Asalamu alaikum Gambia-L,
Thanks Mr Sallah for that mature and well-composed letter.
Nelson Mandella once said that the manner in which a
struggle is fought between the oppressed and the oppressors
is largely determined but the oppressor. This was very
much the case during the struggle against apartheid. The
recent pronouncement and developments in the Gambia are
indeed worrying to any concerned Gambian. The Gambian
people will now have to decide whether to allow a group of
uncouth and uneducated group to bury them one by one, sack
them at will, abduct, and loot their national coffer.
In think national leaders on the ground most now reconsider
the manner in which they will participate in the struggle.
Religious leaders and all opinion leaders, civil servants,
etc will all need to take firmer stance to preserve the
integrity of the Gambia as a nation in order to avoid the
fate that befell Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Prophet
(SAW) said that when we see evil we should change it with
our hands, tongue, heart (hating it). The latter is the
least any man of faith can have.
May Allah (SWT) preserve the Gambia and remove all evil men
who are sowing the seed of national discord.
MMC
On Thu, 27 Jul 2000 11:53:06 +0100 foroyaa
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 26 July 2000.
>
> President of the Republic,
> State House,
> Muamar Gadaffi Avenue,
> BANJUL.
>
>
> When The Seed Of National Discord Is Sown, A Bumper Harvest Of National
> Disintegration Is Reaped
>
> Governance in a Sovereign Republic is about people. It is not simply about
> political parties. Political parties are mere instruments for political
> leadership. The exercise of authority by a political party to govern a
> country is incidental to and consequential on the exercise of power by the
> people.
>
> The authority of the people may either be entrusted to a party or a group of
> persons or be usurped for a while. However, it can never be seized for all
> times. Power truly belongs to no one, but the people. It never did and it
> never will belong to anyone but the people.
>
> The only legitimate way of being entrusted with power is to receive the
> mandate of an enlightened and free people. The only legitimate way of
> exercising entrusted authority is to do so to promote the general welfare of
> the people.
>
> It is in recognition of this fundamental and inalienable right that the
> Constitution asserts the Sovereignty of the people in its first chapter:
>
> "The Sovereignty of The Gambia resides in the people of The Gambia from whom
> all organs of government derive their authority and in whose name and for
> whose welfare and prosperity the powers of government are to be exercised in
> accordance with this Constitution."
>
> It is, therefore, abundantly clear that your government should exercise the
> authority it has to promote the prosperity and general welfare of the
> people. Liberty is as essential to general welfare as prosperity. The two
> are twins. Oppression is as devastating as hunger. People starved of freedom
> have been known to prefer the grave to life. Oppression maddens and kills
> just as hunger maddens and kills. General welfare, therefore, cannot be
> enlarged and consolidated without enlarging and consolidating freedom and
> prosperity.
>
> The objective of this letter is to convey to you that the pronouncement made
> during your July 22 address and the subsequent addresses during your meeting
> with the Youth Action Group of the APRC, which predicated it, have trampled
> on certain fundamental tenets which make possible the peaceful coexistence
> of people who share fundamental political differences and conceptions on how
> the country that belongs to all of us should be governed.
>
> The number of people who assembled before you during your meeting with the
> Youth Action Group are but a minuscule if compared with the general Gambian
> population. The number of people who belong to political parties are also a
> few compared to the general majority.
>
> What has become apparent is that while you were addressing a charged group
> of party militants within the confines of a small room, the television
> cameras were transmitting what was being said to the larger Gambian
> population. You have heard the voices of your party militants agitating for
> you not to provide a fertile ground for the growth of your enemies. You have
> heard them express that they can be subjected to supreme danger before you
> feel the pinch if you do not take a firm hand in handling opponents they
> described as trouble makers.
>
> In plain language, they were asking you to take extremist measures to deal
> with what they classified as political extremism. One could visibly see from
> those who were transmitting their views that they felt that they were in a
> state of insecurity and needed the might of the State to provide them with
> security.
>
> Your response was unequivocal. You claimed that you will speak the language
> of extremism, which is the language you believe some people know; that those
> who take extremist measures will not be spared; that those who do not
> consider the government as theirs will be purged; that anyone who threatens
> the stability of the country shall find oneself one hundred feet deep.
>
> You cautioned that the Youth Action Group must not allow itself to be
> infiltrated by real wolves as the July 22 Movement was. It was abundantly
> clear from the pronouncements of its members that such a group was to emerge
> in every area of the public service to scrutinise what is being done. You
> made it abundantly clear that those who do not take ownership of your
> government could go out and wait for the government they can take ownership
> of.
>
> Apparently, you and the members of the Youth Action Group mutually
> appreciated what was said, and mutually assured each other renewed
> confidence. What should now be of concern to you, as Head of State, is the
> opinion of those who are not members of your party.
>
> In that regard, it is important to emphasise with all the emphasis at our
> command that The Gambia belongs to her people and not to any given party or
> person. There are very few Gambians who want this country to disintegrate.
> Suffice it to say, the quickest way to drag a country into the abyss of
> disintegration is to sow and water the seed of national discord. Where the
> seed of national discord is sown, only a bumper harvest of national
> disintegration would be reaped.
>
> This is precisely the reason why the comments of the APRC militants and your
> address cannot be taken lightly. This is all the more so when one considers
> the circumstances which prevailed prior to the meeting. Rumours were rife
> that the APRC youth groups were preparing themselves for a revenge of the
> death of Alieu Njie. The manner of arresting those classified as coup
> plotters also added to the climate of unpredictability of what could happen.
>
> At your meeting, your militants did not hide that they were beginning to
> feel insecure and did not hesitate to urge for action to ensure their
> security; yet the measures that were being suggested are geared towards
> making others insecure. How can security be assured by planting the seed of
> insecurity?
>
> It is important for you to bear in mind that overreaction is not the
> solution. Such overreaction can only lead to negation of all the principles
> that make a society governable in a democratic way and sow the seed of
> greater insecurity.
>
> It was glaringly evident that the comments during the meeting, from you and
> the militants of the APRC, honoured the provisions of the Constitution with
> total disregard.
>
> Section 60, subsection (3) of the Constitution states categorically that
>
> "The number of political parties shall not be limited by law and every
> citizen of The Gambia shall have the right freely to choose whether or not
> he or she will become a member of a political party and which party he or
> she will support."
>
> In short, every Gambian has the right to belong to the political party of
> his or her choice. Section 26 of the Constitution adds that
>
> "Every citizen of The Gambia of full age and capacity shall have the right,
> without unreasonable restrictions-
> "(a) to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through
> freely chosen representatives;
> "(b) to vote and stand for elections at genuine periodic elections for
> public office, which elections shall be by universal and equal suffrage and
> be held by secret ballot;
> "(c) to have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in The
> Gambia."
>
> Each Gambian has a right to have access to public service. The public
> service is maintained by the taxes of the Gambian people. Political
> affiliation should neither determine access to public service nor serve as a
> criteria for occupying a post as a public servant. A proper public service
> must ensure security of tenure. Public servants are supposed to be employed
> on the basis of merit. They must also be reprimanded on the basis of Public
> Service Regulations.
>
> Section 169, subsection (1) of the Constitution states categorically that:
>
> "No public servant shall be-
> "(a) victimised or discriminated against either directly or indirectly for
> having discharged his or her duties faithfully and according to law;
> "(b) be removed from office or reduced in rank or otherwise punished without
> just cause."
>
> It is abundantly clear from this that no one holding office in the service
> of the national or local governments or in any public enterprise should be
> victimised or discriminated against on any grounds, especially political
> ones.
>
> Needless to say, a Commission of Enquiry into the April 10 and 11 incident
> is convened by you. The Commission has not presented its report. To impute
> motives of conspiracy without receiving the report constitutes an affront to
> the integrity of the Commission and thus impinges on its independent
> jurisdiction to examine the matter and draw its own conclusions.
>
> The threat of sending people six feet or hundred feet deep for threatening
> the stability of the State gives a warlike connotation. It added fuel to a
> fire that all those who are against confrontational politics have been
> trying to put off.
>
> May we convey to you that the reactions of your militants is a by-product of
> a misreading of the political situation in the country. Since the Basse
> incident, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has been making effort
> to create a consultative forum for political parties to discuss differences.
> If your party genuinely wants a climate of political tolerance and mutual
> respect, it should give more support to the initiative of the IEC rather
> than stifle it by going back to the politics of the coup period.
>
> 1994 and the year 2000 are not the same. A no-election agenda is
> inconceivable. If you concentrate on the whims and designs of party
> militants, you will have to face the verdict of the Gambian people when the
> time comes. It is that verdict which is the ultimate determinant of the
> political survival of anyone who is interested in political leadership.
>
> The wish of the Gambian people is for their sovereign ownership of this
> country to be respected. The wish of the Gambian people is for their affairs
> to be governed on the basis of just rules and regulations rather than on the
> whims and caprices of a few. The wish of the Gambian people is for an open
> society where divergent views can contend. The wish of the Gambian people is
> not to be a tool for any party to be used to perpetrate injustice against
> the other. The wish of the Gambian people is not to be a subject of any
> political thuggery.
>
> What Gambia needs is a leadership which does not overreact when problems of
> governance emerge. What Gambia needs is a leadership which can put
> conscience and national interest before personal and partisan interests.
> What Gambia needs is a leadership which respects the sovereignty of the
> people. What Gambia needs is a leadership which promotes a culture of
> tolerance to the point that one does not even fear losing political office.
>
> Now that the IEC has established a mechanism for consultation, we call on
> you, your government and your party to respect the forum and put all plans
> aside and register your queries for further discussion and action.
>
> The Gambian people have been mature to have engaged in all sorts of
> consultations to be able to get to where we are today. It will be a sign of
> great historical folly to go back to square one by promoting national
> discord. Those who call themselves leaders, but cannot utilise their
> intelligence to properly address the burning issues of the time until others
> come to show them how they should coexist would have considered themselves
> to be unfit to vie for political leadership in the 21st century.
>
> We hope those members of the Youth Action Group would realise that any
> action that makes people feel insecure will also ultimately lead to the
> ungovernability of a society. The best type of society is where none feels
> that one's security is safeguarded by making the other insecure. A society
> based on tolerance is the best safeguard for each other's personal
> securities.
>
> The time has come for all political parties to create a political
> environment which will make the people the supreme determinant or architect
> of the manner of government of this country. This can only be done by
> contributing to their enlightenment, their political maturity, their
> organisation so that no one on earth can subject them to tyranny of any sort
> against their will. That a people who are enlightened and organised can
> never be a victim of national discord and disintegration is a verdict of
> history and it is irrevocable.
>
> By a copy of this letter, we are also calling on all the Gambian people to
> refuse to be utilised by anyone for his or her own personal interest. Each
> Gambian should value himself or herself. Each Gambian should realise that
> power belongs to each of them; that it is this power which is combined and
> entrusted to a political leader; that the custodian of the political power
> of the people should utilise that power not to divide them but unify them;
> not to intimidate and oppress, but to enhance their freedom; that they, the
> people, must refuse to heed to the call of anyone who seeks to divide them
> and transform them into cannon-fodders.
>
> We hope that maximum effort will be made by you, in particular, the
> leadership of the opposition parties and the people, at large, to revisit
> the political situation in The Gambia and take the course of action that
> would prevent the country from disintegrating and guarantee the people their
> right to determine who manages their affairs to promote their prosperity,
> liberty and general welfare.
>
>
>
>
> ............................................
> Halifa Sallah
> For: The Central Committee.
>
>
>
> Cc: Chairman, Independent Electoral Commission
> Secretary General, Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction
> Secretary General, National Reconciliation Party
> Secretary General, United Democratic Party
> Press
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
> Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------
Mansour Ceesay
[log in to unmask]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
