That the July 22nd Revolution ushered in a new era in the Gambia is
undoubted but that most of what transpired since then is what the
overwhelming majority of Gambians were promised or expecting would be a
massive distortion of popular sentiments. When the USS County la moore
docked on the harbour of Banjul on that fateful Friday of July 1994, the
Gambia experienced a US-supervised military coup or better still transition
of power from an elected civilian government to a military-led dictatorship.
The immediate domestic reaction of the military takeover was: what next?
Will the prospects of Gambians be improved or worsened as a result of the
coup. The Armed Forces-led Government (AFPRC) consequently wasted no time in
allaying the fears and concerns of Dembo, Kumba, Pateh, Ya Fatou, Paul and
Mam Biran  Gambia by promising to be 'soldiers with a diference'; they also
pledged never to introduce dictatorship into the Gambia; they promised to
introduce a new era of democracy, accountability and transparency; and one
promise made by them, which particularly went down well with Gambians was to
ensure that a 2-term limit is set for any elected government. As a matter of
fact, the July/August 1994 assertion by  the former Chairman AFPRC and now
President Jammeh that 'two five-year terms as a limit for any head of state
is in his view still too much for any head of state' still rings in my ears.
Yet still when over 95% of Gambians recommended this as reflected in the
first draft of the 1996/97 constitution and again voted for it by over a 2/3
majority in the 1996 referendum, the AFPRC regime threw it out from the
provisions of the constitution in direct contravention of the expressed
wishes of the electorate. Why did they do this? Maybe a person like Yero
Mama who is in the know can explain the motive behind his friend's defiance
of the will of the people.
By having suspended the constitution and ruling through draconian decrees,
the Gambia had entered the phase of dictatorship but then maybe it was a
necessary evil for the transition of the Gambia to true democracy as some
including myself then rationalised. However when the AFPRC recommended to
lead the country for a transitional period of 4 years, which was outrightly
rejected by Gambians, most smelled the rat that the AFPRC was not planning
to quit the political scene at least within the foreseeable future.
Since then, Gambians have participated in two multi-party general elections;
the first one was generally paved to the unfair advantage of the AFPRC/APRC
because other potential contestants were barred from participating in the
race and the election itself was marred by electoral irregularities and
malpractices; the second election which was held in October 2001 was to some
extent influenced by the particpation of foreigners but was to the greatest
dictated by the failure of the genuine opposition parties to agree and put
forth a unity candidate against the incumbent. The failure of all the
opposition to unite in the over-riding national interest to get rid of the
current trigger-happy and unprogressive regime could be the outcome of one
or a combination of the following:

a) Poor and ineffective coalition building process
b) Refusal of one or two parties to compromise over their political agenda
eg PDOIS
c) AFPRC's planting of the NCP to divide the opposition
d) over-confidence by segments of the UDP leadership that they could defeat
the incumbent with their limited alliance.
e) NRP's preference for an APRC-led government to a UDP-led government

Unless the plight of the farmers is redressed and poverty is alleviated;
unless the human rights picture of the country brightens up; unless the
judiciary is freed and rendered independent of the executive; unless the
executive becomes accountable and transparent to the taxpayers esp in the
matter of public finance management and unless the APRC-leadership-inspired
corruption ceases, the APRC would have defeated themselves by the next
general elections.
The government could significantly improve its image at an instant by
freeing all political
detainees against whom there is no iota of evidence for any crime, diverting
from prodigal military expenditures to investing in agriculture and the
secondary sector and healing the atrocities committed against Gambians.

The leadership of the APRC are only deluding themselves if they think that
the Indemnity Acts will forever render them immune from accountability,
history confirms otherwise.
The Gambian people are not passive and submissive to acts of injustice and
shall never be. Even if the leaders of all the countries in the world were
to pass a UN resolution indicating that President Jammeh is the best among
all of them, the Gambian peoples know better.

The yoke of oppression must be shattered!

BMK











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