I am writing to take strong exception to Mr jeng’s charaterisation of the Gambian opposition. I have been affiliated with the opposition from the onset of the current regime and throughout I have only experienced selfless people across the spectrum of our society doing everything in their power to challenge a vicious tyrant. In the process they have lost lives and livelihoods to an extent that has apparently not dawned on Sulayman Jeng as he condescendingly dismisses their efforts as periodic and lacking commitment. Everything in his article tells me he is among those Gambians full of lamentations about how terrible everything is, but the furthest they are prepared to go is churning out the same thematic set of opinions time after time.
To say the opposition parties are only active in times of election is the persistent canard peddled by people who claim they reject the murderous ways of Yahya Jammeh but would not do anything beyond superfluous rhetoric because that requires only access to a keyboard. How would Mr Jeng know what political parties are doing at any given time when he is either unaffiliated or doesn’t bother out of civic responsibility to enquire what they are doing in at least the community he is from? How would Mr Jeng know if the UDP women’s wing visit communities in CRR and NBR or if the executive do a weekend activity with ward activists in Brikama? Does he know that the same UDP has scheduled two public events in Seerekeunda and Jarra in the coming days? The answer to all of the above questions is a categorical no and it is easy to discern why. He doesn’t know a thing about what UDP does at anytime but in his quest to look for boogeymen for the difficult national problem we face as a nation, his accusing finger is pointed at the very people who unlike him are actually trying to solve the problem. This is what I find intolerable.
It is one thing to say the opposition needs to constantly strive to improve on their efforts to bring about the ultimate success we all yearn for. But even that requires full and affirmative engagement by all citizens and not subcontracting the entire battle to a few and always avoiding responsibility of the kind that is material to the ones in the trenches. Mr Jeng was kind enough to acknowledge and be impressed by the efforts of Mr Sallah and Mr Jatta in foundations they run in their areas but he failed to mention anything he has done in the past or will do in the future to engage those two gentlemen on initiatives they have undertaken that he as an ordinary citizen appreciates and would like to see grow. Or better yet why can’t he commit to mobilizing like- minded citizens to replicate what Ms Sallah and Jatta are doing in other areas to amplify what he considers a valuable endeavor. All of this would require a commitment of the kind most people simply are unwilling to selflessly undertake. Instead they hue to the familiar terrain of looking for easy answers, offering platitudes in the place of real actions and incessantly looking for someone to blame including those who risk it all for the greater good.
The opposition in the Gambia in their entirety are unsung heroes who put up with discomfort in their own homes, risk all we cherish as fallable human beings, uphold our values in the face of criminality and repression. They have earned our respect if not our admiration and the only road to success for all of us determined to end the cruel regime of Jammeh is to partner with them in significant and meaningful ways to get the job done. If you don’t understand what the opposition is doing, call them in Gambia, call your family and friends and engage them. Do the hard work that must be done. Don’t spend energy looking for someone to blame and instead constantly look inward and ask if you are doing enough to end this terrible regime. That would make you the architect of the very outcome you are otherwise going to blame others for not accomplishing for you. Saddle up and fight with your fellow citizens until you bring a functional plural democracy. After that, we can all have the luxury of blaming each other fairly or unfairly as is the case in every other democracy.