the crushing humiliation awaiting a fragmented opposition on November 24


Adrift in the political waters: the crushing humiliation awaiting a
fragmented opposition on November 24


"The lesson is clear, we cannot fight in isolation"

Dr  Fox, The Gambia Echo

In just over two months, The Gambian elects a Chief Executive for a fresh
five year term. If the country's opposition leaders continue their current
conduct in refusing even to engage each other in purposeful talks, much less
agree the architecture of a united front against an all-powerful incumbent,
the person who assumes the mantle of President will not be Ousainu Darboe,
leader of the UDP. He will neither be Hamat Bah of the opposition NRP, nor
Halifa Sallah of PDOIS.

A fragmented opposition on November 24 can deliver only one outcome, and
that verdict will not be what a suffocating nation yearns for. If only to
restate what, to a person, observers at home and abroad accurately surmised,
there is no question a fragmented opposition will comprehensively collapse
in any, and all efforts, to electorally consign APRC to the archives of
Gambian politics. Such an outcome cannot, under any plausible reasoning, be
assignable to the electoral appeal of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji
Doctor Yahya A J J Jammeh, Nasiru Deen (the Professor), but to the decidedly
one-sided nature of Gambian public life, with the state, and its entire
coercive arsenal, controversially concentrated in one person.

Indeed, the current crop of bona fide opposition leaders expressly
preamblised in the Memorandum of Understanding of the defunct NADD that "no
single opposition party can put an end to self perpetuating rule given the
culture of patronage, intimidation and inducement that has already taken
root in the political life of the country". Clearly this prognosis is as
relevant today as it was in 2005. In light of this admission, it is
extraordinary that 2011 is shaping to be a possible four-way contest for the
presidency of the Republic of The Gambia. Without question, an opposition
vote split three ways, will go down in humiliating defeat to the APRC. And
it cannot be overemphasised that in an unrelenting dictatorship, the
presidential contest offers absolutely no consolation prize!

A political environment anchored in lawlessness and self perpetuation, with
their full panoply of attendant perversions of democratic accountability,
cannot but further corrode the fabric of our public life. And a state of
affairs where a sizeable segment of the population accepts governmental
heavy-handedness as normal, and the majority lives in fear, cannot, in any
way, be a harbinger of pleasant tidings for Gambian polity. In light of our
quite precarious existence, it is astounding that opposition Gambia - having
explicitly recognised that alone as entities, none can compete with that
juggernaut of the Gambian state, aka the Professor, and his ruling APRC -
are still bent on a fragmented presidential contest in a mere three months.

Our country resides at somewhat of a permanent crossroads since 1994, but an
explosion in civic awareness meant a decision must now be made to vacate
that location and continue the national political journey. Will the decision
to leave the fork in the road be made by Professor in a trademark
unilateralism that cements his notion of himself as embodiment of nationhood
and national security, and of all that is good for Gambian republicanism. Or
will the decision be made collaboratively in genuine national conversations
in the scant months, weeks, and days, to November 24?.

For now, that decision lies mainly with the Professor as sole custodian of
our national police power. After November 24, the journey must continue, and
depending on the reality, or perception, surrounding the outcome of the
presidential poll, in a potentially more chaotic, free for all manner.
Travelling the latter route will almost certainly end in regrettable tragedy
for The Gambia, not necessarily in the immediate aftermath of the polls, but
somewhere along the inevitably arduous stretch to 2016.

Notwithstanding the potential disaster of cohesive collapse heralded by the
storm clouds over our national space, a fully united opposition front
against the Professor on November 24 can avoid the tragedy of unrest
inherent in limitless executive power. Regardless of the ultimate outcome
under a united front, the opposition performance could be compelling enough
to materially enlarge the democratic space by eliminating the extreme
manifestations of arbitrary executive conduct from Gambian public space.

Even accepting that Diaspora Gambia's views on the slow pace of opposition
unity talks for the presidential contest may irritate some party leaders, I
reject the contention that the decision on whether to unite or not remains
their exclusive prerogative. As stakeholders, the opposition's supporters
are entitled to a say on how the November elections ought to be contested,
and our verdict is a near unanimous call for unity. It is my view that, as
the victims of tyranny, and the intended beneficiaries of dislodging APRC
from our councils of state, any project in this regard is our enterprise.
Clearly crucial to providing direction and momentum to the ultimate success
of that enterprise, the party leaders are nevertheless mere trustees of a
vital national project. As fiduciaries, their duty is to the people they
intend to liberate from the clutches of tyranny. Their duty is to us, and we
accordingly have standing to challenge their vision on the way forward. I
urge Gambians to do precisely that in this crucial period for unification
negotiations!

Notwithstanding the public pronouncements of opposition leaders
provisionally committing to a united front, they may still be of the view
that referring to 2011 as a make or break year mischaracterises the
magnitude of our national condition. Even to the casual observer, the
overwhelming evidence of the gathering storm over our national space must be
obvious. The relentless atmosphere of repression is simply not sustainable,
and something has clearly got to give. On the grounds that no Gambian
deserves to suffer in a civil conflict over the absence of genuinely
inclusive and participatory democracy, I still contend for the proposition
that the electoral process must be the principal route and a united front
the main vehicle for ushering in change. Against a fragmented opposition,
however, it is delusional to even suggest the electoral vulnerability of
APRC under our first-past-the-post system. In the best of current political
circumstances, no single party can come close to effectively challenging the
APRC electoral machine. .

And so they are not amiss in anchoring their hopes and policies firmly in
reality, national leaders who toy with any form of parochialism are better
advised to accept that Gambia's communities are eternally damned to a common
fate, whatever that may be. We are condemned to survive or collapse as a
national community, not as communities within a nation. Sink or swim, we
must experience our plight as a collective. That fate is absolute and allows
for no variation whatsoever!

Never in doubt about the agonising challenge of fashioning a workable united
front, I am nevertheless of the firm view that those who aspire to the
rarefied task of directing the destiny of a nation must be mature and
pragmatic enough to appreciate and navigate the bottlenecks inherent to a
project of such critical import. We are alive to the reality that a deal for
a united front is bound to present special problems of intense agony.
However, trapped as we are in a totalitarian system without independently
viable institutions, the challenge for our opposition leaders is akin to
that of America's founding fathers, those architects of statehood who carved
the world's most distinguished political jurisdiction out of extremely acute
conditions. Their enduring legacy is not the phenomenal and extraordinary
material prosperity of the United States, but the creation of a nation of
laws, and a land, even if at incremental paces, of liberty.

There is no defensible rationale to suggest that Gambians are incapable of
instituting a governmental system based on the rule of law. The notion, in
some quarters, that God installed the Professor and that we are therefore
divinely required to accord him unquestioned obeisance until the naturally
ordained time for his departure, must be rejected as manifestly stupid.
Every people have control over their destiny, and as God does not install
despots, He leaves them in place for as long as they remain unchallenged. By
our apathy we allowed despotism to thrive wonderfully. As a people we chose
failure in permitting the Professor to exercise a fierce stranglehold over
our public life. It is therefore not contentious to argue that we have a
right to redemption through a united opposition front for 2011.

I have no hesitation in commending our opposition leaders for the very idea
of united front exploratory talks on this third day of September 2011, but
the Gambian populace will reserve its accolades for the final ratification
of an enterprise whose true significance, in the fullness of time, will rank
for us as among the seminal political achievements and events of human
history. A wrong turn and our accelerating demise into a failed state will
be confirmed beyond question. The relentless repression of the Professor's
APRC regime threatens a national break up and opposition leaders must never
share in that responsibility by scuppering the only peaceable strategy to
rid The Gambia of persistent repression.

In light of the intricate challenges threatening our nation's very survival,
the current crop of opposition leaders have a special rendezvous with
destiny. I implore them to follow the stars that will lead to a new dawn for
The Gambia. I hope they follow the path of courage and determination and
Gambia shall forever be grateful. A nation's hopes for peaceful change are
solidly in their hands. How tragic if that sacred trust should be desecrated
for want of political courage and vision!

Ala The Gambia Echo's Dr Fox, the lesson is indeed clear that we cannot
fight in isolation. What Ousainu, Hamat, Halifa, and their colleagues in
lesser parties do may constitute part of their leadership prerogative, but
opposition foot-soldiers are calling for nothing short of a genuine united
front against Professor Jammeh in the November presidential contest.

I sincerely hope you can give us a united front!

Lamin J Darbo
--
*
*****************************************************************************
GOD BLESS THE GAMBIA.
LET US JOIN HANDS AND SUPPORT SHEIKH PROFESSOR DR. ALH YAHYA JAMMEH (NASIRU
DEEN) TO BUILD OUR COUNTRY. *

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