It is FALSE and factually baseless for any leader to brand Gambian Diaspora dissidents as “warmongers”. For almost two decades Gambians in the Diaspora have organized every form of convention, invited political leaders, civil society groups and international partners to try to create an environment of dialogue for Gambian political parties to form a formidable political alliance to peacefully challenge Yahya Jammeh on his strangle hold on to power. On numerous occasions leaders like Halifa Sallah of PDOIS has refused to join such conferences on the pretext that he was either not communicated to through a bureaucratic process or simply was not consulted on the agenda of such conferences. In fact, the closest Gambian opposition political parties came to successfully challenging Yahya Jammeh and the APRC was through NADD which was a brainchild of Diaspora Gambians. NADD became the most formidable alliance not because of the individual parties or leaders but as a result of the alliance of all parties until they ran it to the ground by putting their personal political ambitions above national interest.
For over two decades Yahya Jammeh and the APRC has consistently wagged a brutal political oppressive war on Gambians by forcefully taking away their constitutional rights and freedom to political association and or right to freely participate in the nation’s political discourse. Opposition leaders have been arrested, humiliated and insulted at every level and yet they continue to ignore the reality of Jammeh’s brutality. When you question them on why they continue to scroll back into their shells anytime Jammeh barks at them, they refer you to newspaper publications or that they are too intellectually mature to respond to Jammeh’s venom. Treating Yahya Jammeh as an ordinary person spewing his hate against citizens when he is occupying the highest office on the land and using every national resources at the expense of the nation is at best political ineptness.
Every conscious Gambian and close observers of Gambian political discourse in the last two decades knows that Yahya Jammeh is the one wagging war against Gambians. He is the one who is using the office of the President and entire state Machinery to deny citizens constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of expression, association and due process of the law. Since he came to power he has muscled the press; neutralized every independent government entity, civil society, divide and isolate the security apparatus all so he can stay in power as long as he wants. A president who controls state power and deny citizens their basic rights to freedom and dignity is the one wagging war against innocent citizens. A president who holds everyone accountable but who is not accountable to any institution or to citizens is the true “Warmonger”. In any decent society he who steals from the public coffers, deny citizens their basic human freedom is the oppressor and the true warmonger against dissent.
How can any politically conscious citizen see what is happening to hundreds if not thousands of Gambians in courts daily, in jails for months without due process ignore that reality and call the people calling for an end to that brutality “warmongers”. Who is wagging a war on Ousainou Darboe; Solo Sandeng, Nogoi Njie and several others for peacefully exercising their constitutional rights to demonstrate and demand electoral reform, The Gambian Diaspora or Yahya Jammeh and his security thugs? Under whose authority were 14 students massacred in broad day light without accountability? What war can you impose on citizens more than the killings of their most precious assets – school children? Who has shown total disregard to Gambians’ right to due process, liberty and dignity regardless of crimes committed, Yahya Jammeh or the Gambian Diaspora? Who allegedly ordered the shooting to dead of Deyda Hydara and the disappearance of Chief Ebrima Manneh, Kaniba Kanyi and several other Gambians?
Any political leader who pledged to lead a nation but willfully ignores the gross human rights violations in front of the whole world resort; to blaming citizens for resisting decades of oppression; that person must either be politically disconnected with reality or must begin to look for a new profession… Gambian political leaders can no longer ignore the reality on the ground in the Gambia. You cannot deny or massage the alleged rape and torture of women who were produced in court and degraded in front of the whole country. You can no longer convince any sound minded Gambian that quoting the constitution and writing to a President who has never acknowledged or respected the existence of political opposition in Gambia during national crisis is a wise and politically mature strategy.
This is a defining moment for the Gambian people and opposition pluralism. You either show leadership or forever render yourselves irrelevant to the Gambian people. Branding peaceful opposition protest demanding electoral reform as a form of “political adventurism” simply lacks any historical facts. Protest is the oldest form of democratic resistance in the history of democratic governance. The civil rights movement in the United States was fought and won through peaceful protest. Apartheid in South Africa was won through civil resistance and open protest against white minority domination. “Power only yields to superior power” if I may quote Halifa Sallah himself. How then can you say the people exercising their constitutional rights to peacefully demand electoral reform are being manipulated and used as weapons by Gambian Diaspora?. This statement is at best disingenuous and at worst spell political doom for an aspiring leader. There is no two way street to fighting for political freedom in Gambia. Gambian citizens on the ground or abroad either must stand up and fight against their oppressors or risk watching our nation systematically destroy.. As JFK said “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable” and I must add MLK’s quote “True peace is not the absent of tension but the present of justice”… so in essence the true “warmonger” is President Jammeh and his oppressive machine. Gambians are only out to defend their constitutional rights…
By Demba Baldeh Gainako Associate Editor
1 Comment
I kept saying that Halifa Sallah and the PDOIS are businessmen just like Yaya Jammeh. They runs schools, transport, real estate and do not want to pay taxes and hide behind politics and NGOs.
Halifa Sallah knows why Yaya Jammeh enacted the electoral law of declarations of political parties funds.
Halifa is banking on Jammeh to hand him the presidency on a silver platter. Remember Jammeh’s declerations on his handing over power.
Halifa is in competition with Muhamed Jammeh, helas he will be too old by the time Jammeh wishes to hand over power.
Halifa does not see the FIRE coming to burn his house, he is a dreamer who prefers Jammeh than Darboe or any other leader. Well he will end his dreams with the demise of Jammeh and the revolution will sweep his dreams of being a president.
Deyda Haidara