Why the need for tactical alliance?
   
  New Year message for Gambian opposition parties 
  From Abdoukarim Sanneh - Greater Manchester, United Kingdom.
   
  “Parliamentary election in Gambia is only a month away. Based on curious observation, opposition parties in the country are not in good shape to dominate the House of Parliament by advantage of numbers. It was this number advantage that gave the ruling APRC party of president Jammeh the power to change vital elements of the constitution creating a situation of life president for President Jammeh. Bulk of Gambia’s more than 1.5 million population are not happy with the way military dictatorship is entrenched in the name democratically elected representative government. Abdoukarim Sanneh sees that as a way of using the democratic instruments of voting to empower a military dictatorship. In the absence of a strategic tactical alliance, Abdoukarim like many Gambians think it is waste of time and blames the country’s divided opposition for being indecisive. In what he calls his New Year Message to opposition parties in Gambia,  Mr Sanneh takes us through how he thinks they
 will be  able to change the tides for restoring true and lasing democracy in that West African country.”  
   
  It is about time our political animals realise that Gambian citizens cannot follow individual parties that are not ready to cement their differences but continue to foster deep rooted antagonism. It is by good dictates of our clear conscience not to follow either UDP/NRP or NADD. The reason is that they relate to Gambian electorates like members of a cult movement do. They are not willing to listen to concerns of civil society and citizenship both in Gambia and the Diaspora. They have failed to come up with a formidable tactical alliance for a well-balanced national assembly. Failing to do so, nothing prevents parliament of a coup detat regime with irrelevant bills being passed to strengthen Yaya Jammeh’s corrupt dictatorial rule. Gambians have had enough of it. This bunch of opposition politicians need to give up their amateurish behaviour that keeps surfacing in their claims to becoming redeemers of Gambian people from the ruthless, corrupt and brutal dictatorial rule
 of the APRC Government. Opposition politics without tactical alliance in January parliamentary elections will be in a process of remorseless and seemingly irreversible decay. Many of us at this point in our level of political maturity expect competently redeeming political saints. What we need to see is a body determined political leadership ready to start a healthy political debate for a better way forward.
   
  It was encouraging to learn that a United States based Save Gambia Democracy Project came up with good proposal for both parties to start dialogue recently. It was equally disheartening to know also all seems as if UDP/NRP coalition plays adamant and rejected the proposal to begin dialogue with NADD. Since after the defeat in the presidential election UDP/NRP coalition is seen still unwilling to concede strengths of APRC party by regrouping with NADD. When will the mindset of the leadership UDP/NRP coalition change over clashes of personality and their miscalculation for electoral success under the prevailing atmosphere?  Their continued reluctance to make peace towards a unified approach rather than staying in pieces is based a fallacy. Until a united opposition is reinstated as a significant force in Gambian politics a redemption of Gambia from Yaya Jammeh’s imbalanced politics will remain some distance over the horizon.
   
  The political terrain in the Gambia since 1994 is a transition from one form of coup d’etat to another. The national assembly is playing a pivotal role in the entrenchment of dictatorship in Gambia. Numerous amendment of the constitution to foster Yaya Jammeh’s mission on partisan basis sidelines the opposition parties significantly. The rubberstamp APRC members of National Assembly are not realising that the devil never learns to be tolerant and will use division of the opposition parties as to gain political capital. This amounts to slashing your necks and leaving you bleed to death. I always feel overwhelmed with astonishment when our elite politicians usually in their feverish political debate keep quoting section after section of the bogus and philistine 1996 constitution as if Gambia under Yaya Jammeh there operates a constitutional democracy. Yaya Jammeh has no respect for that document and shows no political will accept that Gambia is constitutional democracy and
 not a military dictatorship. The Gambia is not a functional constitutional democracy. To consolidate Jammeh’s dictatorship our constitution is being manipulated and hijacked since the word go. The only changes from military rule to so-called constitutional democracy is Yaya Jammeh’s APRC having jettisoned the letter ‘F’ but  his absolute power and dictatorial tendency remain unabated time after time. What we have seen is unrealistic metamorphosis from a soldier in uniform to a soldier in plane clothes with no changes in character and manner. The 1996 constitution has gone through amendment after amendment all aiming to legalise dictatorship of one form or another. The first manipulation was the removal from the document on matters relating to trial by jury. Without tactical alliance APRC will continue to dominate the National Assembly and one should not be surprised as a day will come when the rubber stamp parliament will pass a bill to enhance Yaya Jammeh’s vision of
 ruling our country for another 40 years.
   
  The power struggle between UDP/NRP and NADD is seriously drifting votes to APRC. They need to hammer out that difference. What Gambia needs is not a party of individual self seekers who only think of their own. To effect a change opposition parties in Gambia need to see the radical side of politics. They need an approach that appeals to electorates playing more active part in all sorts of real issue-focused politics without state of fear. It is with tactical alliance in this parliamentary election that they will be able to address lot of fraudulent issues which the criminal regime is using technically to prolong its illegal stay in power. The enactment of military decrees and imposition of such decrees as statuary codes in a parliamentary democracy have further reduced the function of parliamentarians. Military decrees are undemocratic statuary codes which are never put under scrutiny by our parliamentarians. The 1996 constitution recognises all those decrees as legally
 binding statuary codes without giving the public or our law makers to diagnose their efficiency in a democratic environment. In today’s Gambia, a law relating to both presidential and parliamentary election is/are administering by a military decree called electoral decree. It is this electoral decree which gives the President absolute power to appoint and sack members of the electoral commission. Gambians have witnessed within this few years, three election Commission Chairmen and several members of the   commission sacked. What is the relevance of a military decree in a civilian government? This a real big catch to cause worry in Gambia’s political dispensation. It is simply a so-called civilian government purely ruled by military decrees. We need more opposition parliamentarians who can catalyse dynamism for electoral reforms and debate on legislation for the interest of functional democracy. Only a strategically tactical alliance could make that dream a reality.
   
  Tactical opposition alliance is an important determinant at this moment in our national resolve to restore true and lasing democracy in The Gambia. As opposition parties sharing a common target you must not see each other as rivals. You must work with the undivided aim of restoring of democracy based on the rights of individuals, personal liberty, social justice and establishment of fairer society. The political trench in the Gambia has changed from the old PPP era and all the opposition parties must be aware of that historical reality. In this transition while Yaya Jammeh’s APRC phases out through its own default, opposition parties need to develop and adapt a strategy alliance not based on domination from one faction but for overall redemption of our country.

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