It seems The Gambia is becoming a country where some people use unseemly language against each other for simply holding different political views. This is worrisome as it sometimes escalates to hatefulness.
Recently, one Mr Baboucarr Bahoum, a supporter of the ruling government used some unacceptable words against a whole community just because they voted differently his expectations.
This statement caused a lot of trouble as the people of that community raised their concerns over the issue. It so happened that one member of that community who happens to be a senior police officer wrote about the issue on social media.
As this is a serving police officer, this did not go down well with the police leadership and they promptly invited the officer for a discussion on the issue. Many observers saw that as intimidation, according to them the officer did not do anything wrong.
Others were of the view that the officer was meddling in political matters which is outside the remit of serving officers. Thus, the officer was crucified on the social media. There was a lot of noise over the incident.
Last week another person, this time a supporter of the UDP, the main opposition party in the country, launched a barrage of insults against people of Gunjur who happen to support the sitting government.
Again there have been calls for him to be invited by the police for questioning and calls for the leadership of the UDP to condemn this person’s insults publicly. It is unclear if either of the two calls will see the light of day.
However, what all this points to is the fact that the political leadership needs to educate their supporters that it is not in the interest of a party for its members to go round insulting anyone who doesn’t agree with them. They must exercise restraint and decorum at all times.
