Mr Jobe
 Your contribution on GOVERNANCE seem to be narrative.
Having read your previous emails, one would have
expected you to give an honest analysis on APRC's
doctrine on GOVERNANCE,compare it with the PPP regime
and then tell us why we should support APRC.

Am I therefore right to suggest that you are stocked
with defending the APRC and fear for the worst if you
join us in the opposition?

A major point you have omitted is whether the 1997
Constitution was the right option for The Gambia after
30 years of self perpetuated rule.
I await your response,as I am prepared to challenge
you on this issue.

On that note we look forward to your honest response.

Have a wonderful day

Sansusi




--- Kebba Jobe <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > 4.
GOVERNANCE.
>
> BACKGROUND.
>
> The government of The Gambia is based on the 1997
> constitution that ushered
> in the 2nd republic following the peaceful overthrow
> of the democratically
> elected government of the former PPP regime of
> former president Alh. Sir
> Dawda Kairaba Jawara. We have a republican
> constitution comprising of an
> executive (the President), the Legislature (National
> Assembly) and the
> Judiciary. The executive and legislature are both
> elected by universal adult
> suffrage and each is elected for maximum term of 5
> years. The constitution
> also allows for the executive to nominate a number
> of national assembly
> members. The president, based on the recommendation
> of the judicial Service
> Commission and approval by members of the National
> assembly, appoints the
> judiciary. The constitution is the supreme law of
> the land.
>
> In the first republic, the president appointed his
> ministers and
> parliamentary secretaries from members of
> parliament. This resulted in a
> situation were by one’s personal loyalty to the
> party and the president was
> absolute if one wanted to hold any of these
> influential positions. This
> effectively compromised the effectiveness of
> parliament who, in most cases,
> would rather go with the executive, hoping to be
> rewarded than show any
> decent based on matters of principle. The
> effectiveness of parliament, as an
> independent arm of government, was thus effectively
> compromised. The
> effectiveness of opposition parties was also put to
> severe test by the
> temptation of changing allegiance for better things.
> This became very
> rampant in the 1970s and 80s (the cross-carpet
> phenomenon). This was
> considered very unhealthy for democracy. The term of
> the presidency had no
> limitation and this resulted in the virtual
> self-perpetuation of the
> presidency of Sir D. K. Jawara. The AFPRC promised
> to rectify all that.
>
> a) THE TRANSITION PERIOD.
>
> When the government of the first republic was
> overthrown in July of 1994 and
> the constitution suspended by the then AFPRC, most
> people were either
> indifferent or actually rejoiced. The 4 year
> transition period announced by
> the AFPRC was rejected by most people which prompted
> them to set up a
> National Consultative Committee (NCC) to sensitize
> people about why they
> needed a 4 year transition period in order to
> “Rectify all the wrong things
> that the PPP government did in the name of the
> people”. They alleged that
> the former PPP government was inept, corrupt to the
> core, misused public
> funds, mismanaged our meager resources, neglected
> our basic infrastructure,
> led flamboyant lifestyles to the detriment of the
> ordinary people, that it
> was only a few who were fattening themselves on the
> national cake to the
> exclusion of the rest, etc, etc. Various commissions
> of inquiries were set
> up to probe in the how the government operated. The
> commissions unearthed
> massive corruption by many individuals, mostly by
> civil servants. A lot of
> people had their assets seized, bank accounts
> frozen, some exonerated and
> others went into exile. Most of the revelations of
> these commissions did not
> surprise many as most witnessed how some junior
> civil servants led
> lifestyles that were not commensurate with their
> incomes. However a very
> surprising revelation that was made, was the fact
> that the government of the
> Federal Republic of Nigeria had given concession to
> The Gambia to lift crude
> oil and sell to help us with our balance of
> payments. That this had been
> going for years and nobody new about it came as
> shock to most people.
>
> Meanwhile the NCC having carried out consultations
> throughout the country,
> submitted its report to the then AFPRC who later
> announced that it had
> accepted the 2 year transition period recommended by
> the NCC.
>
> Another important event that took place during the
> transition period was the
> formation of the Constitutional Review committee.
> This committee had the
> mandate to consult people from all walks of life, to
> scrutinize the
> suspended 1970 constitution and write a repot that
> reflected the wishes and
> aspirations of our peoples. This committee, under
> the chairmanship of Mr.
> Gabriel Roberts, now the chairman of the IEC, also
> did their job as mandated
> and handed their to the AFPRC. Even though the
> report was not made public,
> it is alleged that it was seriously doctored to suit
> the AFPRC. Many alleged
> that they omitted from the final report, the
> recommendation for a 2 term
> limit for the presidency, reduced the age limit for
> the presidency from 45
> years to 30 years and inserted an indemnity clause
> to indemnify the AFPRC or
> anyone acting on its orders for whatever they may
> have done or failed to do.
>
> Another significant change to the constitution was
> that cabinet will not be
> drawn from members of the national, that during
> their tenure their
> emoluments will not be altered to their advantage
> and that anyone wishing to
> change allegiance from one party to another must
> first resign his seat in
> the national assembly and seek afresh mandate from
> the people. This was seen
> by most people as a very positive improvement on the
> 1970 constitution.
> People thought that this would eliminate the
> sycophancy of previous members
> of parliament and put a stop to the very unhealthy
> cross carpeting that the
> previous government effectively used to render
> opposition parties
> ineffective.
>
> On the other hand, many expressed their mistrust of
> the ruling AFPRC and
> their motives for seizing power in the first place.
> During this period, the
> junta ruled with an iron fist. The security forces,
> especially the NIA and
> Immigration police, picked up anyone on the
> flimsiest of suspicions/excuse.
> People were harassed, illegally detained for long
> periods and a few
> civilians shot dead by some members of the security
> forces. In most cases
> however, the security forces that killed people were
> arrested and remanded.
> Meanwhile, the “Doctored” CRC report was put to a
> referendum and
> overwhelmingly passed. The AFPRC members declared
> their intention to contest
> the forth-coming elections after being “persuaded by
> some opinion leaders
> and elders”. To enable them to contest the
> elections, they retired from the
> armed forces, transformed themselves into civilians
> and formed the APRC
> party.
>
> b) THE BUILD-UP TO THE 2nd REPUBLIC.
>
> The build-up to the ushering in of the second
> republic also saw the
> formation of the UDP and NRP parties and resumption
> of party politics by the
> PDOIS. The former having been banned earlier was not
> allowed to contest. The
> political campaign was nasty, to say the least.
> There were frequent clashes
> between the APRC and UDP supporters and their
> militants. The APRC campaigned
> openly with the security forces and a massive
> following of civil servants.
> The UDP was prevented from using the public media,
> allegedly for their
> insults and incitement of people. The security
> forces severely harassed the
> UDP supporters, arresting their key members, often
> for weeks contrary to the
>
=== message truncated ===




____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk
or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------