*Not politics as usual (part two)*

*By Baba Galleh Jallow*

Those of us who have for so long advocated for the radical transformation
of our society will not stop advocating for it because we now have a new
political dispensation in place. In fact, getting rid of the despotic
regime is just the first major step in our struggle for a better Gambia.
Now that the despotic regime is down and out, we must step up to the next
level of advocacy in order to better contemplate our new and more
delightful if equally formidable challenges. Raising our country to the
next level will not come automatically, but it will prove less difficult
within the context of our new democratic dispensation. And since it will
not happen automatically, the logical thing to do is continue the struggle:
not a struggle against despotism, but a struggle against complacency,
against a very powerful tendency to fall back into politics as usual and a
struggle for the actualization of those things that are absolute
prerequisites for the emergence of an enlightened and empowered citizenry.
Only an enlightened and empowered citizenry can prevent the emergence and
entrenchment of dictatorial and despotic regimes of the kind we just kicked
out of Gambia.

We are very much encouraged by the fact that the national agencies
responsible for the administration of our cherished freedom of expression
are now under the direction of Gambians who truly cherish those freedoms.
The appointments of D.A. Jawo as Minister of Information and Ebrima Sillah
as Director of GRTS can only bode well for our country, in particular for
our freedoms of expression and of the press. Both men have been victims of
the ousted regime’s politics of brutality and intolerance. And both men
possess the requisite experience that will enable them to open up our
national media space and enhance the free flow of ideas and information
within our family nation. We are absolutely convinced that both D.A. Jawo
and Ebrima Sillah are men of principle who will not compromise their
journalistic ethics and integrity when it comes to doing the right thing in
their new positions of responsibility. We can only say that the Barrow
administration has done very well in their choice of candidates to take
charge of these very crucial institutions of our nation-state. We are
hoping that the administration will move fast to take the requisite
measures to remove all the obstacles and bottlenecks built into our
national constitution by the ousted despotic regime that were designed to
stifle the free flow of ideas and information. The free flow of ideas and
information is to the nation body what the free flow of blood and oxygen is
to the human body. The nation body dies or is crippled when the free flow
of ideas and information is blocked, just like the human body dies or
suffers a crippling stroke when the free flow of blood and oxygen is
blocked. We feel very much encouraged that the Gambian nation body no
longer faces such a mortal threat to its existence under the new
dispensation. That, however, is no reason to relapse into a politics of
complacency.

We are confident that in the new Gambia, the politics of media relations
will not be what they were under the Jammeh regime. Both GRTS and other
public and private media must make it a point to enlighten and empower the
Gambian people. They must assume their rightful duties and responsibilities
as custodians of the supreme national interest. They must report the news
without fear, favor, or any form of bias. And they must open their doors
and pages to all shades of political opinion unless such opinion is of a
nature repugnant to the rule of law or designed to fan the flames of
religious, ethnic, racial, gender or violent conflict.  As our society is
now characterized by a regime of regulated political power, the media must
be accorded the recognition it deserves by virtue of the essential part it
plays in our country’s advancement. When the voice of the media is heard
and understood by a critical mass of citizens in a country, revolutions
follow; not revolutions that come through the barrel of the gun, but
revolutions that pour out of houses onto the streets, outraged by the
rampant corruption and related injustices perpetrated by people supposed to
be their leaders and servants. Because of the transformative potential of
the media, they are often silenced to prevent their voices from being heard
and understood by a critical mass of citizens. Thanks to social media, this
is proving increasingly difficult to do as Mr. Jammeh learned when it was
already too late for him. But the reach of social media is still restricted
and not a viable substitute for traditional media forms such as GRTS and
our local newspapers.

Under the ousted Jammeh despotism, the media was stifled in the most
blatant manner just because it sought to inform and enlighten the Gambian
people. Newspapers and radio stations were arbitrarily shut down;
journalists were routinely arrested, jailed incommunicado and often
tortured; media houses were attacked by masked nocturnal arsonists who set
their hard earned premises and presses on fire simply because they wrote
stories and editorials Jammeh did not like. Witness the case of the late
veteran Gambian journalist Baboucarr Gaye of Citizen FM. In August 1998,
Yahya Jammeh ordered heavily armed security forces to storm the offices of
Mr. Gaye’s Citizen FM radio station where the *Citizen* newspaper was also
published. True to style, they ordered everyone out and put the institution
under lock and key, never to open again. Mr. Gaye was arrested alongside
his editor Ebrima Sillah and charged with failure to register a radio and
newspaper under an old colonial telegraph act. Mr. Gaye was tried and found
guilty as charged under this colonial law. While Mr. Gaye successfully
appealed against the unjust conviction, Yahya Jammeh disregarded the ruling
and forcibly confiscated and permanently shut down Citizen FM. Mr. Gaye
died fighting in vain to regain his unjustly confiscated property.

Baboucarr Gaye was not punished for “operating a radio station without a
license, contrary to Section 7 (1) of the Telegraph Stations Act, Cap.
74.01 of the Laws of The Gambia, 1913.”[i] This old colonial law was called
back from the dead and used to justify shutting down a bright Gambian
institution by Yahya Jammeh, a man who was never tired of loudly
proclaiming his total opposition to colonialism and neocolonialism. Citizen
FM was shut down because Baboucarr Gaye was rendering invaluable service to
the Gambian people through his radio station’s translation and
dissemination of the contents of the local newspapers in the vernacular,
including government publications. The news translations were rendered in
all the major Gambian languages and unfailingly drew crowds of eager
audiences across the Greater Banjul area and as far as his transmission
could reach. Gambians who were not able to read English had always wondered
what the newspapers were saying. Now they were being told through the
Citizen FM translations, and they loved it. Just as they were beginning to
cherish their new found mental nutrition, the Jammeh dictatorship pounced
upon Citizen FM and cut off the essential information, forcing the Gambian
nation mind back into a state of perpetual intellectual starvation. Radio
stations like Teranga FM that attempted to render similar service to the
Gambian people were invariably throttled by Jammeh and of course, colonial
and post-colonial “laws” of a personal kind were always available for his
“emergency” deployment. Jammeh just could not contemplate the growth of a
critical mass of enlightened and vocal Gambians. He would rather preside
over a nation of uninformed, unenlightened and compliant “subject-citizens”
rather than informed and empowered citizens.

From now on, we hope that Baboucarr Gaye’s legacy of translating the
newspapers into the vernacular would be resuscitated. Both Radio Gambia and
Gambia TV must make translating the local papers into the local languages a
regular and integral part of their day to day programming. The editorial
sections of the papers must be given particular prominence because it is in
their editorials that newspapers comment on critical issues of national
concern. It is hoped that GRTS will not shy away from translating news
items and editorials critical of the head of state or any members or
institutions of his government. We are hoping that the Barrow
administration and all future governments of The Gambia will keep an open
mind and observe the requisite levels of tolerance and civility. They must
be able to take both justified and unjustified criticism. And they may only
respond through rebuttals or clarifications; never through arbitrary
arrests, detentions, newspaper closures, or nocturnal arson attacks on
media houses and printing presses. Only through a free and responsible
media can we take Gambia to the next level.



------------------------------

[i] As reported in the *Weekend Observer*, March 6 – 8, 1998, Banjul, The
Gambia.


¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤