By Essa Njie
Recent events, especially in relation to the actions of the police are manifestations that The Gambia is slowly but surely moving toward democratic backsliding.
In the first place, it is against democratic norms, standards, and values for citizens to seek the permission of the police in exercise of their fundamental human and constitutionally-guaranteed right of expressing dissatisfaction with their government. While the Public Order Act is a colonial law, it is being weaponised by the current administration to violate the rights of citizens through police brutality. The Gambia Police Force should not determine whether citizens should exercise their right to protest or not. They only need to be notified and their job is to provide security for Gambians to embark on protests. Even going by the same Public Order Act, which is a bad law in itself and contravenes the 1997 constitution, sections 5 and 6 require one to obtain permit when they are to hold a procession or use a Public Address (PA) System, respectively. Clearly, what young people did on Friday was to hold their placards at Pura’s office building without any PA system or procession. For the police to arrest, detain, and charge those young people, coupled with the state using its oppressive powers to send our young people to Mile 2 central prison is an affront to democracy and respect for human rights.
So, Gambians must be alerted that the country is slowly but surely backsliding into autocracy, under which their rights to freedom of expression and assembly can be trampled on with impunity. With the exception of killings and enforced disappearances, civil liberties continue to be eroded, which is a red flag that the countryis on a return to autocracy.
During the Cold War, countries that experienced democratic backsliding in Africa and Latin America did so through military coups. However, since the late 20th century, elected civilian governments, especially in Africa are responsible for democratic regression by muzzling the media, stifling the institutions of governance, and violating citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms. The weaponisation of the law through so-called legal restrictions to erode civil liberties such as freedom of speech, assembly, and association is exactly what is happening in The Gambia. Dictatorship is not an event but a process and must be averted once the signs are clear.
Security Sector Reform
At the back of all these issues is the sluggish SSR. A genuine and progressive SSR must instill professionalism and democratic values in security officers and subject them to civilian control, management, and accountability. It is unfortunate that the Jammeh playbook is being used by the current administration through weaponisation of the law and creating a security sector that owes absolute and unquestionable loyalty to the regime, with an interest in regime security instead of public security. So, what we have in The Gambia is a police force with limited understanding of policing in modern day democratic governance system. The state continues to recruit certain individuals into the police force with the least academic qualifications and use those individuals to brutalise citizens. And I think some of these unprofessional and poorly trained police officers enjoy their actions because that is what they know policing to be. They have no idea that using force to disperse gatherings should be both necessary and proportionate to an existing threat posed by such gatherings. It is therefore important for civil society organisations and democratic institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission, the National Council for Civic Education, among others, and citizens by extension, including human rights defenders and activists, as well as the international community to stop the state from weaponising the law and returning the country to autocratic rule.
Mai Fatty
It is unfortunate for politicians like Mai Fatty, who opposed Yahya Jammeh’s rule, partly because of his right violation records and weaponisation of the public order act can turn today to support the same law. Well, Gambians are so fortunate not to have one like Mai Fatty as president and I hope that never in our political history will Mai be president or hold any position of responsibility in government again. Equally, Mai’s record as one of the most inconsistent politicians in The Gambia speaks for itself. A one-time interior minister who assured victims of Jammeh atrocities that judicial justice to try people who committed the most heinous crimes and put them “behind bars for good” was important and cannot be forgotten is the same man who recently rejected the idea of a tribunal to prosecute Jammeh on the basis of financial cost. Well, the same Mai who, in 2020, called for the removal of Barrow’s government at the 2021 presidential polls because of its incompetence, lack of transparency, and polarisation tactics later turned to say that he would have supported Barrow in the said elections. Mai equally criticised Barrow’s infrastructural developments only to come and praise those developments. It is important to remind Mai that the public order act that he vilified Yahya Jammeh for is the same law that is being weaponised by the government he supports to trample on the civil liberties of citizens.
