Ebou, Would you kindly answer these two questions from both gentlemen? How you seem to miss them is beyond but here they are: Ebrima Sillah wrote : "If we are to go by your defination of individual rights and the collective efforts of national security, then there is no need monitor government excesses and their attendent risks. Because i wander how human rights abuses can be justifiable in a society that wants to maintain national security? Alieu Bah wrote: "I am more interested in the end results of Human Rights than all the nitty gritty, in layman's terms, are the citizenry free to express themselves without the fear of been prosecuted? Pardon me for butting in. Thanks in advance.. Grg Srr ;-) From: Ebou Jallow <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Human Rights and the Gambian Polity To: [log in to unmask] Date: May 18, 2002 This is a rejoinder to the observations, questions and comments raised by Alieu Bah and Ebrima Sillah. I would like to establish here that my previous article is just groundwork of ideas that I think might incite very fruitful solutions to human rights issues in the Gambia. Let me emphasize again that my opinion is purely apolitical, and I try as much as possible to avoid specific trends or facts in the Gambia that might embroil the discussions into a partisan debate. This being the case, I believe that Mr. Sillah is completely wrong to infer that I argue in support of state abuse of human rights to maintain dictators in power. This statement is far from the truth. I stated very clearly, and I quote: “...the use of coercion will sure lead to anarchy because it interrupts the necessary equilibrium between order and novelty ...that any society needs to evolve.” The rest of Mr. Sillah’s arguments are all but further misrepresentations of my essay. However, I will elaborate later on those issues. On the other hand, Alieu Bah implicitly invokes the old debate of cultural relativism with respect to human rights that the West and the Rest has been wrestling with for decades. Again this is far from the case in my essay. My approach has its deep roots in Western culture- Western history, scientific method and philosophy. I did emphasis on the scientific method and history in order to ensure neutrality and objective analysis. Scientific epistemology is convincingly the only one faculty of human cognition that enjoys universal appeal. The gist of my whole argument is for Gambians to exercise their “practical freedom”; the freedom that is feasible within their socio-economic context and not those imposed from without. I further argued that the only way to break through the Western dogma of “human rights” that has sedimented in contemporary political discourse is to revise and critique its universal claims such as to emancipate our minds. And here is my argument that essentially reflects my essay. The French Revolution started this modern understanding of human rights. It generated the common concept of collective rights i.e. (1) Liberty-which implies political and civil rights; (2) Equality- essentially means socio-economic rights; and (3) Fraternity- or the fundamental right to solidarity or nationhood. Out of all these three, Western history has constantly slanted more towards individual liberty over the harmony of the triad. During the French Revolution, the “champions” of rights were the nouveau riche, bourgeoisie and the upper middle class, in other words the “propertied class”. Their strategic emphasis on individual liberty was deliberately calculated to ensure their unfettered access to wealth and the exploitation of the low class i.e. women, slaves and the workers. Over the years until this present generation the same age old argument has been repackaged, refined and re-modified to fit the salient agenda of the wealthy. Even in current international politics, the USA is one of only few countries that fails to ratify the convention for socio-economic rights. No wonder the immediate product of the French revolution was death, squalor and anarchy. Martha Nussbaum, a well respected prominent American scholar has argued that the emphasis of human rights over socio-economic rights is a moral lapse of the West, and it is also an asymmetry of justice. Noam Chomsky, who is never my favourite, has articulated the hoax of these western crusades as generating more instability whilst weakening the indigenous “social capital”. John Rawls and Robert Nozick’s priotizing of individual rights over socio- economic rights is fundamentally based on certain assumptions on “institutions” that do not prevail in third world countries. Finally, Samuel Huntington of Harvard did introduce an interesting angle to the debate of socio-economic rights and individual political rights. In essence he adopts a very practical cost benefit analysis of the whole problem: human rights demand political rights to speak, organize and protest; socio-economic rights requires the economic freedom to own property, work, invest, produce and consume without government intrusion. However, the real catch is in the implementation of these two rights: It is easier for any government to draft human rights laws than to implement a sustainable economic development plan. So if one considers all options and inherent obstacles, it becomes very clear that it is to the best interest of poor countries like Gambia to priotize values within their socio-economic means .i.e. civil society must politically balance the triad of rights; and this balancing act is the only way to guarantee a “practical freedom” that ensure peace, harmony and economic progress. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gambians Online " Designed With The Gambian People In Mind" http://www.gambiansonline.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~