Friends,
most of this very long comment is written more than  6 weeks  ago, when
there were comments on Gambia-l saying that Jammeh should be removed by all
means. More and more information and debate on Gambia- L and my
summer-holidays got me to wait. Specially the postings of Buharry Gassama on
"The Dilemmas of Transitional Justice" got me to  send my thoughts. My
gambian friends warns me. They say that I as a foreigner have already said
too much. I´m glad to see that EU is now officially saying something. I have
tried to keep touch with my government, but they still answer, that they are
acting coordinated within EU and UN, because The Gambia is not a country
which Denmark has close bilateral connection to.

Like in other parts of the world our leaders are a "product" of our society,
political, cultural and social. Is jammeh not a "pure product" of The Gambia
and it´s system ? Like Clinton, Putin, Blair, Arafat, Barak, Jiang Zemin  or
Milosevic, Pinochet, Amin etc. are products of their systems ? How can the
people defend themselves against their leaders ? And how can they act, if
they believe that their leaders has lost "touch", leadership. If you mean
that Jammeh and his government is illegal, or has turned out in an
unacceptable way, what are your means of action ? How can you be sure that
the next one will not be the same, or the next again? How will you create a
"system" and a leadership or political "culture", that ensure you will not
get the same sitaution ? How come that more than half the gambian population
cried "hail" 6 years ago ? Why can the gambian institutions not put a stop
for a presidency or government which turns out "wrongly" ?

Do we the past year witness the self-destruction of a state? Is fight and
violence a part of political work and rally ? Is "eye for an eye"-principle,
revenge vital for gambians ? will the end justifies the means ?  When will
the mothers demonstrate (22.july)?

I´m not the one to challenge the sitting government, because I sit here far
from the center, suffer nothing, has not to fight to survive. So it´s easy
to have an opinion and voice it. But I have visited The Gambia since 1978,
and have so many gambian friends for life, from different sides of the
gambian society. I know and visit people in positions, in institutions of
todays Gambia, and I have friends who have served under the former and the
present government, like I have friends who has been and still are engaged
in gambian politics, some in favor of  and some  in opposition to both the
former PPP and the present APRC. No matter which party they find satisfy
them, they are still my friends. I´m glad that I´m so "ignorant" that I
never know  which tribe they belong to. Only when we are celebrating
something, I notice the slight differences of the cultural habits and
recognize that today I´m visiting a Jola family, yesterday it was a Serehula
and tomorrow it will be a mandinka. To me they are all my gambian friends
and families.

What is happening in The Gambia today influent very much on my daily life.
Nearly every day I think: How  are they, how do  they  manage, how life is
in The Gambia. 
I try to help some individuals, some families, two small villages, the
little I can, and I´m  happy whenever I get the information that my friends
are by good health, manage OK. Or when I am invited to celebrate, when they
get married, have children, naming ceremonies, start in school, pass exams,
get a job, the football team wins, the girls in the village form a drama
group. Like I´m very sad and sorry when children,  parents or family members
die, they fight with poor living conditions, get injured, have a disease,
etc. And I´m glad when a new school is build, a clinic, the airport and the
national TV started, Gambia College, GTTI or the university program shows
progresses.
Like I´m not so glad when the farmers are not paid for the groundnuts, the
roads are in bad condition, the burden of the school-fees are too much for
the ordinary gambian family, the lack of medicine and too many military in
the streets, etc.

The very many gambians I come to know over the years are not my family, but
they are all very close to me, and I think of them every day. I know more
gambians in the gambian, then i know of swedes in my neighbor country
Sweden, or any other place outside Denmark. That´s why The Gambia is always
in my mind. How their daily life is influenced by the sitting government,
the politics are of great interest to me. That is why I have been following
the situation  since early 80´ies. It was a coincident that I ended up in
The Gambia in 1978. But after my first visit to The Gambia it became MY
AFRICAN COUNTRY. I have tried to live with what I experienced of good and
bad, and that I could not compare with my own country on standards.

And sitting here in Denmark I also know that my "picture" of what is going
on in the Gambia is formed by the information I have access to.

But I find the information more and more alarming. As Rene Badjan describe
it in "I watched a movie", to me it´s also like a repetition. I live in
Europe and I have it just outside my door. The destruction or
self-destruction of a state. We have seen it again and again, how people who
come to power by all means try to stay there. No Matter what it costs they
ruin the state, oppress their own people. In the beginning they do many fine
things, but for some reason they lose focus, blinded by the greed for power.

They put aside the constitution, the laws, the rules and regulations. They
harass, oppress, intimidate the people. They favor  party-members, they go
for their opponents, the free press. And step by step they try to keep
power. The "power" corrupts them (just watch the painful hearings right now
of Mr. Kohl of Germany).

They even establish a national intelligence where neighbors and family
members can go and inform, and when it´s appropriate you go and make
arbitrary arrests. (We see it even here in Denmark, even a very few cases).
Torture will be done first secretly later on more openly, and people
disappear. They appoint the judges from their own supporters and put aside
most human right principles. They postpone elections, or make special rules
and regulations, so no matter how elections turn out, they stay by power.
They practice ethnic cleansing.
In my life-time I have seen it in East-Germany, Rumania, Russia, parts of
former Yugoslavia and some of the states in the former Soviet Union, now
more or less "independent". And I have seen it world wide.

Is it what I witness now in The Gambia. A transformation of  a legal state ?
I pray that must not happen. Every day I think that today we will have some
good news from the president or sitting government !

Is the government is confused ? The ministers and heads of departments are
engaged and dismissed in a tempo, that they can not administer ? Lack of
respect for institutions like  courts and magistrates. Lack of parliamentary
order and discipline (lack of quorum) ? Lack of control with the states
budget ? Lack of control and discipline of the police-, military- and
intelligence-corps, where the command-structure runs out of order, where
ordinary staff members can torture people in their custody ?Arbitrary
arrests, banning of public media ?

In april the students wanted to make a demonstration, and because they
published and asked permission, the authorities answer was a brutal "NO",
and the result is known by all of us. It was not like the students in China,
who criticized the government. It was a wake-up-call to the authorities to
establish legal order and become more serious on two reported cases. It was
a solidarity-act, not a threat against the state. But the apply led to
military readiness for instant action in several places !! Some sort of
paranoia ? But afterwards I felt some lack of support from their friends and
families in the streets ? Why is it that not all people in Kaniefing,
Jeswang, Bakau, Serekunda came out of the compounds and just went to the
highway, and sat down, demonstrated solidarity ?
Why are the families, the neighbors, the mothers, the women not marching ?
Because the fear sits deep in them, and "enough is still not enough" to let
the fear behind. 

I have said it before: there are too many families who are depending on the
job (salary) one of the family-males has in the police, the military,
paramilitary, intelligence. Many keep silent because they are depending.

I have visited  local markets  in The Gambia, and I have learnt from my
visits to the villages, that the women are were good in organizing. What
should keep them from suddenly one morning start marching ? Come from all
corners of the country, take their children by the hand, and just peacefully
demonstrate, that enough is enough. Will their sons in the police-,
military-forces once again try to stop and fire  live-bullets into their own
mothers, sisters, children ?

I don´t believe in violence, but I believe that the people has it´s own will
and means of action. And the moral RIGHT to fight for justice and a state
worth living in.

But I also read how some of you gambians on this Bantaba has expressed, that
it is a part of the political process to expect violence. How is it that
some gambians  expect, that if you are involved in politics, you must also
expect your political opponents will attack you not only verbal, but also
physically, violently when you are on rallies ? One of you on the list
advocate that the youth wing of UDP should have "military"-training, so they
could fight back at rallies. (the youth wing of the NAZI-party in Germany
was also trained to do so, and later some were recruited to the Gestapo).
Where and what will that lead to ? Do we expect that violent fights between
supporters is a part of the political process, and should be expected , else
there has not been a "real" rally.

And if we accept certain means of action as "realpolitics", even it´s
morally corrupt,  we have not put  up a new standard, shown a new way of
political leadership.

From the very beginning I have said you can cry tyran, murder whatever you
like. You can compare with Hitler and others. But if you are not better
yourself, what will you then call yourself ? I have noticed the comments
from some of you, who want action -(better than words) , even killings, eye
for an eye, call for radical solutions.

Let me ask those of you, who ask for militant/radical solution:  what is
your calculation of  death-rates, etc. ? Or is the plan just to kill Jammeh,
and let all politicians, parliament etc. continue as nothing has changed but
the president ? Will Jammeh face a trial if you catch him ? And is
death-penalty legal in The Gambia ? Or will you just kill him like we have
faced in ex-yugoslavia, or in Rumania ?
And will you ensure to be the last one in a chain of militants who take
power ? Or will you just be the next link in such a chain, and confirm that
"this is the way we do it" ?
Will you hand over to other gambians after the take-over, and to whom ?
Should it be people you accept ? Or who will have to accept the terms you
put up ? What are the plans to go from the first act - fight and kill
Jammeh- to the next - law and order abiding leadership, free and open
elections ? And should you have legal immunity from the next government from
the "murder" you have committed ? Or can they raise a legal case (Jammehs
family f.in.) Or  will "the end justifies the means " ?

If I have to accept that you get rid of Jammeh the way you suggest it, (take
him, bring him to stadium and blow his head off) how will you convince me,
that you by such act has changed leadership, created a new "culture", that
you will not continue in the footsteps, but you will restore law and order ?
Was it not what Jammeh promised ? Lately we have got information that brings
us back to the coup d´etat 1981, over MOJA-G up till now. Within 15 years
(1981-1995) of modern (post colonial) gambian history you can mention at
least 2 attempts to take power illegal. How will you by using this method
for the 3rd time make a break of such a TRADITION ? (I  know that I live in
Europe, where political assassination is still daily order !)

If you say that Jammeh took power illegal (constitutional), what will you
call it if you have no legislation and judgement behind a decision to take
and kill the president ? Where is the difference between the two acts ? I
have heard many of my gambian friends telling me, that even they did not
find Jammehs "way to power" was legal, they accepted the means of power,
because he got rid of Jawara , and it was without waist of blood. And I
answer, that I can not accept any of  the explanations, even I come from
Europe where killings, coup détat has been the way to power for more than
2000 years. Jawara should have been removed by the ballot. They (my friends)
answer: "it was impossible". There we sit. And will we just repeat history ?
 
Is it so that some Gambians like action,  like to pay back,  revenge, they
like an eye for an eye, to "restore honor or image" or why ? There were some
of my friends, who after the Jammeh - coup wanted him (Jammeh) to bring
Jawara back and  killed for his years in power, so he could "taste his own
medicine". If they could not bring him back, then kill him where he was.

But where will this end. You can cry freedom first then democracy, but what
you leave behind is just another opponent , another gambian who think of
revenge in the future, and you will never come together and reconcile and go
ahead. You will end up in a death-spiral. You can never build the future on
fear, hatred.  

I am not tolerating political oppression, torture or killings, I think that
my comments in this Bantaba has shown that.
I think that the april incident was an escalation of that negative
"culture", which allow you to take power in your own hand, stop, arrest,
harass, torture people without any respect for him/her. And I believe that
such a "culture" can only be established under certain social-economic
conditions. Why have some policemen or soldiers to torture prisoners, which
are under control in the prison. Why is it they "like" to humiliate, offend,
torture another person, who is in their hands ? It happens not only in The
Gambia, but also in Denmark, USA, all over every day.

You got to break that "culture", that way of humiliate other people,
demonstrating you have the power. It´s practiced all over the globe, but is
not acceptable.

If you accept that there are certain incidents, some actions, some misrule
or bad administration, which give you the right to kill the leaders, who are
the ones to judge, when  the limit is reached, when enough is enough ?
Is it your standard ? can every single person do so, or must we establish a
public common sense, that now it´s enough and now we can kill ?

How will we have to handle this in the future ? Can we kill if the
government fail to establish fundamental living conditions for the people ?
Or will we need to se political banning, harassment, torture, bad
leadership, bribery, hidden money (how much) before we can kill ? Or do we
need to see they are direct or indirectly responsible for murder, before we
can accept that people take action, law in their own hand ? Under which
circumstances will we accept that killings is the only way to stop it ?

If  you can "trace the april incident" from the man who pulled the trigger
to the government or the president, you will have a case against him/them.
If you can not, you have no case. If  you can not establish a clear line of
facts and responsibilities from the bullets which killed to the President,
you must accept that you have no case against him, and will have to put him
and his government down by other means, f.in. at the next elections.

Even we all feel that there is someone higher up, who is responsible, you
must accept certain rules to go for him. No matter how the people in power
try to hide, try to cover up  (often seen  in my part of the world like
Watergate) you have to accept that´s how the system works.

To me the question has been from the very first moment after the april
massacre, IS YOUR PRESIDENT YAYA JAMMEH (and his party-members) NOT A
PRODUCT OF THE GAMBIA ? Just like yourself.  Has he been a schoolboy and
brought up in the Gambia by a gambian family, gambian teachers, religious
scholars etc ? Has he been  military trained and educated in The Gambia ?
From where has he and his government got the ideas of  leadership, how to
run a country ? And who has been his advisors in  life ? Gambians ?
Is it heredity or environment that creates his and his governments way of
leadership.

From the very beginning mid-april I have been thinking how will Jammeh avoid
elections ? Because I like you come to think that he and his party could not
overcome and win an election after what happened. And the more reports we
get from The Gambia, that he never show up anymore, the government/
administration and party are confused, I thought: how can the president and
the government step down, resign and let over without bloodshed ? But then
again why should they ? Why not just continue throughout the rest of the
period, and then take it or leave it, the judgements day.

In Denmark we say,   you should always leave a door open for an opponent to
get out. But already  many try to block all doors for Jammeh and his
government. Why has no one tried to let a door open they can get out of ?
What could it be, that Jammeh and his government could not refuse ?

Why create  a "political culture", that when you are no longer in power you
will face a lots of problems, we will go for revenge. Well, if someone
deliberately has broken the laws, enriched yourself by a criminal act, you
should fear for a legal lawsuit ? Even some of the prison-camp-tormentors
from the Bosnian war are now brought to a legal process accused for crimes
against humanity. But still some of the leaders Mr. Milosovic f.in. are not
yet taken.

I asked my gambian friends: how come that some  leaders can not accept, that
after term they can not be reelected, or they can be forced out by the
voters, and just take it for what it is ? Why is it so connected to HONOR
that they try to stay in power, even they have to bend the laws and
constitutions and put aside the fundamental legal and democratic principles
just to stay in power ?

Why is it that many of us  want the opposition to win the coming election,
no matter what their political manifests are like?
Is it of no meaning what party you vote for at the coming elections, as long
as it is  not the ruling one ? What are the alternatives to the sitting
government ? Those of you who want to kill/fight to take over, which party
will you then deliver the power to ? Many advocate for the different parties
to put aside differences and come together in order to put down the sitting
government. It can be a step in a direction, but when you got to rule
afterwards you got to have a plan of action based on a certain politic and
idea how to raise the country. And then there is a difference between
liberal capitalism and socialism.

The next step after winning elections has to be solved even before election
take place. How will you recommend the different parties to create a
government and politically rule the country after they overcome the sitting
government ?

 There are many questions, and I´m sorry that I don´t have the answers: why
is it that not all the civil society is reacting by silent demonstration ?
Is enough still not enough ? why is it that some of you who ask for killing
the president believe that you have the legal right to do so, and how will
that change the "political culture" ?
Why is it that many of my gambian friends can not live on until they have
got "revenge" ? 
Why is it that some leaders can not accept just to step down by the end of
term, or voted out ?
And is Jammeh a product of The Gambia ?
And how will you make different parties with totally different ideologies to
corporate after eventually winning elections ?

A long mixture of comments, questions and thoughts
from Asbjørn Nordam

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