Culled from todays issue of The Independent on Africa News Online
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'Jumping To Conclusion Seldom Leads To A Happy Landing' - S. Siporin
The Independent (Banjul)
July 17, 2000
By D.A Jawo
Banjul - It was indeed quite interesting to hear that President Jammeh, as
leader of the APRC, has appointed ex-youth and sports minister in the PPP
regime Buba Baldeh as the assistant national youth mobiliser of the APRC.
One therefore cannot help but wonder where that leaves Decree 89, which forbids
all former PPP ministers from belonging to political parties or even taking any
active part in politics for a specified period, which of course includes Buba
Baldeh. Another interesting aspect of it is the fact that just a few days ago,
during his unprecedented press conference at State House, the all powerful Baba
Jobe repeated the often quoted APRC slogan that the UDP is a reincarnation of
the PPP, and yet there is the same APRC ironically recruiting former PPP
ministers to help run its affairs.
If it is indeed true that until the coup in 1994, the PPP was the largest
political party in this country and now the APRC is claiming to be the largest,
then I cannot understand how its members can vouch that a majority of them were
not former members of the PPP, including some very prominent militants. It
appears that they also refuse to acknowledge the obvious fact that certain
prominent members of the UDP were bitter opponents of PPP. I think it is all a
question of giving a dog a bad name and hanging it, but the fact is that both
the ARPC and the UDP, and indeed all the existing political parties, may be
with the exception of PDOIS, drew a bulk of their members from all the parties
that had existed before 1994.
With the recent appointment of Buba Baldeh in the APRC executive and the
earlier appointment of Hassan Jallow as a supreme court judge, I wonder whether
there is anything left of Decree 89. Therefore, I think it is no longer worth
anyone's time and especially for people like the former agriculture minister
Omar Jallow (OJ) to continue to challenge the legality of the Decree when the
ARPC itself has violated it. A result, it appears that the field is now widely
open for all the first republic politicians to either form their own political
parties or join existing ones if they so wish. Even though in this country
today, what is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander, I
cannot imagine the regime justifiably taking anyone to court for violating
Decree 89 when they themselves have already done so. If not for anything else,
at least natural justice demands that the government accords equal treatment to
all citizens regardless of their political affiliation or any other
consideration.
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