In The Gambia, there is a lack of many things but we have a surfeit of Doubting Thomases, doomsayers and naysayers. Since people feel they own the revolution that ushered in the so-called New Gambia, they naturally feel their voices must be heard on pretty much everything that is happening in the country. Perhaps rightly so.
With many Gambians feeling that things could be done better, every government policy, statement or comment by the president, his ministers and senior mandarins are subjected to spirited debate. The level of criticism of everything and everyone in this country has gone into overdrive.
In this sea of gloom and doom, it is refreshing to note that certain things are going on well. For example, power cuts – brownouts and blackouts – have become the exception to the rule. We encourage Managing Director Baba Fatajo and his staff at Nawec to strive and give us electricity and water 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year.
Another area that deserves a thumbs up is the manifestation of the independence of the judiciary under the Barrow administration. From the supreme to the lower courts, we have seen judicial decisions that have been handed down against people even in the highest positions of government.
What this clearly demonstrates is that the majority of the judges who sit and adjudicate do so without fear or favour, ill will or affection; that their decisions are purely based on their honest interpretation of the laws as they are laid down. This fact has been underlined by the court martial decision handed down yesterday, particularly in the case of the two generals, Ansumana Tamba and Umpa Mendy, who went with exiled president Yahya Jammeh to Equatorial Guinea.
This bodes well for new Gambia and we encourage the Honourable Chief Justice and the members of the bench to keep up their independence and interpret the law as it is. Bene factum!
