26 July 2000.
President of the Republic,
State House,
Muamar Gadaffi Avenue,
BANJUL.
When The Seed Of National Discord Is Sown, A Bumper Harvest Of National
Disintegration Is Reaped
Governance in a Sovereign Republic is about people. It is not simply about
political parties. Political parties are mere instruments for political
leadership. The exercise of authority by a political party to govern a
country is incidental to and consequential on the exercise of power by the
people.
The authority of the people may either be entrusted to a party or a group of
persons or be usurped for a while. However, it can never be seized for all
times. Power truly belongs to no one, but the people. It never did and it
never will belong to anyone but the people.
The only legitimate way of being entrusted with power is to receive the
mandate of an enlightened and free people. The only legitimate way of
exercising entrusted authority is to do so to promote the general welfare of
the people.
It is in recognition of this fundamental and inalienable right that the
Constitution asserts the Sovereignty of the people in its first chapter:
"The Sovereignty of The Gambia resides in the people of The Gambia from whom
all organs of government derive their authority and in whose name and for
whose welfare and prosperity the powers of government are to be exercised in
accordance with this Constitution."
It is, therefore, abundantly clear that your government should exercise the
authority it has to promote the prosperity and general welfare of the
people. Liberty is as essential to general welfare as prosperity. The two
are twins. Oppression is as devastating as hunger. People starved of freedom
have been known to prefer the grave to life. Oppression maddens and kills
just as hunger maddens and kills. General welfare, therefore, cannot be
enlarged and consolidated without enlarging and consolidating freedom and
prosperity.
The objective of this letter is to convey to you that the pronouncement made
during your July 22 address and the subsequent addresses during your meeting
with the Youth Action Group of the APRC, which predicated it, have trampled
on certain fundamental tenets which make possible the peaceful coexistence
of people who share fundamental political differences and conceptions on how
the country that belongs to all of us should be governed.
The number of people who assembled before you during your meeting with the
Youth Action Group are but a minuscule if compared with the general Gambian
population. The number of people who belong to political parties are also a
few compared to the general majority.
What has become apparent is that while you were addressing a charged group
of party militants within the confines of a small room, the television
cameras were transmitting what was being said to the larger Gambian
population. You have heard the voices of your party militants agitating for
you not to provide a fertile ground for the growth of your enemies. You have
heard them express that they can be subjected to supreme danger before you
feel the pinch if you do not take a firm hand in handling opponents they
described as trouble makers.
In plain language, they were asking you to take extremist measures to deal
with what they classified as political extremism. One could visibly see from
those who were transmitting their views that they felt that they were in a
state of insecurity and needed the might of the State to provide them with
security.
Your response was unequivocal. You claimed that you will speak the language
of extremism, which is the language you believe some people know; that those
who take extremist measures will not be spared; that those who do not
consider the government as theirs will be purged; that anyone who threatens
the stability of the country shall find oneself one hundred feet deep.
You cautioned that the Youth Action Group must not allow itself to be
infiltrated by real wolves as the July 22 Movement was. It was abundantly
clear from the pronouncements of its members that such a group was to emerge
in every area of the public service to scrutinise what is being done. You
made it abundantly clear that those who do not take ownership of your
government could go out and wait for the government they can take ownership
of.
Apparently, you and the members of the Youth Action Group mutually
appreciated what was said, and mutually assured each other renewed
confidence. What should now be of concern to you, as Head of State, is the
opinion of those who are not members of your party.
In that regard, it is important to emphasise with all the emphasis at our
command that The Gambia belongs to her people and not to any given party or
person. There are very few Gambians who want this country to disintegrate.
Suffice it to say, the quickest way to drag a country into the abyss of
disintegration is to sow and water the seed of national discord. Where the
seed of national discord is sown, only a bumper harvest of national
disintegration would be reaped.
This is precisely the reason why the comments of the APRC militants and your
address cannot be taken lightly. This is all the more so when one considers
the circumstances which prevailed prior to the meeting. Rumours were rife
that the APRC youth groups were preparing themselves for a revenge of the
death of Alieu Njie. The manner of arresting those classified as coup
plotters also added to the climate of unpredictability of what could happen.
At your meeting, your militants did not hide that they were beginning to
feel insecure and did not hesitate to urge for action to ensure their
security; yet the measures that were being suggested are geared towards
making others insecure. How can security be assured by planting the seed of
insecurity?
It is important for you to bear in mind that overreaction is not the
solution. Such overreaction can only lead to negation of all the principles
that make a society governable in a democratic way and sow the seed of
greater insecurity.
It was glaringly evident that the comments during the meeting, from you and
the militants of the APRC, honoured the provisions of the Constitution with
total disregard.
Section 60, subsection (3) of the Constitution states categorically that
"The number of political parties shall not be limited by law and every
citizen of The Gambia shall have the right freely to choose whether or not
he or she will become a member of a political party and which party he or
she will support."
In short, every Gambian has the right to belong to the political party of
his or her choice. Section 26 of the Constitution adds that
"Every citizen of The Gambia of full age and capacity shall have the right,
without unreasonable restrictions-
"(a) to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through
freely chosen representatives;
"(b) to vote and stand for elections at genuine periodic elections for
public office, which elections shall be by universal and equal suffrage and
be held by secret ballot;
"(c) to have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in The
Gambia."
Each Gambian has a right to have access to public service. The public
service is maintained by the taxes of the Gambian people. Political
affiliation should neither determine access to public service nor serve as a
criteria for occupying a post as a public servant. A proper public service
must ensure security of tenure. Public servants are supposed to be employed
on the basis of merit. They must also be reprimanded on the basis of Public
Service Regulations.
Section 169, subsection (1) of the Constitution states categorically that:
"No public servant shall be-
"(a) victimised or discriminated against either directly or indirectly for
having discharged his or her duties faithfully and according to law;
"(b) be removed from office or reduced in rank or otherwise punished without
just cause."
It is abundantly clear from this that no one holding office in the service
of the national or local governments or in any public enterprise should be
victimised or discriminated against on any grounds, especially political
ones.
Needless to say, a Commission of Enquiry into the April 10 and 11 incident
is convened by you. The Commission has not presented its report. To impute
motives of conspiracy without receiving the report constitutes an affront to
the integrity of the Commission and thus impinges on its independent
jurisdiction to examine the matter and draw its own conclusions.
The threat of sending people six feet or hundred feet deep for threatening
the stability of the State gives a warlike connotation. It added fuel to a
fire that all those who are against confrontational politics have been
trying to put off.
May we convey to you that the reactions of your militants is a by-product of
a misreading of the political situation in the country. Since the Basse
incident, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has been making effort
to create a consultative forum for political parties to discuss differences.
If your party genuinely wants a climate of political tolerance and mutual
respect, it should give more support to the initiative of the IEC rather
than stifle it by going back to the politics of the coup period.
1994 and the year 2000 are not the same. A no-election agenda is
inconceivable. If you concentrate on the whims and designs of party
militants, you will have to face the verdict of the Gambian people when the
time comes. It is that verdict which is the ultimate determinant of the
political survival of anyone who is interested in political leadership.
The wish of the Gambian people is for their sovereign ownership of this
country to be respected. The wish of the Gambian people is for their affairs
to be governed on the basis of just rules and regulations rather than on the
whims and caprices of a few. The wish of the Gambian people is for an open
society where divergent views can contend. The wish of the Gambian people is
not to be a tool for any party to be used to perpetrate injustice against
the other. The wish of the Gambian people is not to be a subject of any
political thuggery.
What Gambia needs is a leadership which does not overreact when problems of
governance emerge. What Gambia needs is a leadership which can put
conscience and national interest before personal and partisan interests.
What Gambia needs is a leadership which respects the sovereignty of the
people. What Gambia needs is a leadership which promotes a culture of
tolerance to the point that one does not even fear losing political office.
Now that the IEC has established a mechanism for consultation, we call on
you, your government and your party to respect the forum and put all plans
aside and register your queries for further discussion and action.
The Gambian people have been mature to have engaged in all sorts of
consultations to be able to get to where we are today. It will be a sign of
great historical folly to go back to square one by promoting national
discord. Those who call themselves leaders, but cannot utilise their
intelligence to properly address the burning issues of the time until others
come to show them how they should coexist would have considered themselves
to be unfit to vie for political leadership in the 21st century.
We hope those members of the Youth Action Group would realise that any
action that makes people feel insecure will also ultimately lead to the
ungovernability of a society. The best type of society is where none feels
that one's security is safeguarded by making the other insecure. A society
based on tolerance is the best safeguard for each other's personal
securities.
The time has come for all political parties to create a political
environment which will make the people the supreme determinant or architect
of the manner of government of this country. This can only be done by
contributing to their enlightenment, their political maturity, their
organisation so that no one on earth can subject them to tyranny of any sort
against their will. That a people who are enlightened and organised can
never be a victim of national discord and disintegration is a verdict of
history and it is irrevocable.
By a copy of this letter, we are also calling on all the Gambian people to
refuse to be utilised by anyone for his or her own personal interest. Each
Gambian should value himself or herself. Each Gambian should realise that
power belongs to each of them; that it is this power which is combined and
entrusted to a political leader; that the custodian of the political power
of the people should utilise that power not to divide them but unify them;
not to intimidate and oppress, but to enhance their freedom; that they, the
people, must refuse to heed to the call of anyone who seeks to divide them
and transform them into cannon-fodders.
We hope that maximum effort will be made by you, in particular, the
leadership of the opposition parties and the people, at large, to revisit
the political situation in The Gambia and take the course of action that
would prevent the country from disintegrating and guarantee the people their
right to determine who manages their affairs to promote their prosperity,
liberty and general welfare.
............................................
Halifa Sallah
For: The Central Committee.
Cc: Chairman, Independent Electoral Commission
Secretary General, Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction
Secretary General, National Reconciliation Party
Secretary General, United Democratic Party
Press
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