This is a brilliant idea from extremely brilliant people. Jarama Mawdo
Muhammad Bai Drammeh
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On Mon, 2/1/17, Baba Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Subject: [G_L] New Gambia Movement Formed
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, 2 January, 2017, 17:11
NEW GAMBIA MOVEMENT
FORMED
Motto: Power to the
People
Statement of Purpose
Dear Gambians and Friends of The
Gambia,
At this crucial point in our country’s
history, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive
rethinking and a radical
transformation of our national political culture. To carry
out this important
task of re-thinking and transforming our political culture,
there is the need
for a national movement of well-meaning and like-minded
Gambians designed to
bring about comprehensive, meaningful and lasting change to
our country. For
this reason, we hereby announce the formation of the New
Gambia Movement (New
Gambia) with the primary objective of transforming The
Gambia into a
politically enlightened and empowered Family Nation in which
the people are the
parents, the government, the
children.
After 30 years of the First Republic
and 22 years of a banal dictatorship, The Gambia remains
mired in the
irreconcilable contradictions of the colonial legacy. The
colonial encounter
brought a new political system (the nation state) and
transposed it upon our
traditional political culture. At independence in 1965, a
western parliamentary
system was superimposed on our traditional African
perceptions and
understandings of the meanings of government and leadership.
Over 50 years of
independence, our two governments have done nothing to
correct this anomaly.
The overriding consequence is that most Gambians remain
politically
disempowered and unaware of the crucially important
differences between
constitutional authority and autocratic rule of the colonial
and precolonial
sort. Constitutional presidents are understood to be
all-powerful rulers or
kings - mansa, burr, lamdo,
and constitutional governments are wrongly
called mansa
kunda, ngurr,
and laamu. These
political misnomers, used over and above their simple
linguistic inferences,
carry corruption-enhancing and power-abusing connotations
that are exploited by
people in power for their own selfish interests and to the
detriment of the
Gambian people.
This persisting anomaly between the
political reality of the constitutional nation state system
and traditional
African political perceptions has enabled unscrupulous
politicians and
dictators to pull the wool over our peoples’ eyes and
exploit and oppress them
with total impunity. Rather than correct this anomaly
through comprehensive and
rigorous constitutional education and political
enlightenment, the two
governments we have had since independence have tended to
perpetuate the idea
that they are actual
mansayas (kingships) of the colonial and
precolonial sort, with the brutal ruler of the just ousted
dictatorship going
so far as to assume the preposterous title of Babili Mansa,
literally casting
himself as a king rather than a constitutional head of
state. Since the nation
state and constitutional governance are here to stay, we
feel that our best
starting point towards the full empowerment of the Gambian
people is to launch
a Mental
Revolution designed
to correct the damaging anomaly between our political
institutions and our
political beliefs; and going forward, to help redefine the
concept of public
service for the greater good of the people. We intend to
help transform The
Gambia into a nation of enlightened and empowered citizens
who will be able to
democratically exert control over their leaders, and who
will never allow
themselves to be marginalized, oppressed, or denied their
rights as Gambians
and human beings with certain inalienable rights. Political
power rightfully
belongs to the people. But the people can only enjoy and
exercise that power if
they are adequately knowledgeable in key aspects of the
political doctrines and
institutions affecting their
lives.
The New Gambia Movement believes that
Africa in general and Gambia in particular is mired in
poverty and needless
civil crises largely because from the time we attained
independence, our
governments have neglected our most precious resources
– our
people and their minds. They have failed to understand or
refused to accept
the reality that states (governments) do not build nations;
that it is nations
(people) that build states. Gambians need to fully
understand that and be able
to insist that their government does not have power over
them beyond the
regulated authority necessary to ensure an orderly, just,
and law-abiding
social environment. Gambians need to understand and be able
to insist that true
political power belongs to them, the people, for without the
people, there can
be no government. We can imagine a people without a
government, but we cannot
imagine a government without a people. The people are the
reason the government
exists. It is therefore a cruel paradox that governments
whose existence cannot
be imagined without the people would turn around and reduce
the people into
powerless and oppressed nonentities without any agency to
assume their rightful
status in society. The insincerity of many African
governments manifests
glaringly in their determination to snuff out the light of
the people’s minds
through censorship and other repressive laws, acts of naked
brutality,
emasculated judiciaries, and paper tiger parliaments
accountable to the
government rather than the people without whom they cannot
exist. While the
doctrine of separation of powers is outlined in our
constitution, it has little
bearing on the reality of how politics is conducted in
practice. The New Gambia
Movement is determined to seriously address this tragic and
crippling situation
through a rigorous and sustained national political
education and popular
empowerment campaign.
The New Gambia Movement places our human
and intellectual resources and energies at the forefront of
our national
project, with a view to build popular political capacity and
deliver sustained
benefits to the nation. We are strongly convinced that as
long as the people of
a country remain unaware of and therefore unable to fully
exercise their
legitimate power over their government, they will remain
vulnerable to the
machinations of unscrupulous politicians and tin pot despots
like the one we
have suffered for the last 22 years. We believe that
development is not
necessarily about building infrastructures, though we
certainly appreciate the
importance of infrastructure as part of development. We
believe that
development is more about building minds and empowering
people. Develop the
people and the people will develop their country. Ideas are
the building blocks
of human progress and the more a country utilizes the ideas
and intellectual
resources of its people, the more that country advances. All
inventions and all
innovations, however revolutionary, however great, however
transformative come
from the minds of human beings. Indeed, it is impossible to
think of any form
of invention or scientific advancement that is not the
product of the human
mind. Yet in Africa and in The Gambia in particular, the
light of human minds
and intelligence is snuffed out with reckless abandon. Ideas
with the potential
to enhance the human condition are suppressed or ignored
simply because they go
against the selfish interests of governments. The result has
been a tragic
brain drain. Our brilliant minds are driven off into exile
or choose to
relocate to distant lands where their knowledge and skills
are put to use in
the service of societies only too happy to increase their
own fund of intellectual
resources. Meanwhile, our national mind is starved, our
creativity is stifled
and our development arrested. It is time to recognize that
our people are our
diamonds, our minds our petroleum. Our human resources are
more valuable than
any material resources we may ever
have.
The New Gambia Movement recognizes that
bringing about the kind of positive fundamental
transformation we need in The
Gambia requires much more than a mere change of individual
leadership or
government, however important that is. It demands a radical
transformation of
our collective national mindset itself. It demands that we
show serious and
practical interest in our people, their minds and their
creative potentials in
art, science, music, industry and all other fields. If we
are genuinely
invested in the development of our human resource potential,
we can turn Gambia
into a society of innovative and empowered citizens with the
capacity to transform
their small country into one big, peaceful and prosperous
city of lights with well-paved
roads and much, much more. We in no way underestimate the
colossal challenges
such an undertaking involves. But we also do not
underestimate the human
capacity for creativity, innovation and overcoming
challenges, however
formidable. We believe we will be more successful in
overcoming our challenges
if we work together to find strategic solutions that will
enable us to pull
down some of the walls that have so far limited our capacity
to develop.
The New Gambia Movement believes that the
type of positive and sustainable political transformation we
envision requires
a home-grown, coherent, and workable ideology whose tenets
and principles will
be readily understood by all Gambians. We believe that the
concept of the
Family Nation fulfils this requirement. The basic tenet of
the Family Nation is
that Gambian society is one big traditional Gambian family
in which the people
are the parents and the government, the children of the
nation. Actualizing the
Family Nation requires conscious, practical and sustained
efforts at
transposing traditional Gambian family values onto our
political culture and
government. In this way, we can help transform Gambia into
one big traditional
Gambian family to which all Gambians belong, irrespective of
political, religious
or any other affiliations. In the Family Nation we envision,
all the people,
irrespective of their political, religious or other
affiliations will be
treated as the parents of the nation; and the government
will be treated as the
children of the nation. If our presidents, politicians,
security forces and
civil servants understand themselves to be, and are
understood by the people to
be the children of a Family Nation, they will be constrained
or otherwise
rendered incapable of doing things that will have adverse
effects on the
country. A police officer will hesitate to harass a taxi
driver if he remembers
that the taxi driver is a person from the same family; that
in fact, the cab
driver is his or her parent.
In order to turn our small country into one
big Gambian Family Nation, we will strive for the
actualization of the idea of
the nation as school – the Nation School. In basic terms,
this means that the
entire country will be conceptualized as one big school
within which all
citizens are involved in an ongoing process of political
education and civic
empowerment. We reject the notion that Gambians must be
literate in English
before they can learn about their country’s constitution
or any other aspects
of Gambian, African or global affairs. Our national
languages are as good as
any to serve as mediums of national instruction, conducted
both through our
national media and through face-to-face forums with
well-qualified experts in
the required fields. As soon as we possibly can, we intend
to establish or
advocate the establishment of an Institute or Center for
Gambian Studies which
will serve as a vehicle for the political enlightenment and
empowerment of all
Gambians. This center or institute will be engaged in the
active production and
dissemination of knowledge on all aspects of Gambian studies
especially in our
local languages. As soon as feasible, we intend to seek
regular platforms on
our national media – especially Gambia Radio and
Television Services - and to
organize regular public meetings across the country at which
we will engage the
Gambian people in a discourse on constitutional and
governance matters
affecting their lives as the sovereign citizens of a
constitutional nation
state and as citizens of the wider world within which our
country is embedded.
We welcome ideas that will lead to the establishment of
other institutes in all
artistic, scientific, and technological fields to help in
the creation of
knowledge, wealth, and improvements in the quality of life
of the Gambian
people.
As
we launch this new and challenging
project, we remain fully aware that no idea is perfect and
that there is always
room for error, revisions and improvements. For this reason,
we will keep an
open mind, be ready to listen to new ideas, and be willing,
even eager, to let
our idea of the Family Nation evolve to its highest possible
manifestation. The
New Gambia Movement offers its services to the Gambian
people as a civic
engagement platform totally dedicated to the transformation
of our country into
a Family Nation and a Nation School in which the
government’s work is a true
reflection of the rhythm of life of its empowered and
enlightened citizens. We crave the
support and
involvement of all Gambians and friends of The Gambia in
this effort. And we
humbly pray for the blessings, guidance, support, and
protection of the All
Mighty God, to Whom alone all knowledge and power
belongs.
We invite all Gambians
and friends of The Gambia who identify or
agree with the ideas, sentiments and vision outlined in this
statement to
please join and support the New Gambia Movement by clicking
on the link below. There
are no membership fees. Please enter your real name, your
country of residence (your
state if in the U.S) and your email address to facilitate
effective communication
and the building of a coherent organizational structure.
Please share as widely as possible on social
media and other
platforms and forums #ForTheGambiaOurHomeland!
Thank you and Happy
New Year!
http://www.newgambia.org/home/join-our-movement
The New Gambia Movement is also on
Facebook. Please click here to like/follow us on
Facebook.
Sincerely,
Dr. Baba Galleh Jallow,
U.S.A
President
Dr. Omar Janneh, UK
Vice President
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