As an international media blitz focused world attention on the tragedy of a million Rwandan refugees in camps in Zaire over the weekend of July 22, Gambians at home and abroad were captivated by the unfolding of the most profound event in our national affairs: the declaration of a military takeover on July 23. Even for those Gambians who foresaw military movement in our public life, the crisis that started on Friday and culminated in a takeover on Saturday may have come as a surprise.
As the sketchy details of conditions in The Gambia were taking shape in the international media, some of us took informal polls of Gambians in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, eliciting their views on the overthrow of the fraudulent “democratic” tyranny of Dawda Jawara. I even made a few calls to The Gambia for the domestic perspective. The verdict was unanimous to a person: we are happy and grateful, but ??? Undoubtedly, you are the men of the hour, symbols of heroism to at least 90 per cent of all Gambians. The question mark is over the future. And the future is what we must address because therein lies our collective destiny.
The near-unanimous but qualified support is understandable in light of the track record of military regimes in other African countries. We would hate to see our parents, families, friends, and any Gambian, for that matter, flee the country in fear for their lives. Death would be preferable to countenancing such a spectacle. To solidify your position and keep the country together, you must avoid the adoption of the modus operandi of military governments in Africa.
More fundamentally, you cannot afford to create martyrs, and vindictiveness must not be a part of the new order of national affairs. Memories last forever, and if bitter, they become a factor in the calculus of daily events, constantly escalating the potential for tragedy. Ordinary Gambians, especially the unlettered bulk whose support for Jawara’s government has no rational basis, must be left alone. Only those public servants whose conduct clearly triggers the response of our laws may be fair targets for investigation.
Dawda Jawara was a captain who lost his bearings, and the ship of state he disastrously piloted was destined to run aground. He finally arrived at the ultimate destiny of his nepotic, corrupt, and incompetent administration: the trash heap of history. Dawda Jawara’s absolute control over the reins of power made him more feared than respected. You have the right to expect loyalty from your closest advisers, but they must not be fearful of endorsing all your policies regardless of their merits. You must be open-minded and receptive to ideas different from yours.
We are not nostalgic for an era and a government that visited executive vandalism on the Gambian people. But we also refuse to be sentimental and complacent about the present. Your place in history will entirely depend on how you utilise the awe-inspiring instruments of government at your disposal. After a fraud lasting three decades, the populace may be prone to the syndrome of unrealistic expectations that are almost always integral to forceful governmental transitions in Africa. Your task is to communicate in practical but realistic terms, and to refuse to feed the frenzy of utopian sentimentalism during your honeymoon with the Gambian people. However, this does not suggest that you avoid engaging in the practical challenge of nation-building.
And nation-building necessarily involves national reconciliation. In light of how you ascend to power, specific constituencies may feel alienated. Your task is to reassure everyone and not make anyone desperate through fear for personal safety. And even if private property is seized pending further investigation, I strongly recommend that a final determination of forfeiture be adjudicated before the tribunals of justice in The Gambia. In a similar vein, and notwithstanding the suspension of the Constitution, the Cabinet members of the overthrown government must be accorded due process commensurate with the basic tenets of justice.
The families of those former cabinet members, whether among the Jawara asylum party in Senegal or other parts of the world, must not be used as bargaining chips. They are not even vicariously responsible for the untoward conduct of their spouses and/or parents. Although our first successful national encounter with a forceful displacement of government, the experience of other countries should provide cogent instruction in our attempt to fashion a strategy of national unity in the aftermath of such an earthshaking event. The overthrow of the Jawara government was bloodless, and we challenge you to keep your administration bloodless. This means no hostages, no summary trials, and absolutely no executions.
Lieutenant Jammeh’s interview with the BBC and comments regarding the plight of the “little man on the street,” coupled with his statement concerning civilian involvement in the Council, are encouraging.
As you make appointments to the cabinet and other policy-level positions, you are well advised to draw from a talent pool untainted with the cancerous corruption and indiscipline of the Jawara government. This should effectively exclude all past and recent high-level officials in that administration who were involuntarily removed from office. Indeed, no cabinet member as of July 22 should be included in your government, although reports reaching us indicate otherwise. From a national security perspective, such an appointment may be unwise considering the person’s key role in the Jawara government for over a decade.
A watcher of the Gambian political scene said that we should approach events in our homeland with “cautious optimism”. For now, we salute you, albeit cautiously, for ending a three-decade fraud that emasculated The Gambia. Everyone I contacted simultaneously endorsed the overthrow of the Jawara government and expressed uneasiness with a permanent military regime in The Gambia. I strongly recommend that you seriously consider and communicate to the Gambian people a timetable for a return to civilian rule in the country.
Excuse my concern. My civic duties dictate that I express my thoughts on the condition of first impressions in my country. The stakes are too high, and sink or swim, we are in it together as Gambians. For 17 years, I have followed every major political event in Africa and the world. I have seen governments, civilian and military, engineer and nurture atrocities of mind-boggling dimensions on the people whose welfare they are supposed to protect.
I have also seen the silent killers, the governmental equivalents of high blood pressure, arrest the hopes and drown the dreams of generations of their youthful citizens. Jawara belongs in the latter. Governmental crime has different formulations, but after the enervating trials of the Jawara fraud, Gambians may have no patience left to tolerate an assault on their material and spiritual heritage.
May God bless The Gambia and Gambians in this hour of trial!
Lamin J Darbo
The University of Tennessee College of Law
3700 Sutherland Avenue, Knoxville,
TN 379191 USA.
- Advertisement -
Join The Conversation
