Tribute To A Good Parliamentarian
The defeat of Hamat Bah as National Assembly member for Upper Saloum in the by-elections has really robbed this country of one of the finest parliamentarians this country has ever had. He seems to possess all the attributes of an effective parliamentarian which makes it hard to understand why the people of Upper Saloum chose to exchange him for an untried and untested person like Sainey Mbye.
I do not personally know Sainey Mbye, but looking at the trend in the National Assembly, it is almost quite certain that he is just going to be another APRC representative who would only endorse whatever the executive brings to the National Assembly rather than initiate anything like Hamat used to do.
Indeed this action by the people of Upper Saloum seems to confirm the adage that a prophet is never honoured by his own people. There is no doubt that people in many other constituencies are everyday praying for an effective representative like Hamat and they would no doubt have paid anything to have him. Yet the people of Upper Saloum seem to have fallen in for whatever bait was dangled in front of them by the regime to ditch him in exchange for whatever sweet promises made to them during the campaign.
However, it appears that all hope is not lost because in about 15 months time, there is going to be another National Assembly election and we can only hope that by then the people of Upper Saloum would have realized their mistake and once again re-elect him as their representative.
Without any prejudice to whatever legal issues may arise from the Upper Saloum by-elections, it is difficult to imagine that Hamat would have lost his seat in a level political playing field, considering how concerned he was about the welfare of the people of Upper Saloum. Indeed his defeat seems to tally with President Jammeh’s promise that he was not going to be re-elected, and whether by coincidence or by design, it has happened. No doubt the harassment and intimidation of NADD supporters, including the unceremonious sacking of alkalolu suspected of sympathies for NADD by over-zealous commissioners could have contributed to his defeat.
It is however not quite surprising that President Jammeh and his regime have been very uncomfortable with the presence of Hamat in the National Assembly. He has always been like a thorn in their flesh because he has been responsible for the unearthing of several hidden skeletons in the regime’s cupboard. The latest of such skeletons had been the AMRC saga in which one of their most trusted judges was implicated. We can also recall the part he played in the two crude oil sagas as well as several other issues that the regime never wanted discussed in the open.
Therefore, it can be said that Hamat was a victim of his own over-indulgences. There is no doubt that if he had behaved just like a majority of the members, always endorsing things that originate from the executive and not stirring any hornet’s nest, while continuing to receive his fat allowances and other fringe benefits, he would not have attracted such venom from the regime.
However, the re-election of the three other NADD candidates despite all the promises of development and other material benefits made to the people of those constituencies was a clear victory for people’s power over despotism. Indeed, in spite of all that was said and done by the APRC bigwigs, assisted by the divisional commissioners and all other categories of public servants and of course government resources, the people still went ahead to vote for the opposition, this being a clear manifestation of the big gulf that exists between those in authority and the people. It is quite apparent that the APRC has a lot of postmortem evaluation to do in order to see where they must have gone wrong in their campaign strategy, otherwise, it is a dangerous prelude of what could happen to them in the next presidential and National Assembly elections.
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