Ever since the presidential candidate for the UDP/ppp/gpp opposition
alliance conceded defeat to president Jammeh's-led APRC government, various
explanations and answers have been given and many more will continue to be
advanced to the question as to how the incumbent APRC managed to cling on to
power inspite of all the odds that were against them. As expected most of
the reasons put forward by various commentators on the L will be dictated by
our respective political allegiances and in most cases such explanations
would be rather simplistic than is the reality.
The APRC supporters on the Gambia-L comprising of Tombong Saidy et al would
simply assert that President Jammeh was re-elected because of the
AFPRC/APRC's achievements since 22nd July 1994. They would want others to be
converted to the view that it is because of President Jammeh's good record
in Government he was again entrusted by the electorate to lead state
affairs.
This view tends to dishonestly ignore the APRC's bad record in Government,
play down its significance or even outrightly deny that such a record exist.
All they potray for the APRC to judge upon are the hospitals, schools,
roads, State TV, modern airport terminal building and even Arch 22 that were
constructed since July 1994. Since achievement is a relative term, these
category of people will embark upon a comparative analysis of their record
with that of the preceding PPP regime. Fair enough! but in so doing, most
often than not, they will completely choose to understate or ignore the
modest achievements from 1962 to 1994 of the Jawara-led PPP regime. Such
notions are either influenced by a blatant refusal to acknowledge the truth
or a rather unfortunate ignorance of Gambian history.
The status of the Gambia as an independent sovereign nation recognised by
all other United Nations member states was largely influenced by the
insistence of then premier Sir Dawda Jawara and his compatriots in the
struggle for Gambian Statehood. Had a PPP-led internal self-government
yielded to the massive international pressure from Gt. Britain and France in
particular, between 1962 and 1965, Gambia would at present have been a part
of the republic of Senegal just as the Cassamance province is. Perhaps like
the latter, we could also have waging a bloody fratricidal struggle for
independence from a french-dominated State. Gambia's acclaimed status as a
peaceful and stable country is perhaps the greatest accomplishment carved by
the PPP regime. By all standards, this is no mean achievement.
The other side of the coin is the APRC's bad record in Government relative
to its achievements in contrast with that of its predecessor.
That the APRC operates a death squad that eliminates its perceived opponents
upon orders from somewhere is an open secret. Its failure to do justice to
the memories of the late AFPRC Finance minister; Ousman Koro Ceesay, victims
of the November 11, 1994 summary executions, the massacred peaceful student
demonstrators and a host of other documented human rights violations against
Gambians vindicates this viewpoint.
The questions therefore still remains unaswered as to why inspite of its
dismal human rights record and heavy-handed tactics did the APRC 'win' the
recently held presidential election.
My views on this will be given in subsequent postings.

BMK



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