elections
are over and President Jammeh is elected to be the President for the
next five years. But, I am also terribly confused and trying to make
sense to what I might have done wrong. Where is it written in the
constitution or any of the laws of the land for that matter, that by
getting 52% of the vote gives you the carte blanche for total monopoly
and everybody else stands idly by. Where are the party leaders? Are they
only available during election year to talk about my rights?

I am a farmer in Sandu, Basse and voted for the opposition, and I am
beginning to regret it, and frustrated with the significance of the
whole exercise. My entire family is confronted daily with harassment by
the party leadership in the village, and it is becoming a difficult
problem for my family and our survival in the village. We have become an
outcast, and in the eyes of the police and the law, we are characterized
daily as troublemakers. Anything from the government brought to the
village, whether are agricultural extension workers with tractors for
our farms, or medicine donated from NGOS we are always excluded from
such benefits. The explanation is, we did not vote for the APRC and why
should we expect anything from them? My brother who was a Permanent
Secretary has just been fired from his job, and being the breadwinner
for the entire family, this would be a very difficult Ramadan.
Apparently, some people at his Ministry decided to blow the whistle that
he was a sympathizer to the Alliance party, and thus the end of his
twenty year career as a civil servant. What happen to the protection of
rights of the civil servant, and why is their hiring and firing becomes
a call of a single individual? Also, my brother-in-law has just lost his
license to operate his radio station, in fact he was closed down by the
security apparatus, and I am having hard time reconciling the security
threat alluded to by the NIA, or then again, when did they become Tax
agency?

Where are the opposition party leaders that I supported, and now paying
a heavy price for it? Frankly, although we lost the election, but by
getting 48% of the vote does not amount to any political leverage? In a
country of over a million, are we saying that four hundred eighty
thousand of the people that voted for the opposition are going to be
treated as foreigners in their own land. If the reality of the situation
is, nothing can be done, then maybe I need to re-think my vote come this
parliamentary elections and maybe vote for Jammeh and the aprc. At least
my job will be protected and I will be treated differently in the eyes
of the law and the police. Apparently, you opposition leaders cannot do
anything about it, and I am not going to wait for another election year
to hear the tough talk, or the throwing of the gauntlet.

If we are to cherish stability, peace and maintenance of law and order
in the Gambia, it is going to need the responsible participation for
both the government in power and the representative of the minority vote
the opposition. If the government in power decides to trample the rights
of the 48% that rejected them, then maybe the right of every Gambian
should be sacrificed. This is not about democracy, but about simple
fairness for all Gambians.  And if the whole ideal of the democracy we
yearned for comes down to electioneering alone and everything else is
compromised, then this is one democracy that we can do without. Just a
thought!

Musa Jeng

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