You have spoken and we can only say thank you for this brilliant piece of knowledge.
Muhammad Bai Drammeh
--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 4/12/16, Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Subject: [G_L] IS RECONCILIALAION POSSIBLE AFTER JAMMEH?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sunday, 4 December, 2016, 13:40
Reconciliation or
Revenge: Gambia’s Post-Election Dilemma
By Dr Ebrima
Ceesay, UK
Thursday
1st December 2016 will always be remembered as an
historic day in the annals of the Gambia’s political
history. It marked the beginning of a new dawn of democracy
in our country, as the opposition coalition, led by Adama
Barrow, defeated President Yahya Jammeh to win the
Presidential race. As President-elect Adama Barrow is set to
be inaugurated at State House
in January 2017, thus ending the 22-year old misrule of
outgoing President Jammeh, in my view, there are at least,
eight high-priority and all-important areas that need to be
addressed (by the new government) immediately, namely: 1)
selecting his (Barrow’s)
members of cabinet (preferably a gender-sensitive one) to
ensure a smooth three-year transition period; 2) promoting
national reconciliation through confessions and ownership of
one’s crimes (forgiveness but ownership and accountability
as well); 3) focusing
on Gambia’s prospects for governance reforms; 4)
revisiting Gambia’s current economic situation – assess
the state of the Gambia’s economy and economic reforms; 5)
analyzing and improving civil-military relations in the
country; 6) challenges of establishing
security and safety; 7) challenges of restoring rule of law
and strengthening Justice; and 8) initiating a range of new
capacity building programs to support both local and central
governments.
It is an
understatement to say that the incoming transitional
government faces a number of daunting post-election
challenges,
and the questions now arise: Will the coalition government
have the capacity to address these challenges? Is
reconciliation possible after Jammeh?
The road ahead, no
doubt, is going to be tough. Yet, it is also not an
unfamiliar road. We can learn valuable lessons from
countries like South Africa, Liberia and Tunisia. First and
foremost, Gambians should not be naive about the scale of
the challenges ahead. The Gambia indeed faces significant
challenges, following the historic election of
1st December, and the
new transitional government would have to do a lot of
rebuilding. The real challenge facing the country, now that
the polls are over, is to have a smooth and peaceful
transition to the new administration, under the leadership
of the likeable and humble President-elect
Adama Barrow. Barrow’s government is supposed to last 36
months, and it has to be pointed out that for these three
years, we will be in uncharted waters. Therefore, coalition
leaders must be effectively organized, united in spirit and
purpose, as any mistrust
among coalition partners or any misstep by these leaders
could derail the transition. President-elect Barrow must
reunite a country that has been badly divided and polarized,
especially in recent months. Although the 2016 Presidential
election was relatively
peaceful; yet, it would be an understatement to say that
the country is still deeply divided and ethnically
polarized.
The Gambia,
regrettably, has been fractured along ethnic and religious
lines, to a large extent, because outgoing President
Yahya Jammeh used to mix politics with religion, ethnicity
and economics.
While Christians were being marginalized and discriminated
publicly by state policy, it was in fact, the Mandinkas who
bore the brunt of Jammeh’s hatred and brutality. Jammeh
had used bigotry, derogatory comments and openly promoted
hate speech, as well as
incited hatred against the Mandinkas. He willfully promoted
hatred towards the Mandinkas and sadly, the country is,
today, to some extent, still polarized along ethnic lines.
Gambians used to be totally at ease
with
one another, but the increase in intolerance along ethnic
(and religious) lines became noticeable under Jammeh.
Gambians were pretty good at getting along with one another,
and at supporting each other, but under President Jammeh’s
divide and rule strategy,
many Gambians did not get along, due to the politics of
polarization in the country and the fact that moderate
voices in the Gambia had lost influence. Thus, President
Jammeh, to some extent, succeeded to pit, not just ethnic
groups, but also blood families,
against each other.
Therefore, it will
take perhaps several years to assess the full extent of the
damage wrought by President Jammeh on Gambian
society, but this much is already very clear to me: the
moral decadence in our society today cannot be solely blamed
on Yahya Jammeh. Before judging Jammeh, and the evil he
represented, we (Gambians) should properly look at ourselves
in the mirror. The level
of the erosion of moral standards in our society under
Jammeh was just mind-boggling. Our religious leaders totally
lost moral authority. When you watch GRTS, you will not fail
to notice that shame and shamelessness became the order of
the day in Jammeh’s
Gambia. The effects of the moral decadence in Gambian
society could be felt everywhere. Traditional family values
declined considerably. Irresponsible parents and kids
lacking proper upbringing and home training have become more
prevalent these days to the
extent that indiscipline, mediocrity, sexual promiscuity
and immorality among youths in the Gambia have now become
the norm in the society.
The root causes of
the Gambian crisis are multi-faceted and complex, spanning
political, religious, social, psychological,
sociological, economic, and institutional factors. I can
easily identify more than a dozen variables that directly or
indirectly impact on the Gambian crisis. There has been a
significant shift in the attitudes and values of Gambians
since 1994. Jammeh’s rule,
therefore, has had sobering effects and changed our lives
and Gambian minds in ways that would be unimaginable
pre-1994 days. In effect, Jammeh (or his reign) has
undermined our social, moral and religious values and this
has negatively impacted on our collective
behavior as a people, the consequences of which manifest
themselves in the form of this moral decay that is gripping
our society today. The Gambian society is bleeding and
breathing pain. Even more striking are the glaring changes
and shift in some of our
core political, religious and social values.
Jammeh’s actions
over the years, have had a corrupting influence on culture
and cultural values. The social fabric itself
has been destroyed to the extent that restoring this
damaged social fabric, through reformation of our attitudes,
must be the sine qua non for an effective solution to some
of our many problems. Our social cohesion has been
undermined and our sense of national
identity destroyed. Large-scale changes in our values can
be observed across the country and the shift in attitude can
be attributed to several factors such as human greed,
hypocrisy, dishonesty, immorality, corruption and
selfishness. Yet, the myriad crises
afflicting Gambia can only be solved with a holistic
approach, not a piecemeal one. Tackling the Gambian crisis,
now that Jammeh has been unseated, will require a
comprehensive intervention strategy.
What has happened
to our good virtues, moral purity, moral straightness, which
in fact, are at the very heart of both Islam
and Christianity? The Gambian society today, I reiterate,
is so infested with human greed, indiscipline, sexual
promiscuity, stealing, cheating, moral laxity, hypocrisy,
jealously, hatred, immorality, corruption, selfishness,
dishonesty, mediocrity, manipulation
to the extent that I would even argue that the moral
decadence in our society today is perhaps one of the most
important issues facing our people as a nation. The moral
decay (or this cancerous growth) in the Gambian society, in
my view, even ranks above the
challenges the country faces in the health, education,
agricultural sectors.
As Gambians took to
the streets in a joyous celebration of Adama Barrow’s
election victory, to mark the end of Jammeh’s
brutal rule, there was a sense of unity across the nation.
Yet, it was only several months ago, that the country was in
a period of mourning, after the killing of Ebrima Solo
Sendeng, whose tragic death dampened our collective
consciousness and hearts and
in fact, served as “the Gambia’s moral conscience”.
Because of his courageous act and moral convictions, Solo
Sendeng, who was willing to risk his own life for what he
believed in, became the nation’s symbol for justice and
change and inspired Gambians at
home, and abroad, to help bring down the repressive regime
of Jammeh. May his soul rest in peace!
The coalition’s
victory at the polls will, by no means, immediately end the
divisions, wounds, and the bitterness that defined
Jammeh’s 22-year-old misrule. Equally speaking, the pain,
trauma, fear and rancor between Gambians will not disappear
altogether, unless and until the Gambia was ready to set up
a truth commission or truth and reconciliation commission.
Post-Jammeh Gambia
remains a fractured society and therefore, learning from
South Africa’s reconciliation process in particular, could
be vital to avoiding witch-hunting, vindictiveness and
vengeance. For the first time in its history, the Gambia, in
my view, is going to need
a post-election reconciliation strategy to deal with the
wounds and divisions in the country opened by Jammeh’s
reign.
For example, we
need to know what has happened to Daba Marenah? All the
locations of the mass graves in the country needs
to be disclosed, in order to exhume these graves and take
out the bones (or remains) of the deceased, so as to give
them proper burial or funeral. Can Gambia rebuild itself
after Jammeh and people move on? Well, unless and until
there is both ownership (repentance)
and forgiveness, the divisions and wounds opened up by the
Jammeh era will never be fully healed. Reconciliation will
only occur if the offenders (Jammeh and his ilk) accept full
responsibilities for their actions and we (the victims)
forgive them.
Revenge and
retributive justice would be too enticing, but
reconciliation and healing, in my view, would be the way
forward.
Those who suffered under Jammeh would now be ready and
prepared to wreak vengeance on the Jammeh loyalists and team
of enablers, now that the tables are turned, but a tooth for
a tooth (or tit for tat) should be totally avoided. The aim,
as it were, would
be to overcome the barriers that separate our people along
ethnic and political lines, in order to effectively heal the
country’s wounds and divisions. Rebuilding and forging
authentic, long-term relationships, after 22 years of
Jammeh’s misrule, are crucial.
The Gambia’s new political dispensation, post Jammeh,
must put rule of law and democracy at centre
stage.
The three-year
transition period will have to be navigated very carefully,
and Gambians at home and in the diaspora, have
to play a very vital role during this critical period.
President-elect Adama Barrow and team require our prayers,
and they must be given the necessary support and space to
find a navigable path toward consolidating and sustaining
this new and very delicate
democratic transition, because at this stage, our new
democracy is a fledging one and could be vulnerable without
our collective support and encouragement. The incoming
government of President-elect Adama Barrow will be
confronted with a number of fundamental
political, economic, and social challenges. Yet, these
hurdles can also be turned into opportunities. Gambians and
the international community have already started showing a
good deal of goodwill towards the incoming
government.
From: The Gambia and Related
Issues Mailing List <[log in to unmask]> on
behalf of Lamin J Darbo <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 04 December 2016 13:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: TRANSITION
The transition must take
place immediately
As argued elsewhere,
Gambia’s 01 December 2016 presidential election was a
referendum on governance, governance as goes to liberty and
dignity of the person under the rule of law. The seven-party
Coalition ‘movement’, supported by an electorate
dehumanised and enervated by state lawlessness and
brutality, and yearning earnestly to be free, delivered a
resounding ‘revolution’ that rivalled any in terms of
its legitimacy.
When the announcement finally
came that the Coalition’s Adama Barrow was elected
president, the immediate general perception, and
understandably, was that he was headed for his official
residence
at No.1 Marina Parade no later than next week. The message
is unmistakable that Gambians conclusively rejected the
endemic state lawlessness that was the order of the day
leading to and beyond 01 December 2016. What shock to be
told the president-elect must
wait an interminable sixty days to relocate to his
three-year presidential abode as the number one occupant of
the State House in Banjul!
Is there a legitimate basis
for this reported sixty-day wait to assume
office?
Section 63(2) of the 1997
Constitution of The Republic of The Gambia (the
Constitution) states: “The person elected President
shall assume office sixty days following the day of his or
her election, and in any case where the candidature
of a person contesting the election is unopposed, such
candidate shall be declared unopposed and elected to the
office of the President on the day following the making of
such declaration”.
This provision was part of a
huge number of illiberal, repressive, and personal
amendments to the Constitution via Act No. 6 of 2001 without
a commensurate democratic mechanism to implement
it notwithstanding its inbuilt national security and other
concerns. Its only purpose, now as in 2001, was to hijack
the will of the people by a calculating president. True to
form, the rubber-stamped National Assembly endorsed and
enacted a dangerous measure
without a word of debate, a measure that now poses a clear
threat to national security.
The failure to put a
transitional mechanism in place was deliberate and what the
country is confronted with is nothing short of an imminent
national security crisis. Babil Mansa’s propensity
for systemic mis-governance is legendary with the
inevitable consequence that fear continues to pervade the
public space of The Gambia. That fear is still somewhat
present, and understandably so. The incoming government must
be protected, its public mandate
safeguarded, but it has a commensurate responsibility to
reassure Gambians regarding issues of liberty and personal
security, and that reassurance would ring hollow unless it
acts decisively in nipping the emerging threats from a
defeated government.
In the circumstances, and
considering Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, Babil
Mansa, comprehensively and decisively lost the mandate to
govern, he must vacate power immediately notwithstanding
section 63(2) of a Constitution he flouts with routine
disdain.
Now that this absolute
dictatorship has spectacularly collapsed in broad daylight,
no citizen or resident of The Gambia should suffer unlawful
arrest, detention, abduction, torture, threats,
forceful disappearance, or extra-judicial execution. It is
not enough to say that the government is defanged and that
there is no legitimate basis to fear anything. I repeat the
general public demand that on national security
considerations, Babil Mansa must
vacate power immediately notwithstanding section 63(2) of
the Constitution!
Indeed there is every
legitimate basis for fear given the long interlude between
01 December and 31 January. With the police power still in
the hands of Babil Mansa, it would be suicidal for
an antidemocratic measure that was merely inserted, nay,
sneaked into law without debate to thwart even the
unequivocally expressed wish of the people.
Standing alone without any
implementing legislation, and given the significant nature
of what the amendment, i.e., the sixty-day transition
provision must achieve, it has no capacity to assist
in furthering accountable government within the rule of
law. Due to Babil
Mansa’s perpetual self-succession agenda, there was no
informed opinion from his constitutional minions to
put in place such a vital legislation.
Instead, the Gambian people
were made to believe that Babil Mansa is a ruler for
eternity and no elections could see him packing, a
delusional rendition that comprehensively succumbed to the
overriding will of the people. In the circumstances, this hollow
provision must be honoured in the breach
by Babil Mansa stepping aside by Friday next at the very
latest.
In line with democratic
convention and principles, the incoming Coalition
government, having lawfully obtained the legal authority
through the electoral mandate to wield the executive power,
must be fully engaged with the business of running the
state. What truncated version of the civil service there is
should have the capacity to assist the incoming executive
authority in implementing a credible transition process.
The Coalition’s Transition Team
must begin to act as a Government, having been given the
full constitutional mandate by the
electorate. Should Babil Mansa stay at all – and the
people vehemently reject this - he may only do so in a
caretaker capacity with all major decision making in the
hands of, and exercised by, the president-elect and his
team.
Further, the incoming government
must have the inherent executive authority to consult any
government entity for information,
and this extends to all ministries, parastatals, the
revenue authority and the Central Bank. It must act to
preserve the reserves if any!
More significantly, this cannot be
done from home, be it that of the President-elect, or any of
the Coalition leaders’. The
incoming government must have a fully-equipped office
staffed by appropriate personnel and fully paid for from the
public treasury.
In line with the thinking of the
electorate, there is a moral imperative for Babil Mansa to
surrender office within the coming
week consistent with his promise to cooperate with incoming
administration by showing good faith and relinquishing power
as an inevitable consequence of the withdrawal of the
consent of the people, a consent that was consistently
subverted through endless
tinkering with the Constitution with a complicit National
Assembly which acted as a mere an extension of the
Executive.
Babil Mansa’s government was
conclusively rejected and no one should entertain the
suicidal foolishness that the will of the people can be
thwarted by the barrel of the gun. For the Gambian
people there is no turning back.
An utterly lawless era is over
and any attempt to resuscitate it will fail dismally, and
with heavy consequences for those bent on subverting the
popular mandate so compellingly articulated
on 01 December 2016. The Gambia and the world are watching!
Lamin J. Darbo
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