Mr. Kanteh,
Whereas I agree with you that human rights is an important pillar in any
democracy, it is equally important to remember how some of our
actions/behaviours are shaped by our upbringing/environment. Whereas in
certain countries in the west one can tell someone older that he/she is
lying, in The Gambia that is not the case. Our etiquettes are different. Our
behaviouers, situations and circumstances are not the same and it is very
important to remember that.
The right of the child, as defined earliar, forbade the use of children for
chores such as the fetching of firewood, fetching of water, selling titbits
such as roasted peanuts, weaving carpets, sewing football etc, etc. However
I can vividly remember a few years ago when the Indian government refused to
ratify the convenant on the rights of the child as it was originally drafted
sighting the hypocrisy of some of the western governments behind the draft
treaty. The Minister of Agriculture, a lady Doctor and mother of three, at
the time explained, in an interview with the BBC, that the Indian government
will not ratify the treaty as was drafted because India is too poor to allow
itself to be bound by such a treaty. She highlighted the hypocrisy of the
UK, in particular, for using children as chimney sweepers as late as the 60s
and wanting to admonish India for using children for weaving carpets. Now
that the UK has developed robots that can sweep their chimneys, has the
resources, together with the rest of the EU to subsidize agriculture, build
up their milk lakes, butter mountains and the rest of it, while people in
the third world are starving, they want to take the moral high ground and
dictate to the rest of the world how to behave. They have no moral authority
to dictate to the third world how we are supposed to live as we will not
listen.
Civil rights, human rights and the rest of it become important only when the
people whose rights are trampled on are not seen to be looking for it. In my
opinion, sometimes people fail to realise that confrontation can never solve
anything. People respect treaties that are not forced on them more than
those forced on them and the success of the truth and reconcialiation
commission of South Africa attests to that.
It is also important for people to realise that government is not about
right or wrong; it is about stability. Those wishing to destabilize or
confront a government must be fully prepared to pay whatever price it
demands. Any state will use all the force at its disposal to squash any
challenge to its authority and The Gambia is no exception. Those who believe
otherwise must be prepared to bear the full brunt of 'the law'.
Kanteh, whether you believe it or not, we have had so called journalists,
uncouth and untrained, using the profession to unnecessarily confront the
government just to help them get exit visas and claim political assylum
abroad. We have also witnessed the barbaric treatment of individuals by the
security forces for less crimes, again The Gambia being no exception. The
way to stop this cycle is not through confrontation but through dialogue.
Those who are calling the government all sorts of names cannot expect to
have any influence on them. The government will simply ignore them or just
turn around and say, we run things.
Mr. Kanteh, nobody can force change. Change must be discussed, understood
and agreed upon for it to successfully happen. You cannot keep calling a
legitimately elected government all sorts of names and expect that
government to listen to you. It will not happen with this or any other
government. Those of you who believe that you can force the government to
conform to your expectations while at the same time plotting and working for
its demise, must be seriously out of touch with reality. This or any other
government will not allow its enemies to influence it.
It is high time that some of you relise that, this government is recognized
and accepted by all governments, including where most of you live. Having
already done your worst the only leverage you now have is to constructively
engage the government while recognising the fact that it is their
prerogative to listen, accept or disregard what you tell them. This is my
own opinion.
Finally, you can take it from me that the majority of Gambians do not care
about this human rights issue that some of you are happing on. People are
more pre-occupied with trying to secure their daily bread. Sad, but true.
People are trying to survive and if others cannot understand that but
instead want to martyr themselves, they can go right ahead. We may remember
them some day!
Have a good day, Gassa.
_________________________________________________________________
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