Alpha Robinson,
I've just to returned to Birmingham, from London, and I saw your wonderful
piece captioned "Some Proposals for Gambia L".
Indeed, I found it quite inspiring and enlightening, and I hope it would get
a good response. Your points were well articulated and quite comprehensive
that I, for one, am finding it difficult to add anything of substance to
your piece.
Nonetheless, I'll take this opportunity and make a few comments. I'll be
brief.
First, Alpha, you couldn't have said it better when you suggested that it is
about time that we moved "beyond simply discussing issues to a new stage of
action; an action which will realistically transform the essence of our
concerns as reflected in our discussions from exchanges on the List to some
form of collective action."
I totally concur with you on this point, and I must say here that you have
also identified quite a number of the common ground areas that should, in
fact, bring us together - regardless of party affiliations, loyalties etc -
in an attempt to help build a better Gambia.
I know it would be difficult, given our differences in thoughts and beliefs,
but, in my view, what we need to do, through the L, is to try and become a
unified body, whose sole interest would be to see the advancement of our
country and the betterment of the lives of her people.
For example, let us, as a unified body, condemn, in the strongest terms,
anything that is against the national interest of the Gambian people, but
give our collective support to any action/venture that would benefit the
Gambian people.
For instance, if the government of the day takes any action deemed to be
inimical to the national interest of the Gambian people, we should condemn
it forthwith and, of course, in the strongest terms possible.
On the other hand, if the government of the day takes decisions/actions that
would, in our collective view, improve the living conditions of our people,
then that government needs to be applauded.
Equally, if the opposition parties are engaged, for example, in dirty
politics, we should, as a unified body, rebuke it, again without delay.
However, if we feel that the opposition parties were doing things that
needed to be praised, we should commend them.
As a unified body, our main goal, as it were, would be to see the
advancement of our country and the betterment of the lives of her people.
Let us support, as I already stated, any action deemed to be good for our
country and rebuff, without delay, and in the strongest terms, any
action/decision inimical to the national interest of the Gambian people.
We, meaning the unified Gambia L body envisaged, could act both as a
pressure group, crying foul whenever we see it; and as a support group,
giving our collective support, whenever we can, to any worthy cause - be it
in education, agriculture, sports or health.
The question now arises: How do we go about creating such a body? What we
need to do, in my view, is to form - through nomination or election - a
committee of, say, 10 people (men and women) out of the 600 members of
Gambia L.
Now, anytime there is something SERIOUSLY WRONG going on in our country -
whether perpetrated by the government, the opposition, the donor agencies or
even the press - and we believe that it needs our collective reaction, then
the role of the proposed committee comes into play.
The proposed Committee would then come to the L, and sound people's opinion
in terms of the collective action we should take to address a particular
problem/situation regarding our country.
For example, if an opposition leader is arrested by the Jammeh regime, and
we are convinced that such an arrest is unjustifiable, the proposed
committee would come to the List and ask list members what sort of action to
take to redress the situation.
If the majority feel that an open letter to Mr Jammeh, copied to the
International Community, would be appropriate, then the proposed committee
would draft an open letter, bring it to the L for discussion and, in that
case, amendments can be made to the draft letter if need be.
In any case, such an open letter will only be sent to the addressees if
approved by the majority.
Again, may God forbid, but if there was a disaster or a tragedy in the
country, this proposed committee would come back to the List and ask the
members about how we could collectively help with that particular
development.
In short, the proposed committee's main task would be to sound the opinion
of the members of Gambia L, on the sort of collection action to be taken
whenever the need arises.
However, as Alpha rightly pointed out, we should also recognise the fact
that there will always be some who would not like to associate themselves
with certain actions. So their decisions must be respected. The important
thing is that we have to make sure that whatever action we take is
supported/backed by the majority.
In my view, through our collection action, we can help promote and,
eventually, sustain good governance in the Gambia, for instance. And talking
about good governance, the proposed committee could, for example, on behalf
of Gambia L, urge the Jammeh regime to stop the harassment, arrest and
detention of its critics and opponents, solely for peacefully exercising
their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly.
Furthermore, even though the new Constitution was supposed to have
invalidated all the military decrees, there is evidence that at least, five
of these draconian Decrees are still retained by the Jammeh regime. These
are Decrees 45, 57, 70, 71, 89.
So the proposed Gambia L committee could again call on the government to
repeal these decrees which, no doubt, threaten freedom of expression and
association.
Decree 45, which established the National Intelligence Agency in June 1995,
and gave it sweeping powers, including the power to tap phones, faxes and
arrest suspects without producing an arrest warrant, is still in existence.
Decree 89, enacted in August 1996, also remains in place. The decree banned
the three political parties - NCP, PPP, GPP - from contesting the 1996
elections.
Decree 70, 71, issued in February 1996, to modify the Newspaper Act, is also
in existence. Both decrees impose a massive fine for any contravention of
the Newspaper Act.
Lastly, the Jammeh regime needs to be reminded of need to always enforce the
provision in the new Constitution which stipulates that "No one shall be
subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention".....
In my view, if the members of the L needed a wake up call, Alpha's posting
has certainly provided one. We now have the chance to come together as a
unified body and work towards the advancement of our country and the
betterment of the lives of her people.
Ebrima Ceesay,
Birmingham, UK.
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