Hamjatta, you have raised some very interesting observations and this
reminds me of similar issues previously raised by Mr. M.L. Jasseh-Conteh.  I
would just comment on some very important qualities of statemanship that
both you and Mr. Jasseh-Conteh mentioned,ie. "moral courage" and "prudence"
which you implied as far as the political climate or "zeitgeist" dictates a
realist approach to politics (Realpolitik).
I completely agree with both your propositions without the criticisms to Mr.
Halifa Sallah.  Mr Sallah should best defend himself but I will urge him to
consider your comments very seriously because both of you have very serious
commendable observations concerning the current political leadership in The
Gambia.
There is nothing unethical about the practice of Realpolitik.  Much of the
ado about the "callousness" of its practice is unfairly alluded to
Machiavellianism, i.e. justifying the means by the end.  Infact Machiavelli
was professing prudence in statecraft as far as one's interests are
concerned.  In our case here I would say the Gambia's national interest in
lieu of the personal whims of the political actors, devoid of self
rationalisation of one's actions, political or ideological abstractions.
Yet what Machiavelli did not provide are the "guidelines" for the practice
of prudence.  This is where the importance of "character" comes in, what Mr.
Jasseh-Conteh lucidly described as the "fire in the belly" or "moral
courage"- the ability and the will to say the truth and condemn evil no
matter what.... devoid of any intellectualization of facts or politicization
of process such as the endless/useless "commissions of inquries"!  In modern
history two statesmen standout for the practice of "normative prudence"-
Winston Churchill who stood and inspired the defiance against the evil of
Hitler's Nazism; and President Ronald Reagan who condemned the Soviet Union
as an evil empire and refused to lapse into bogus communist theories of
"peaceful co-existence".  His stance inevitably led to the collapse of the
Communist empire albeit all domestic and foreign criticisms.  Another person
I would like to highlight is Pa Dacosta whom we all know what he did in the
Gambia.
The Gambia needs prudent statesmen with moral courage.

Ebou Jallow


>From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Realpolitik: The Zeitgeist In These Harrowing Times
>Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 18:55:20 EDT
>
>My Good Friend Halifa,
>     After promising myself not to bring it up again to you in public and
>against my will, I have to re-echo again an earlier clarion call I made to
>you and other political players in the Gambia soon after the student
>massacre
>of April 10th. and 11th; that this is the period of unity of purpose in
>restoring decency and respect to our body polity. Well, it seems the
>message
>is still stuck in the bottle and begs to be set free still.
>     But first I have a side issue I wish to take up with you here. Each
>time
>you critique Jammeh, one always hear you make parallels with the Jawara
>experience. If you lightly chide Jammeh's unprecedented daylight robbery of
>our state coffers, you strongly remind us that it has a precedent; Jawara
>did
>it before. If Jammeh has his Crude Oil Saga, Jawara had his own crude oil
>arrangements with the Nigerians. If Jammeh had his 10th and 11th. April
>2000,
>then Jawara had his July 1981. And so the analogies go. By invoking and
>juxtaposing these two experiences at each juncture of your critique of
>Jammeh, you are not only giving allure to Jammeh apologists who still
>insist
>on Jammeh's legitimacy and well-meaningness, but you also give ammunition
>to
>those who see you as closet apologists of Jammeh. That is not all. By using
>this methodology in your critique, you are also helping to clog the
>arteries
>of the mode of our discourse on the political, social and economic future
>of
>the Gambia. Not only is this methodology crude, absurd and obfuscating, but
>it also goes on to unwittingly give succour to the poses of Jammeh and
>those
>who still stand by him. These days whenever you point out the atrocities of
>Jammeh especially on April 10th. and 11th., his supporters will always
>remind
>you of July 1981 as if these two very ugly episodes can be compared by even
>the most crude comparative method that exists. Your militantly anti-Jawara
>rhetorics hasn't died still 6 years after Jawara had gone from the
>political
>stage. Six years after we said tata to Jawara, you are still invoking the
>old
>crannies and ironies that represented Jawara's years. This has a blinder;
>that of clouding your mental horizon to glaring new social, political and
>economic realities. It is now commonplace now for you to hear from Gambians
>who still remember your fiery and noble criticisms of Jawara to say
>explicitly that Halifa Sallah's slashing knife that he cuts down the mighty
>and powerful in the past, has become blunt today. Whilst I would not
>subscribe to some of the unkind criticisms they have levelled against you,
>I
>would be explicit in saying that your inherently and militantly anti Jawara
>sentiments has turned you into a low risk and soft critic of Jammeh. But
>that
>is hardly why I write to you today and I do not want to risk another debate
>on that issue.
>     It has been said again and again that for an effective legal assault
>on
>the tyranny that is Jammeh through constitutional means, those who oppose
>him
>must stick together through thick and thin for they have a common lethal
>enemy that divided, they would have to move literally mountains to
>peacefully
>eject Jammeh into the dustbin where he rightly belongs. Not only is this
>the
>most glaring reality in the Gambia today, but it's raison d'être is not
>only
>moral but patriotic and measures to whatever Pan African sentiments one
>subscribes to. There is another interesting side to this; that is it's
>Realpolitik. Yes, Realpolitik has been and is still scorned by moralists
>and
>idealists alike as a corruptible phenomenon to the body politic and only a
>short termist palliative that can only lead to increment in problems it
>seeks
>to eradicate in the first place. However, it's efficiency and strategic
>importance in moments like the Gambia is living cannot be stated in lines
>but
>in sentences and perhaps columns. Realpolitik states that in a moment like
>this, ideals, rules, principles and the rest of our quarrels are eschewed
>as
>a means to an end. The end being in restoring decency and respect in our
>body
>polity without which it would be foolhardy for one to expect to pursue
>one's
>ideals and visions within the framework of institutionality and legality.
>     So Realpolitik is the means and decency and respect in our body
>politic
>the end. This is pragmatism in the face of tyranny. It requires those who
>sincerely wish the Gambia well and belief that Jammeh only means trouble,
>to
>reconcile their differences in the name of restoring decency and respect
>that
>the Gambia has known before. If you belief, as you poignantly told me
>earlier, that this is a time to share, then your vehemence of the tragic
>shooting of our brothers and sisters during the April 10th. and 11th.
>massacre, should suffice for you to reconcile your doubts about the other
>players in the political arena with your opposition to the tyranny that
>Jammeh represents. This doesn't mean one has eternally given up on moral
>disagreements with other parties or life long held principles. No. Rather
>it
>is respite in the name of an end that would bring decency and respect
>without
>which one cannot peacefully co-exist with others who have opposing ideals.
>And yes it is unmistakably Realpolitik. But so what? Realpolitik can be the
>only Zeitgeist in these harrowing times of our country's history. Let me
>irredeemably determinist here. It is inevitable for us to fall back on
>Realpolitik to salvage our country before it gets too late.
>     It is a known fact that one of most detrimental things that has become
>fundamentally part of the African psyche, the "inevitability" mentality [or
>as the brave Saul Khan puts it, "Yallah Bahna" syndrome] has some of the
>most
>debilitating effects on Africans to rise up against tyranny since
>independence from the colonial master. Indeed as the critic Bernard
>Berenson
>put it some 57 years ago at the height of Nazism/Fascism, the war and its
>roots causes, has led him far from the doctrine, lapped up in his youth
>about
>the inevitability of events.........he then went on to say explicitly
>that:"i
>believe less and less in these more than doubtful and certainly dangerous
>dogmas, which tend to make us accept whatever happens as irresistible and
>foolhardy to oppose." Berenson's scepticism and wisdom aside, if as we all
>believe that the Gambia is a sovereign nation and that we are the masters
>of
>her destiny, then it is morally incumbent on us all to join hands to defeat
>whatever seeks to deprive our future generations and the present a place to
>call home. This is the Zeitgeist of the moment and yes it calls for none
>other than Realpolitik; bending the rules if need be and embracing others
>we
>might not agree with but wish to co-exist with. The rhetoric of this moment
>should be an alliance of Gambian patriots to regain their country of birth.
>     And another thing. As I counselled you earlier of your attempts to
>engage
>this gov't in a civil discourse after the April events, I will repeat again
>that it will amount to zilch for the struggle to keep on writing endless
>letters to them each time they renege on promise. In fact it only acts to
>unwittingly help these goons to cover their backs more as soon as you point
>out their lapses. It's been three months now and we are yet to see anything
>done about those who callously shot at our children and the hierarchy that
>gave the orders. Instead these hooligans and sadists still prowl the
>corridors of society whilst the victims are still in pain. The UDP gets
>ambushed, a thug loses his life and less than 48 hours they have charged
>people with the murder. Things are deteriorating by the hour. Mass dead of
>the night arrests and abductions are becoming the order of the day. If
>politicians like yourself on the ground don't exploit the situation and
>form
>a coalition to combat these trends, then armed and other reactionary groups
>will by the default carry out your responsibilities for you. That would be
>the ultimate betrayal of the People and indeed unforgivable.
>As it is I'm just shattered and nursing a nasty headache after a horrible
>day. So I will break it here and anticipate your usual warm response. I
>hope
>you wouldn't decipher this as another means of a "pinprick" distracting
>your
>attention from the bigger picture. But then is there a bigger picture than
>that of constructing a dialogue on how one can rid the Gambia of the
>metastasizing cancer that is Jammeh?
>Hamjatta Kanteh
>
>hkanteh
>
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