The Inter Party Committee representing all political parties in the Gambia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for political tolerance; understanding and creating a level field for all players in the political sphere. This signing ceremony was witnessed by President Barrow, Chairman of the Independent Electoral (IEC) Commission Alhagie Mamor Njie and all registered political parties
The party of the former dictator the APRC was also part of the signing which is aimed to create a stable political environment for all political players in the new Gambia. President Barrow personally presided over the inter-party signing to assure everyone that this is not business as usual in the Gambia.
Readers may recalled that such an agreement was signed in 2011 which was mediated by Nigeria’s former President Obasanjo. However, after the signing ceremony the APRC headed by dictator Jammeh failed to honor the agreement. The signing was intended to create a more level playing field so political parties can freely access the national media, free he elections of any military or police interference or the involvement of civil servants in the campaigning for particular parties. The APRC was determined to operate under a one party system and as a result activities of all opposition parties were curtailed.
President Barrow and the coalition’s witness of the signing ceremony is a new day in Gambia’s political environment. A much needed atmosphere of political tolerance was in display. Many Gambians still doesn’t believe the new Gambia they they witnessing. However, it appears to be real that indeed a level playing political field is dawned in the Gambia. This is a much needed environment for Gambia to move forward from 22 years of dictatorship and brutality.
Report filed by MS Bah Gainako’s Banjul correspondent.
3 Comments
Thank you for your article to which I would like to respond. I am interested in the fact that the APRC still has a voice in the New Gambia. The Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction was founded by army officers who staged the 1994 coup. The party was eventually formed to bolster Jammeh in the 1996 elections. It is supported heavily by Jammeh’s Jola ethnic group, who form the greater part of APRC government officials. The party brought Jammeh to success in the 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2012 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
We now learn of the atrocities allegedly carried out under the rule of Jammeh and his powerful political support in the form of the APRC. We learn of the kleptocracy that Jammeh operated and his flight from the Gambia having emptied the coffers to assuage his greed. Bearing in mind the origins of the party and its support of Jammeh and presumably the NIA I find it inconceivable that it has any voice whatsoever in the new Gambia.
The new Gambia reflects a now global insistence on the revised concept of sovereignty which clearly focuses on the power of the people. The title alone of the APRC which sounds like some throw back to Orwell and 1984 is a sure give away. As an interested outsider I would urge the disbanding of this party with its militaristic coercive origins which have nothing to do with real polity. As I have said so often before remnants of this sort bring to mind the absurdity of retaining the Gestapo after the fall of Hitler.
Nero fiddles whilst Rome burns
John Sharp,
Just sharp in writing fables and fantasies but not in thinking. Do you have to categorize all the thousands of bonafide APRC supporters as complices of whatever went wrong in 22 years? If so, you are narrow minded and devoid of any democratic conscientiousness. Where do you find two wrongs making a right?
Those who disband political parties always make the most grotesque error in a political history. Ex-President Jawara disbanded MOJA-Gambia, President Jammeh annuled the participation of PPP in the 2001 elections(though he didn’t go further to disband the party), but hey, they all remarked that grim political error.
Disbanding the APRC, the most single consolidated opposition party ouside the ruling bitty “coalition” is suicidal, farfetched , irresponsible and undemocratic.
You must be outside the Gambia to confer the APRC strength on the Jolas alone. What a farce and silly analytic opinion. President Jammeh’s vanguard largely came from the Mandinkas who graced his tenure in office by every support he needed from them.
I think it’s time your Barrow government focuses attention on building a more conducive homeland for all to live in and stop the petty politicking