By Madi Jobarteh
Every dictator has his primary political instrument: The party and its supporters. Through the party, they capture the state: The executive and legislature to use, rather exploit and subvert the legal and democratic process to give power to themselves while taking away the rights of the citizens.
Thanks to their control of the legislature, the dictator is never held accountable but rides roughshod over the Constitution while ravaging democratic norms and violating human rights.
By definition, dictatorship is the politicisation, personalisation, and weaponisation of the state and all its institutions and laws to entrench a ruler and a regime in power perpetually. They create a legal and institutional framework to secure and strengthen such a dispensation as the state and party are fused into one to oppress and exploit.
Therefore, those who actively enabled dictatorship whether it is a political party, state institution, public official or supporter must be held to account to ensure justice, prevent recurrence and end impunity.
Since 2017, the APRC has not been held to account for its enabling of dictatorship. The National Assembly has not been held to account for its enabling of dictatorship. No state institution has been held to account until today.
Not only is the dictator Yahya Jammeh not being held to account, but he has also not even expressed the faintest sense of remorse, seek forgiveness or withdraw from his dictatorial ideas and attitude.
Similarly, APRC as a party and its officials have never expressed remorse nor sought forgiveness from Gambians or condemn the dictator. Its offshoot, the so-called ‘No-To-Alliance’ equally failed to apologise, seek forgiveness or express remorse for the corruption and brutality of the dictatorship.
Instead, this so-called alliance continuously, fearlessly and shamelessly endorse a brutal regime and tyrant and vehemently deny and defend its atrocious crimes and corruption.
Therefore, it is unconscionable for anyone to claim democracy and human rights as the basis for the involvement and participation of the dictator and his enablers in our democratic process.
Democracy and human rights are founded on and guided by the principles of dignity, equality, justice and accountability as a start.
Hence those who trample upon these principles must first be held to account before allowing their involvement and participation in any process or society. Failure to hold them to account sends a direct and devastating blow to democracy and human rights that they can be blatantly damaged without accountability.
How can a regime summarily execute dozens of soldiers when it can put them through due process? How can a regime shoot down dozens of students for merely protesting? How can a regime assassinate or disappear a journalist, a farmer, a politician or any citizen for merely expressing dissenting opinion? Why should a regime burn down media houses, cause citizens to flee their country, and confiscate private property while pillaging public resources for the selfish gain of a dictator?
Those who aided and abetted such a system cannot be defended first without first being held to account. In holding them to account, their rights must be protected but they must be held accountable whether they are a party, institution, official or citizen.
In the aftermath of authoritarian rule, many countries have confronted the question of whether to ban former ruling parties or movements associated with repression, with outcomes shaped by legal philosophy and political context. This is why ‘Never Again’ has become the universal slogan of transitional justice following the fall of every authoritarian regime.
In post-war Germany, the Nazi Party was decisively outlawed while Italy similarly prohibited the National Fascist Party after the fall of Mussolini. In Iraq, the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party of Saddam Hussein was banned after its fall in 2003. In 2011, after the fall of tyrant Ben Bella in Tunisia, his Democratic Constitutional Rally was banned. Egypt also banned the National Democratic Party of Hosni Mubarak when he fell at the height of the Arab Spring. In South Africa, the apartheid-ruling party, the National Party did not even wait to be banned but quietly dissolved itself.
Such examples are spread all over the world except in The Gambia where the party of the tyrant was not only revived but also allowed to split into two vibrant entities! This is because the new government under Barrow offered them a lifeline while other parties continue to pick and choose from former enablers!
This kind of approach is not going to help The Gambia. Rather, it is normalising dictatorial tendencies, human rights violations and undermining accountability hence encouraging impunity. It is precisely because of this attitude that ten years after such a brutal dictatorship we continue to experience dictatorial tendencies and malpractices every now and again.
When we said ‘Never Again’ in 2017, it was precisely to say that autocratic rule, ideas, structures, and enablers will not come back. Barrow himself said it before forming his first cabinet that he will not appoint anyone from the dictator’s cabinet! Yet…here we are with enablers saturating public institutions!
