Dear Editor,
President Barrow having a personal go at a private citizen, Madi Jobarteh, making outrageous accusations and threats demeaning the office of the president. President Barrow should have been removed from power after three years but here we go again, he is getting more and more unhinged!
I’m not a fan of Madi Jobarteh. Madi Jobarteh like most Gambians prominent in politics don’t seem to understand much about democratic politics practices and standards.
They are the authors of their own avoidable predicament – one minute they interpret democratic politics like kamikaze warriors and the next minute that’s what the constitution says depending which side of the political debate favours their personal preference. There’s no informed established democratic political standards narrative in The Gambia.
If Madi Jobarteh and people like him subscribe to the nonsense dogma in Gambian politics “that’s what the constitution says”, well they have to recognise that it’s the Jammeh dictatorship 1997 Constitution.
If The Gambia is going to be governed only according to what the 1997 Constitution says, what else do you want then?
The president appointed the speaker of the National Assembly – that’s what the constitution says against every tenet of the democratic political governance practices and standards.
I never heard Madi Jobarteh say anything about the willful abandonment of the coalition agreement. I don’t know if Madi Jobarteh is a lawyer or human rights democrat activist – if you want to govern the country, run for the presidency.
If you want a better democratic political governance standards and practices in The Gambia, present and interpret democratic politics and laws in line with the principles, practices, conventions and values of democracy.
Madi Jobarteh appears to portray the arrogance of telling the government what to do, that’s what constitution says – that’s a very simplistic understanding of the dynamics between the exercise of political power and how the democratic political governance system curbs the power of the government in practice to govern a democracy.
Well the president appointed the speaker of parliament, cabinet ministers and the chief justice of the supreme court – that’s what the constitution says!
Legalise homosexuality – stupid things like that and pretending to be a constitutional expert against all norms and values of democracy!
Anyone who wants The Gambia to become a rule of law democracy must advocate and champion the political cause for The Gambia be governed on the democratic principles, practices, values, conventions and standards.
If not, your stupid constitution will end up sending you to prison.
Abuse of political power from the government and stupid personal attacks from the president against private citizens will only be stopped when democratic politics in The Gambia is represented and interpreted in accordance with the democratic principles, practices, values and conventions.
If you think that you can invent your own democratic values and conventions in The Gambia, enjoy the fruits of your handiwork!
Madi Jobarteh peddles a certain version of democratic politics that’s governed by lawyers, judges and magistrates – the exact mainstream understanding of democratic politics practices and standards in The Gambia.
Even when the country voted for a government to effect certain specific change and reforms, they will say but the constitution says something different!
I’ve never seen anything so stupid than how democratic politics is narrated in The Gambia!
Look at the British democracy, the House of Commons is the seat of political power in The UK and not Number 10, Congress is the seat of political power in the USA. President Barrow is the seat of political power in The Gambia.
Then there’s something fundamentally wrong with how we represent and interpret democratic politics in The Gambia!
That’s what the constitution says about everything or nothing, well that’s not how a democracy is governed!
Change the erroneous democratic politics representation and interpretation narrative in The Gambia or else Barrow will take a life of its own – told you we will end up asking what have we done to ourselves!
Madi Jobarteh, you cannot interpret democratic politics like a lawyer sitting in a courtroom – you will send yourself to prison if you are not the judge on the day.
Democracy is a political governance system of principles, practices, values, conventions and standards.
Constitutional laws strengthened and further defined the spirit and letter of the democratic principles, practices, values, conventions and standards.
But to interpret democratic politics and laws in ways against the purposes of having the constitution in a democracy – that’s what the constitution says!
Anyone who says that’s what constitution says when it suits them have themselves to blame for being taken advantage of!
Let’s talk democracy and we shall be free from most of the political and economic development problems in The Gambia!
When you represent and interpret democratic politics in such awkward ways giving all strands of political power in the country to the president courtesy of some constitution apparently – power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!
Yusupha ‘Major’ Bojang
Brikama
