By Baba Galleh Jallow,
former Executive Secretary, TRRC
Two key objectives of Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) were to investigate and produce a true historical record of human rights violations under the Jammeh dictatorship and to accord justice and reparations to victims. Within this framework, the idea of victims was simple and clear enough: victims were those who directly suffered various forms of violation by the ousted government, and their families and relatives. There were communities of victims too, especially in areas where the dictator’s horrendous witch hunts were conducted – such as the communities of Jambur, Sintet, and Essau villages that were the epicentres of the cruel witch hunts, and the communities of Kerr Mot Ali, who suffered religious persecution, among others.
As the TRRC’s public hearings proceeded, there was a noticeable if subtle shift in people’s understanding of victimhood. The majority of Gambians who watched the hearings on TV and social media or listened to them on radio stations began to feel a sense of victimhood even if they or their loved ones never suffered any direct assault and violation by the state. The feelings of pain, of outrage, and horror at the unfolding narratives of state cruelty made almost everyone feel that direct and indirect victims were not alone in their victimhood. At a very fundamental level, all Gambians were victims of the evil effects of oppression and political impunity on society. The realisation emerged soon enough, and in no uncertain terms, that the Gambian nation itself and all who lived in it were victims, and all deserved some level of justice and repair. And with this realisation came a stronger resolve to prevent recurrence.
In the post-TRRC period therefore, the responsibility to help execute the non-repetition aspect of the Commission’s mandate fell on all Gambians. The state and those put in charge of the state bear a responsibility to prevent recurrence, captured in the Commission’s mantra of Never Again, and stated or implied in almost all TRRC recommendations. Individual victims and non-victims alike also bear some responsibility in preventing recurrence. Each citizen of the country carries their portion of the duty – big or small – to help ensure that the worst aspects of the Jammeh regime do not recur or creep back into our practice of politics and governance. This responsibility may only be sacrificed for personal conveniences at the cost of loss of personal dignity and moral integrity. No amount of denial or willful blindness can negate this reality. No amount of spinning is helpful in this regard, and nothing can stop the natural consequences of such mindless spinning. As we sow, so shall we reap? And no, this is not debatable either.
The 2016 Coalition of political actors that led to the fall of the Jammeh dictatorship represented a radical intervention in Gambian politics. So was the Gambia Has Decided Movement that spontaneously erupted to defy Jammeh and insist on his departure when he brazenly sought to annul the wishes and aspirations of the Gambian people after losing the December 2016 elections. These two radical interventions were not mere events, they were signs of the times, expressions of a spirit of freedom, declarations that Gambians were sick and tired of sit-tight presidents and all forms of human rights violations and abuses in their country. The revelations of the TRRC cemented and broadened this Gambian resolve to say no to any and all forms of abuse of power, and pointed to a near-existential imperative to never again sit back and watch any government or leader do as they wish with the lives and aspirations of the Gambian people and the collective destiny of this nation. Governments and leaders are elevated servants, not lords and masters of the people, or personal owners of the country who can do as they wish with the lives and destinies of their fellow citizens. The Jammeh tragedy is an instructive lesson in this regard.
When in this post-Jammeh era our political leaders are committing the same mistakes Jammeh committed, the same mistakes that blinded him to the reality of the Gambian situation and steeled him against doing right by himself and the Gambian people, the mistakes that caused him to inflict decades of needless pain and suffering on the Gambian people, and to cause severe damage to the Gambian nation – when this is happening again, the spirit and practice of radical intervention must assume the status of near-sacred national duty. It is not only our right to say no to bad political practices, it is our responsibility to do so in as respectful a manner as we can, and with all the vehemence of honest, unalloyed truth-speaking we can muster. When our collective destiny as a people and a nation is at stake, we must tell each other the honest truth, however hard, however inconvenient.
When President Barrow tells us – as he did recently – that the only reason he is being criticised is because he is president, he is right. If he remained a security guard or real estate agent or broker, he may still have been criticised, but only for the things he did or failed to do as a security guard or real estate agent. Obviously, he would never have been criticised for doing or failing to do things that only a president can do or fail to do. When Gambians say a loud and unequivocal no to President Barrow’s attempt at perpetuating himself in power by seeking a third term in office, they are motivated by more than personal considerations or petty jealousies and animosities against the person of the president or his government. Because we are a human society, there is no denying that personal and petty motivations may be present among segments of our population. But many who say no to Barrow’s mistakes are motivated by nothing but a sincere desire to safeguard this country’s hard-won freedoms and liberties and enhance our collective prospects for a better, brighter, and more peaceful future. The secriticisms are designed to keep alive the spirit of the radical interventions of Coalition 2016 and Gambia Has Decided, and to help prevent the horrors exposed by the TRRC and the damage done to the Gambian people and the nation itself from ever happening again.
There are other good reasons why Gambians may legitimately criticize President Barrow for making and breaking his promises to the Gambian people. At the very least, it is morally objectionable for a leader to promise an entire country that they would do XYZ only to turn around and break their promises simply because they can, and in the name of constitutional permissibility. The moral and very human imperative of fulfilling one’s promise to others is universally acknowledged, and is prominently ordained by all our religious traditions and our cultural norms and values. Every religion practiced in The Gambia frowns upon promise and fail. Every single culture in The Gambia frowns upon promise and fail. Should these profound religious and cultural prohibitions be negated and sacrificed in the name of constitutional permissibility, a legal artefact and construct of nationhood that could be twisted, turned, distorted and disparaged at will by powerful people in pursuit of their personal interests? Yes, President Barrow can appeal to constitutional provisions that give him the legal right to seek a third term. But President Barrow cannot appeal to any constitutional provision for the right to break his solemn promises to the Gambian people, or negate his duty to protect the Gambian people from the disastrous consequences of political entitlement and impunity that almost destroyed this country.
For his broken promise to serve three years and his broken promise to ensure that there are presidential term limits in this country, President Barrow deserves to be cautioned and criticized, to be told in no uncertain terms, that he is doing a grave disservice to this country and the people of this country, and that ultimately, he is putting his own personal desire to enjoy the perks of power above the long-term, peace, progress, stability and security of this country. He needs to be reminded, if gently but firmly, that only at his own peril and the potential peril of this country can he place his personal desires above the sacred norms and values of our revered cultural traditions, and most seriously, above the explicit divine exhortations of our religious traditions. These fundamental elements of our existence as a nation and a human society cannot be sacrificed at the altar of constitutional permissibility.
For these reasons, and in order to avoid the looming prospect of collective re-traumatisation caused by unchecked, self-perpetuating and abusive power, all Gambians who can, should practice a measured but resolute politics of radical intervention, to save The Gambia, and to save President Barrow from himself – from the all-too human proclivity to commit dangerous mistakes when blinded by the glamour and illusory permanence of power. The President must be told to avoid repeating the politically fatal and existentially devastating blunders of Yahya Jammeh, for his own sake and for the sake of the Gambian people.
#NeverAgain!
