By Sait Matty Jaw
I know many young people are indecisive or decided not to vote in this upcoming election. Some will tell you that all the candidates are the same. “They will lie to you, you vote for them and that is it. They will make promises and never fulfil those promises”. Some will argue that is even better to sit at home and not vote at all. My response to that has always been that you will maintain a system or help a system that you totally disagree with. I am not sure if this is working anymore. I think I need a new response.
See, there are more young people in UK and the US today. Most refused to vote or felt exactly the same way most of you are feeling right now. What did they get in return? Brexit and Donald Trump right in their faces. So, who should be blamed?, The people that voted or those that had the power to change things and refused to take action? We cannot afford to miss this opportunity for The Gambia our homeland. Not voting or voting otherwise, you are risking another five years of Jammeh and of economic and political regression. We cannot afford that.
I want to tell you exactly why you should vote. You might not see it now. But deep down inside you, you know exactly it is what you want to hear. You know it is the fact and nothing but the fact. Many of us, will want to vote for a candidate because he or she is good looking, throws the biggest campaign with hired musician and drummers to sing songs about them, to glorify their names and personality, to mystify them as saviors and people that know more than the hundreds that dance in their names. Sadly, this is what comes to be of our politics. You see it all the time everywhere. For me these are all distractions.
If any party or politician promises you jobs, security, free health care and free tertiary education or even economic super power they are lying to you. They are distracting you from the real reason why you should vote. They see you as cheap, hungry and desperate. The real and only reason why you should vote in this election is to uphold the rule of law and the only body or organization campaigning on that platform is the COALITION. That is where we are right now and it is the most fundamental issue that we should look into. Job, security, free this or free that are all tied to your right as a citizen and how the state creates that environment for you to pursue those rights. We are denied this basic right by the current regime and I don’t see such with GDC leadership.
What is the rule of law? Simply put, “no one is above the law” or “the law rules” and not individuals. In our case right now, it is an individual that rules even though the law exists. Our laws meant to promote our rights as citizens are meaningless as the current regime rule base on the emotions of the president. The absence of rule of law threatens everything and everyone. Our jobs, our personal freedom, our right to complain and to get justice, our survival in terms of service provision and jobs are all threatened by the absence of the rule of law. People are arrested and detained beyond the 72 hours stipulated by the law. People are fired from their jobs and denied retirement benefits no matter how long they have served the government. People are abducted; some killed others you never heard of again. Think about this, your work for the government all your life and one year before your retirement you got fired for no reason, you directly lose all your retirement earnings and what do you do from then, start fresh?
This election we must vote not because a particular party or group organizes the best campaign with drums and dance, but we must vote to have a system in place. A system built on rule of law. Where everyone is treated equally before the law, where our jobs and livelihood are protected, where our freedoms to complain and to seek remedy without been sanction is respected. A system that put aside ethno-linguistic and religious differences aside and threat everyone the same. No one is a minority in The Gambia. We are all equal. We indeed need a system or a group that portray that image. And for me this is the reason why the coalition came into existence. This should be our reason to vote.
Both the GDC and APRC are birds of the same feather. You may talk of Kandeh attracting crowds and all that, but it is done on a divisive line. GDC is not a peaceful party. A peaceful party is one that does not discriminate or attack other opposition parties. Our concern in this election is Jammeh and his APRC party. We must focus on that. Both APRC and GDC are making promises of jobs, and making Gambia economic super power or free education etc. They are not talking about the rule of law and democratic governance. Why? It would not serve their economic and political interest.
For Kandeh, everything is about him. My party this and my party that. He funds the party definitely he owns the party. It is the same with Jammeh and APRC. So, who will stand up to them within the party and say we should not do this or say that? If you do so, you risk been kicked out of the party or even arrested in the case of Jammeh. We have seen this time and time again. Kandeh is a great example.
On the other hand, Adama Barrow cannot just wake up and decide for the coalition. His participation in the election is sanctioned by all the parties that signed the MOU. In fact, the agreement within the MOU is that he leads for three years, create the needed environment for all political parties, and restore the rule of law and democratic governance for all. For me this is exactly what the country needs right now. We have come a long way and each year we risk under Jammeh or possibly clueless GDC, we might be risking our lives and properties for no good reason.
Young people of Gambia, the next five years and beyond should be your concern. Forget about the t-shirts, the drums and music, the crowds and think about your future. Think about your sustainable jobs, think about the good quality education, but most importantly, think about a free country. A country were you are treated equally not because of your religion, ethnicity, but because you are a Gambian.
Let us go out and Vote and not only vote but vote for change.
As Yahya Jammeh wilts and wobbles under pressure, he begins reformulating the same old messages from his baskets of deplorable
By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)
Yahya Jammeh have been very busy reformulating his old messages of intolerance on the campaign trail— as he wilts and wobble under pressure, seeing the grass-roots pressure mounted by the opposition. Simply said, it seems a sure bet that his messages will be read by generations as one of his low-water marks in history by any scholarly measure. These historical events are captured in multiple episodes of his own docudrama, shrugging off each and every boastful statement made from 1994 — used as a pretense to justify his illegal coupe d’état. It remains to be seen how Yahya Jammeh could win the greatest political challenge of his regime— fairly.
Of course, for his own interests, he commingled and chased all the deplorable ideological regressive darkness of some generations past history back into 21st century— aggressively implemented them as policies to suppressed Gambian and use them to drive the basic incoherence of his world-view. This ideology is also the deadly jolting poison— he used to tear up Gambia to remain in the doldrums, established a solid footing of leviathan dictatorship and build a wall against democracy. In light of that belief, he efficiently dismantle our values, threw out the best of it, replaced them with a disturbed culture— which now stands to be greatest threat of our time and indeed the greatest barriers to Gambia’s prosperity.
Not surprisingly, his speeches highlighted throughout the campaign issues signals— somewhere between a mixed confused mind and scary prospects for the future of the country. After all, his basic policy instincts tend to be wrong — because it undermines any attempt to restore upward mobility for our country and its citizens. In the midst of this, By themselves, there’s no chance that those steps will restore prosperity to so many Gambians. Among several incendiary takeaways from, many can kiss goodbye to the Gambian dream— if he cheats his way back to state house. In other words, he spent over 22 year stirring up divisions, cheering up resentments, rewarding torture of women, with his propensity to be an authoritarian and expanding his authority far beyond the restrictions established by law or even our moral values.
Suffice it to say, It took nearly two decades for Yahya Jammeh’s vision of dictatorship to become visible to all Gambians those who cared to look today. It is not fair that knowing full well that Gambians do not want his leadership anymore, he is busy lighting a fire of discourse among our citizens.
Indeed, he always uses his chameleon character to start a controversy in a small way, then mushroom it around communities and later grows it out of control across the country. Having said that, his pathetic foreign policy agenda— prove remotely to be effective because no one could understand it and it is down-the-line not too far-fetched for hate, jealousy and ill will. In addition, this is why everything has to do— be in secret, holding meetings outside State House headquarters in order to avoid leaving a record of their conversations.
Yet, they only time he looks down on his nose to see Gambians as human being is — when he beings his burdened call for societal generosity. That’s the same footsteps— the first lady follows too. They will embezzle all the foreign aid provided to Gambians and then leave us only with bread crumbs to work with. The duo couple have only make matters worse for themselves— by blatantly disregarding the will of their own citizens to gracefully compete their exit from Gambia.
Additionally, many other questions remain: There is no common ground in his policies— because they do not embrace things like — including Gambia in world communities; brainstorming on what resources to expend; what problems to prioritize; how to make good use of technological skills to expand our education system; relaxing regulation that causes unexpected setback of our nation and reducing taxation of small enterprise of struggling vendors in the market places. These populist economic interests had been ignored by the regime.
But beyond that, they have nothing to offer except making Gambians run away from their own shadows. The regime has been more effective: Chasing around children to sacrifice for Yaya Jammeh, ongoing radicalization of our citizens, fear-mongering, raiding workplaces to jail Gambians who fell out with dictator, exiling Gambians and slowing down internet speed to deny access to reality of Gambia under dictatorship.
The strangest irony of all this is— Yahya Jammeh continuous slander of an entire culture. This issue has reached a disproportionate level of critical mass that should be called out by our own community and religious leaders. Why are the religious elders of the communities and imams, silent on an issue that affects us more directly than any other? We are all aware by now that the regime is deriding minorities with private tribal chauvinism messages, pandering to various minority groups for ethnic solidarity and prodding Cassamance residence to various locations throughout the country to vote in lockstep with them. The logic of such a formula should not be allowed to be used— to divide us and peach us against each other to give them the edge in this election.
These are the same old messages they reformulate every election cycle. It’s a shame that old grown up folks, have nothing to do except to flocked the Team Gambia Coalition with misleading statements— because their messages isn’t warming up the Gambians after all. These people are protectionist of the status quo for their own shellfish interest. We have been handed a rare opportunity to make changes we all believe in and end this nightmare dictatorship regime. Now it’s up to the rest of us to stand up for our country.
But thus far, the Gambians have learned a bitter lesson of dictatorship and the deplorable moments in 2016. Our country has been transformed by the enormity of the issues of dark events that happened in 2016. At this moment, Gambia is in turmoil. Yahya Jammeh has shattered the aspirational myth of being among the best our nation has to offer in—character, integrity, intellect, courage and honest individual. Additionally, he is indeed unfit to serve as president of the Gambia again and ever. Therefore, we must honestly ask ourselves—where does Gambian go from here if Yahya Jammeh stays after December 2nd?
Let’s lift our gaze to zoom in our place in a future that have Yahya Jammeh be in and think about what anyone can achieve by empowering this regime? Huh! That’s what I thought. I suggest that each of us, regardless of whom we are— in terms of status, understand the setback that it will meant for Gambia and our dreams. I hope and pray, for our nation’s sake, that every Gambian apologetically put their vote in the grey ballot box— that belongs to ADAM BARROW—for Team Gambia Coalition.
Lastly, another non- entity in Bakau— by the name of Rambo— a blow hard politician, have the temerity to put forward the simple premise that anyone who votes for the opposition— will be arrested after the elections. By way of background— be it his education or moral standing, this men isn’t to be envied or even worth trusting their fate with. The man is just protecting his immediate economic “battle” victory he just won few moons ago.
Such statements are what allowed him to jump to the head of the line past to his position. To say the least, his appointment to the regime mouth piece is highly contentious. He in effect, validated the policy position of Yahya Jammeh’s rule of fear and keeping alive the castigation of elderly weak women —they love to abuse. Gambians! Rambo’s message is just a fantasy as part of an effort to stave off potential catastrophic embarrassment of APRC shellacking come December 1st.
The IEC’s to do their job for a least once. The question we have to ask is —who wants to vote for the regime that sees only the opposition (our own families) as derision and unpatriotic. It is my heartfelt hope that our country will wake up in time— to recognize that this regime cannot remain in place for Gambia to prosper in any way or form. No other consideration should drive Gambians to the polls except for change.
We are witnessing the implosion of the regime in real time— marching towards the dustbins of history. During these unprecedented political times, Injustice toward one particular group or community is an injustice toward all. I applaud the Gambians who will do right thing for our country’s shake. We could all use a break on December 2nd from an excruciatingly long journey of dictatorship.