Culled from The Point
Who’s Next?
This is the big question being asked around town in view of the wave of
arrests, retiring and sackings that has gripped the smiling coast now in
tears for want of tolerance. The opposition is claiming that only their
members have been arrested and some civil servants are now redundant.
Citizen FM was also ordered to cease its broadcast and the rumour is that
others would soon follow. What’s happening? Are we again heading for the
syndrome of time wasting and urge for sanctions as in 1996? One big man(or
small man as Jammeh would want us call so-called big men) told us yesterday
that Jammeh was not in the know and that the arrests culd be the work of
over zealous powerful men. We could’nt believe such an assertion as the
President must have at least heard about all the arrests made as they had
been locally and internationally reported on. And truly, how can anybody
engage in this spree of arrests without the blessing of government? How can
an insider engage in acts that defame a government and get away with it? The
other side of the coin is that Jammeh cannot stand oppposition in whatever
form and his government and other aides help him to deal with their
perceived quest for stability which in fact is anathema to stability itself.
As we said over and over in these columns, one cannot use fire to put out
fire. We think something is very wrong in the way some issues are dealt
with. We wrote about the Rivalry between the APRC and the UDP in our PANOS
Conflict Resolution series in 1998. We posited then that after winning the
election in 1996, the Jammeh administration wasted two years or so
attempting to cripple the UDP in vain.
. It would seem we are again heading for the same cycle of harassment,
arrests, detention etc. which would only earn us sanctions that would again
be blamed on the opposition for no just cause. What is the right cause to
take? The right cause to take is to analyse, in the light of the results of
the Presidential elections, the aspirations of the Gambian people with a
view to improving the lot of the people. The electorate have made demands
that must be addressed and no time wasting would help as days, weeks, months
and years fly away in the face of everyday’s routine.
In all honesty, Jammeh who professes his faith in Islam must cultivate the
culture of tolerance, peace and brotherhood. The Prophets(PBUT) were not
loved or liked by all but they lived with that. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh cannot
expect a better treatment than these Messengers from human beings. The way
to conquer people and be their hero is to satisfy their needs and there is
still time ( five years) to attempt to do just that. Therefore, why waste
time shutting down radio stations, arresting opponnents and so on? Jammeh
says they would not compromise the stability of the country but one is
forced to wonder who is creating instability in this country? People are
people and must be treated as such. We would have thought the APRC would
organise a big conference with a view to digesting the matters that came up
in the campaign so as to exchange ideas among themselves and chart the way
forward to deal with them and other related issues. Instead, what we see is
what we get.
Our security agency is busy arresting human rights activist, journalists and
others when terrorism in all its forms is the order of the day in today’s
world. We hear the NIA is concerned with income tax and so forth when their
national security job need all their attention. Peace and Long Live The
Gambia “Judge each day, not by the harvest, but by the seeds you plant .”
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