The APRC should be suspended by the IEC
Dear Editor,
We have to reform Gambian politics. If a party leader can sack the entire executive committee of a political party and hand pick his own new executive committee members for the party, that’s not a political party in a democracy.
I have said that we have to introduce a parliamentary democracy and publicly fund the political in power as well as the state sanctioned opposition parties if we want to democratise and standardise the political parties and our national politics in The Gambia.
Political parties are the building blocks of the democratic political governance system. And a democracy is composed of the government and the opposition.
We cannot have a better democracy in The Gambia unless we have better political parties in the country.
We are just kidding ourselves because in reality, political parties in The Gambia are owned by the party leaders. The main money contributors to the parties are in the second tier of political authority and influence in the party.
That’s a recipe for bad governance, corruption and the abuse of political power and authority in government. The political parties have to be democratic institutions and not beholden to private-unelected-vested- interest.
The APRC has elected NAMs in parliament – it’s like they don’t exist and these are the elected representatives of the APRC constituents in parliament!
What kind of democracy is Gambian democracy and what has the IEC got to say about the political psychodrama in the APRC and The Gambia.
The APRC should be suspended by the IEC. Given how ridiculous Gambian politics is, I know it’s like laughing at the idiocy of your political opponents but this is far more serious than that! This is a joke and it’s not funny.
There is no difference between the APRC led by Fabakary T Jatta and the faction in coalition with Ganu – how could any grown up human being be allowed to be treated like a child – go and join that party; don’t go and join that political party!
This is terrible for Gambian democracy.
It’s the elected representatives of the people who should be the leaders in the political parties and the national political leaders in the country.
Unelected politicians cannot be the leaders of the political parties and the national political leaders in a democracy.
Even in the USA, the opposition party is led by the elected leaders of the party in congress and the senate.
Democratic politics has values and conventions, standards and practices, processes and procedures. Democracy is a representative political governance system: political power is exercised in a democracy over the people derived from their political consent and mandate.
We have to get the basics in the right frame and build up on that for a better Gambian democracy and national development! It’s imperative that we reform Gambian politics.
Yusupha ‘Major’ Bojang
Brikama
Re: Deyda Hydara family foregoes TRRC payment
Dear Editor,
I am thanking the family of the late Deyda Hydara for their very thoughtful decision to forego receiving payment from the Truth, Reconciliation & Reparations Commission. The story really touched my heart and I want to put on record my admiration and gratitude to the Hydara family for the laudable gesture.
Indeed, what we all saw during the TRRC public hearings were terrible. Until then some people could not accept or comprehend that Gambians can mete out such atrocities – the murders, the rapes, the disappearances, the tortures, the illegal detentions et cetera, et cetera on their fellow Gambians. But these bad things happened in The Gambia and it was Gambian brother against Gambian brother! These were some of the darkest and ugliest periods in the history of modern Gambia.
All Gambians have the generosity of spirit of the Hydara family. We should all act like the Hydara family so that we can speed up the healing. Our country needs healing. We must ensure that we never return to the dark past of Jammeh’s tyranny.
I pray for the soul of Deyda Hydara and of all those who were brutally killed at the hands of Yahya Jammeh’s henchmen and henchwomen to be granted grace by Allah subhana wa ta’ala.
Ebrima Ceesay
Busumbala
West Coast Region
