History is not a blind concatenation of events but a wholesome
synthesis of meanings of value as human beings interact.  Last
Thursday's elections epitomises very significant theory of gambian
politics that resonates some salient values; that the majority of
Gambians is a "stoical populace" and the incumbency has a Leviathanic
preponderance in our rudimendary democratic process.  President
Jammeh's legitimacy is well established in a supposedly fair
elections as endorsed by the lead Opposition Candidate Mr. Darboe,
and certified again by international observers.  At this juncture, I
believe it is unsophisticated for any one to dispute Jammeh's
victory.  The relentless pondering, amongst some G-Lers, on how
Gambians can ever re-elect Jammeh is in my opinion a futile quest
that can only bring forth a calenture of the brains. Winning
elections is just one battle amonst many in the war for the COMMON
GOOD of the Gambia.  This I believe is the resounding message that
the Gambian electorate is telling the "intelligentsia".

This message even makes more sense if you observe the stoic's
attitudinal disdain for justice and opulence as externals in the
hands of chance and NOT ends in themselves.  Therefore the Gambian
appears to value SECURITY more than all those elaborate
political/civil rights that we the L'ers have been articulating for
years in cyberspace.  Any political theorist will willingly concede
that a Leviathan figure, ala  President Jammeh or his predecessor
Jawara perhaps, can best provide this political good in the Gambia.
This fact is self-evident and indesputable in the Gambia's political
history.

Now if human rights and civil liberties are not ends in themselves,
atleast according to the Gambian electorate, then we the
"enlightened" need to revisit our strategy of engaging Jammeh
regardless of whatsoever we think of him...  Strategy is not a
zero-sum game but a constant rational calculus of  maximizing the
good and minimizing the bad.  Knowing Jammeh personally very well, I
can assure you that the constant diatribes and insults towards him
shall serve no purpose but to ensconce and fortify his intransigence,
push him towards the extremes of much more fatal flaws.  In the end
only the poor Gambians will be the real losers.  I therefore implore
the G-L to cease the  antagonisms.  If war is the continuation of
politics by other means, according to Clausewitz, then the
counterfactual argument should also be valid, that politics is the
termination of war by the peaceful means of dialogue.  Sun Tzu, the
ancient Chinese strategist, also advices that the acme of skill is
winning a "war" without fighting.

I will suggest that it is not naivete to accept Jammeh's Olive
Branch...as long as the promotion of the common good of Gambians is
concerned.  We can corroborate our believes and principles of human
rights as instrumental and constitutive MEANS to an end- The Common
Good of The Gambia.  In fact Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize economist,
does make a very successful and convincing argument in his "human
capabilities approach" in using these "Western Values" of human
rights and civic liberties as mere MEANS towards the common good.
This strategy, I believe amonsgt many others, may help help us
grapple with the realities of the post-elections illusions and the
mad euphoria of the APRC supporters.


Ebou Jallow
Georgetown University, WASH DC




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