Dear Editor,
The much talked about alliance between APRC and NPP might seem disingenuous to many, particularly the victims of Babili’s despotic regime and also those vying for the presidency in the upcoming presidential election. The position of this write-up is that the alliance makes perfect sense politically, because in politics, “nothing is true and everything is permitted”.
Those who are averse to the alliance have as basis for their abhorrence, the connection between Babili’s alleged crimes against humanity and human rights, and the APRC’s apparent leaning on Barrow’s government to not take heed of the forthcoming report and recommendations therefrom of the TRRC. But every law abiding citizen knows that it would be an effort in futility to second-guess the consequences arising from the report and recommendations of the TRRC merely on the basis of the alliance between APRC and NPP. The law always has its ways!
Robert Greene propounds in his book “The 33 Strategies of War” that humans are conventional by nature. Once anyone succeeds at something with a specific strategy or method, it is quickly adopted by others and becomes hardened into principle”(pages 325-326). In effect it is logical to infer from Robert Greene’s postulates that what has proven successful in the past gains tremendous appeal to those who follow closely the lessons of history.
As a matter of fact, this particular appeal is a tendency in war, where generals often opt to adopt the strategy typical of a well-travelled road in the midst of uncertainty.
True to form, the NPP appears to be taking this well-travelled road of the last battle of 2016, which brought several political parties into a coalition that ousted Babili, in 2021 by forming an alliance with the APRC. Whether this alliance is a faux pas or not committed by Barrow has but three months or thereabouts to be proven.
The Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary defines ‘Alliance’ as an agreement between… or political parties to work together in order to achieve something that they all want. But do the NPP and the APRC want the same thing? Rhetorical as this question may sound, it is too early to say under the circumstances.
However, what is important to call to mind at this material time pertaining to the scheme of the alliance is the fallacy of composition theory, which assumes that just because every party (NPP and APRC singularly) composing a whole (the NPP/APRC alliance ) has a characteristic, the whole must have the same characteristic too. Nay! Gambians know for certain that just as there are unrelated ingredients with different characteristics that make up white and coloured Benachin dished alongside a single plate, so too are the contrasting characteristics embodying the NPP and APRC respectively.
While it is obvious that the NPP aims to score political points overwhelmingly by aligning with the APRC, and thereby tipping the winning scale in its favour to ultimately maintain Barrow’s occupancy of State House, that might not go to conclude that the NPP and APRC might have agreed to work together for the particular purpose alluded to in the foregoing; to fetter the report of the TRRC and the consequences therefrom. This would tantamount to a betrayal of the expectations of Gambians seeking reparation and closure. It would equally be the bane of the alliance, and most importantly a travesty of justice.
You do not catch a poacher by offering him rabbit stew!
Joseph Paul Jassey, Capt.(rtd)
Executive Consultant
West Atlantic Security Risk Assessment and Management Consultancy
Tranquil
