By: Madi Jobarteh
Introduction
Today 24 April 2016 marks the 46th independence anniversary of the Republic of the Gambia. The start of independence was marked by a ceremony on that day in the capital then called Bathurst when the British-born Gambian Chief Justice Sir Philip Bridges sworn in Dawda Jawara as the first president of the Gambia as per Section 32 of the 1970 constitution, and following the republican referendum held two days earlier on 22 April.
Forty six years after independence, the Gambia is yet to become an independent country because the Gambian person is yet to become a sovereign citizen. This is a malaise that was created by our independence leaders and intellectuals that continues to be perpetuated through the years until today 24 April 2016. After the defeat of formal colonialism which was introduced all over the Gambia by 1902, the new independent state that emerged on 24 April 1970 and its officials failed to politically educate the Gambian citizen to realise that indeed independence means the nation is one unified entity in which the owners of the voice, power and resources of the new nation are the people themselves. Rather since independence, the rulers in the first and second republics protected state sovereignty, but weakened and hijacked citizenship sovereignty and national independence. This is the crux of our malaise as a nation.
What is Sovereignty?
Chapter 1 Section 1 of the 1970 Constitution stated that the Gambia is a sovereign republic. This constitution went further to identify fundamental rights and freedoms, thus manifesting citizenship sovereignty under Chapter 3 as belonging to Gambian citizens that must be protected by the state. These rights include the right to life, liberty and security of the person, speech, association, assembly, privacy, and property among others. These are entrenched clauses that can only be changed by a referendum because these rights are sovereign rights establishing our self determination as a people.
In the 1997 Constitution, not only did Section 1 states that the Gambia is a sovereign secular republic as an entrenched clause changeable by only a referendum, but also Section 2 went further to unequivocally stipulate that the sovereignty of the Gambia resides in the people of the Gambia and that the state derives its legitimacy from the people and on whose behalf it performs it functions. Furthermore, Chapter 4 identified a set of fundamental rights and freedoms in entrenched clauses for which it categorically places the primary obligation for their protection and fulfilment on the State in Section 17. Again these fundamental rights and freedoms are the basis of our sovereignty. It is these rights that colonialism seized and damaged with impunity. Thus with independence, it is these same rights which were rescued and restored to us as a sovereign people.
The essence of sovereignty therefore is that people who are sovereign determine their destiny by being their own law and policy makers in all aspects of their lives. It means power and voice of the nation resides in the people who are the independent owners of the wealth of the country. Sovereignty means the State is an instrument of the people charged with the responsibility to manage the affairs and resources of the people for the benefit of the people. The State is fundamentally tasked with only two functions in a sovereign republic which are; first, to respect and protect the fundamental rights of the people as specified in the constitution and other laws as sovereign rights. Secondly, to fulfil the needs of the people as emanating from those rights which are now claims that citizens can make on the state. It is in the fulfilment of these sovereign rights and needs that citizens enjoy public goods and services hence development in the form of affordable, accessible and quality healthcare, education, good roads, water and electricity supply and protection of personal liberty and exercise of personal freedoms among others.
Thus in Chapter 4 of the 1997 constitution, Gambians have a list of sovereign rights such as right to life, liberty, education, political participation and association and peaceful demonstration among others. The role and responsibility of the state is to establish the necessary institutions and employ competent citizens to utilize our national or sovereign wealth which comes from our taxes, loans and grants to fulfil the needs of our people as their rightful claims by law. In this case therefore, the state is nothing other than a servant of the people because the state emerged from the will of the people and charged with the responsibility of fulfilling the will of the people. Thus in a sovereign democracy, the State cannot be more powerful than the people, or citizens become afraid of the government or the state. Rather it is the state that is afraid of the people because the people are the owners and masters of the State and all its agencies and officers.
Our Malaise
The failure of the Gambia since independence, and therefrom the poor human development and limited civil liberties of Gambians emanates from our failure as citizens and as well as officers of the state to realise the value and purpose of sovereignty and act on it accordingly. For this reason, instead of the governments in both the first and second republics protect our fundamental rights and needs as entrenched in both the 1970 and 1997 constitutions, these governments have served to mainly trample on these rights and abandon these needs. This situation became more aggravated by the masses, who, by lacking in political consciousness and republican values as sovereign citizens only served to rather help and strengthen the irresponsibility and violations of the state. There is no gainsaying that the average Gambian public officer including security officers considers himself and herself as not a servant but a master of the people who is beyond reproach and scrutiny by the people, when they perform their duties such as delivery of goods and services.
Public servants act as if they are first and foremost doing a favour to the people. They hold that these public goods and services are a charity for which the people must be grateful to them. These public officers do not know or just ignore the fact that they are merely performing their obligation according to law to protect the rights and fulfil the needs of the people.
Conversely, our people, because of their limited sense of sovereignty, generally also perceive the State and its institutions and officers as more powerful masters. The product of this malaise is therefore a culture of impunity in which state institutions and officials not only fail to fulfil their responsibilities to the people, but continuously violate citizens’ rights with impunity, while the people even defend and support them in this tragedy. To further fester this malaise, both the state and the masses have infused misconceived Islamic beliefs and oppressive and exploitative socio-cultural ideas to perpetuate the disempowerment of the masses and the abuse of the state.
This state of abnormality consequently made the people lack the capacity to hold the state to account and ensure transparency of state institutions, officials and processes. In this way, we have collectively inflicted excruciating harm on ourselves that has continued for 46 years unabated thus making us all both victims and oppressors at the same time.
Our political parties, both ruling and opposition since the first republic, also became complicit in this national malaise by not only failing to provide the necessary political education (excepting PDOIS), but also failed to create the necessary policies, institutions and processes within these parties to nurture a culture of rights and good governance, hence disempowered our citizens to exercise their rights to informed political participation and nation building. It can be seen therefore that since independence, each and every political party in the Gambian continues to be engaged only in sham internal party democracy while the levers of power, voice and control in them are held only by one person or few individuals who are mainly men. This is also the reason why no opposition party becomes viable enough, while the PPP in the first republic and the APRC in the second republic became quite powerful only because of their control of state power.
The manifestation of our low level of citizen sovereignty can be seen in the current political crisis unfolding in our country. After 46 years of independence today, we have an opposition leader and his team incarcerated for exercising a fundamental right that is entrenched in our 1997 constitution. We have political activists that are being arrested and detained by the police and some died in custody for merely exercising their sovereign rights in Section 25 of the 1997 Constitution. While these people are denied their entrenched fundamental rights by our State, one would see in a faraway but truly sovereign nation, Norway where both the State and citizens enjoy sovereignty, a mass murderer could have not only his life spared, but even enjoys human dignity by the conditions in his prison and been able to even take the State to court for what he considered as damages to his sovereignty and getting them restored to him.
Thus if we look at various social, economic and political indicators of the Gambia, one can therefore realise that we face an abysmally poor state of civil liberties, an expensive and erratic delivery of public goods and services which are largely unavailable to all citizens, and a limited space for popular participation of citizens in national issues. This is clearly a manifestation of the poor level of citizenship sovereignty.
What is to done?
The task before Gambians therefore is a collective and individual question as to how sovereign are you, and how much are you exercising your sovereignty? How much of your voice and will determine the manner of the State, and how is the state protecting your rights and fulfilling your needs? The question must be extended to our political parties as to whether we deserve parties in which only individuals and cliques control them yet they use our voice and power to exert themselves on us without transparency and accountability. We must engage in honest self examination as to whether as an individual public or private citizen, one is fulfilling his or her role to ensure that each and every Gambian is an embodiment of dignity.
In the height of the liberation struggle in Guinea Bissau, Amilcar Cabral made the point that our nation and struggle must be led by our best sons and daughters. As a Gambian, are you among the best sons and daughters of the Gambia? How have you raised your consciousness to realise that the sovereignty of the Gambia resides in its citizens and that the sole purpose of the state is to fulfil the will of the people? Have you positioned yourself, regardless of your station in life to identify yourself with the deepest aspirations of the people? In other words, are you able to commit, what Cabral calls ‘a class suicide’ in order to join the masses of the people? This is particularly significant for the middle class and the pretty bourgeoisie in the public sector, private sector and civil society sector, who thanks to the opportunities provided by the Nation-State that they enjoy, now remove themselves from the people. They do not share in the concerns and legitimate interests of the masses rather continue to take advantage of the unjust socio-economic and political system to make more money and enjoy more privileges when all around them are oppression and exploitation of fellow citizens. When the members of the middle class and the petty bourgeoisie, the nouveau riche, lack the necessary political consciousness they can only become oppressors and exploiters of the people creating huge inequalities, poverty, powerlessness and voicelessness in society.
This is why Thomas Sankara noted that a soldier (and we can add that a business executive, a police officer, a civil servant, a law maker, an NGO worker, a chief, an imam or priest, a judge, a lawyer, an opposition party leader, etc) without political education is a virtual criminal. A person without political education is one who does not identify himself or herself with the concerns, aspirations and interest of the masses, but rather considers only his or her individual concern, interest and aspirations and utilise the wealth and privileges and opportunities provided by the nation and the state to his or her individual benefit without regard to those of the masses. Just as a police officer or soldier without political education would beat and shoot to death fellow citizens without remorse, so also a policy or law maker or civil servant would not cringe at making unjust laws and stealing public money to benefit only him or herself. It is a parasitic form of life in which such a person only seeks avenues that provide undue advantages even if these unjust opportunities only serve to perpetuate injustice and inequality in society.
Raise your Political Consciousness
Frantz Fanon said each generation must discover its mission, to fulfil or betray. Are you a Gambian who has discovered your mission to your society, i.e. to realise that you bear an obligation to serve your people, to stand for the welfare and rights of your people and to stand up for justice and human dignity. One cannot discover one’s mission if one lacks the political consciousness talked about by Sankara. Thus given the current state of affairs in the Gambia and Africa in general, one can confidently diagnose this malaise as the lack of discovery of our mission by the masses of our people, particularly our youth, the middle class and the petty bourgeoisie due to our low political awareness.
At 46 years and going beyond, I urge each and every Gambian to look beyond one’s position, and one’s party, and one’s tribe, and one’s religion, and one’s family, and one’s business, and one’s institution or organization and one’s selfish interest and see the Gambian Nation. Only then can we build a nation that fits our humanity and can deliver and ensure our dignity. It is such a society that can deliver development to us from the unlimited wealth and opportunities that abound in our country. Gambia and Gambians are still unable to realise their full human potential and tap their huge resources and opportunities because the individual Gambian citizen is yet to be sovereign and independent. But to create this dignified and sovereign independent Gambian and Gambia, we must become new citizens to exhibit qualities that Nkrumah said constitutes the African Personality,
“Africa needs a new type of citizen, a dedicated, modest, honest, informed man and woman who submerges self in service to the nation and mankind. A man and woman who abhors greed and detests vanity. A new type of man and woman whose humility is his and her strength and whose integrity is his and her greatness.”
Just imagine if Edward Francis Small, the Father of our Nation did not discover his mission to realize that he was an embodiment of dignity and sovereignty? EF Small cried out that there must be no taxation without just representation because he realized that no human being is a donkey to be exploited by another human being. It was that cry for sovereignty that eventually gave birth to the Republic of the Gambia as our collective sovereign property. How come 46 years down the line, we face worse conditions than those faced by EF Small in 1920?
Creating a New Gambian
It is distressful that for 46 years we have failed to build sovereign citizens. So long as our people are not sovereign, not only the State and its officers will fail to become responsible as a means to protect our rights and satisfy our needs, but also each and everyone one of us as well as our businesses, NGOs, political parties, traditional and religious institutions and indeed our young people cannot become an embodiment of dignity, and nurture a culture and a society of justice and equal rights. We cannot find our ability to do for ourselves even when we sit on a mountain of wealth and opportunities. Our fertile land and all the cereals, crops and plants that can grow on it, our unlimited waters underground, in our rivers and tributaries and our rains, our wind and sunlight, and our almighty people with unbound intelligence and strength will all be inadequate to provide us the quality and dignity of life we deserve. We shall continue to be a society of wretched people who can only find solace and hope outside of the Gambia, while we continue to oppress and exploit each other in our country.
Let us build a sense and a culture of sovereignty based on republican values which hold that the people are the owners and masters of the country. Republican values are established on the incontestable fact that all citizens are equal and all of us have equal right to all opportunities. Republican values require that we remove from our midst all ideas, institutions, practices, relationships and systems that oppress and exploit and dehumanize the human being. Whether these are cultural or religious beliefs or unjust and unfair laws and practices in our homes, offices and communities, oppression and exploitation of one human being by another human being has no place in a sovereign republic. All human beings, men and women are equal.
No tribe, no culture and no religion have precedence or significance over another. In a sovereign republic, there is no majority and minority tribe or religion or better culture. All cultures must be civilized and democratized to liberate the human being, and not to enslave some sections. Let us create a society of just and fair systems and laws and institutions that develop and upheld human dignity, knowing full well that in any society the only guarantor of peace and stability and human development is the respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights. Positions, guns, tribes, religion and culture have never provided safe haven for individuals in history. Only human rights protect and develop the human being. When a right is damaged in any society, and it is not repaired immediately and in full, then no one is safe in that society regardless of your position, religion, tribe or ammunition.
Forward to the Building of a Sovereign Gambian and Gambia.
From Madi Jobarteh’s Facebook page
New Gambia: Our “Vision of Tomorrow”?
By Sait Matty Jaw
I bet most of you think that this is a Manifesto. Well, it is not. But when critically discussed, we might be able to come up with one that highlights the agenda for a “New Gambia.” For now, let me share some lessons learned from the Students at Risk Conference in Oslo.
Last weekend, I attended one of the most refreshing workshops on Non-violent action thanks to the Norwegian Centre for the Internationalization of Education (SIU) and Students and Academics International Help Fund (SAIH). I must admit that the time was too short, but the lessons learned within the six or so hours of interaction can change a society for good. While seated and as the workshop lead from the Centre for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) took us through the principles of non-violent actions, all I could think of was our very own struggle in The Gambia: the things we did right and those we either did not know or took for granted. I took away so many valuable lessons that the New Gambia movement can learn from. The purpose of this blog is to share some those ideas and hope that with clear reflection we will be able to continue our journey to not only liberate Gambia from autocratic rule, but to also inspire every Gambian to help Gambia adopt democratic principles for our own advancement. The interesting part about all I am about to raise is for us to discuss and debate amongst ourselves. As such one could either agree or disagree. But we must also pay attention to the very principles of the game.
In my study of People’s Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) I used Gene Sharp’s theory of power to help me understand the approaches and strategies of PDOIS. In case you do not know who Gene Sharp is, he is the world’s leading writer on non-violent actions (Google him). Sharp uses power to distinguish between rulers and subjects and on the withdrawal of consent as the key to effecting political change. That is, the power base of the ruler is constructed on the approval of subjects. The minute the subjects withdraw this consent, the ruler loses their support as well as the legitimacy to rule. My interest at that time was to see how PDOIS, a political party and a non-violent group was mobilizing the masses to withdraw the support base of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara. We all know that it did not work due to many factors both structural and otherwise. Today, we have many groups (civil society, political parties, and movements) and individuals in The Gambia and in the diaspora working to effect political change in the country with the slogan “Jammeh Must Go.” However, the question with all that is going on, the misinformation, the blame game etc., I would like to ask whether we are trying to withdraw the support base of Jammeh or alienating the masses and forcing them to reject our movement?
I must admit that I am a very active participant in the New Gambia movement. I also strongly believe that Jammeh Must Go. He has done his part over the past 22 years. We appreciate all the projects he has to his name including my favorite: The University of The Gambia. Nonetheless, this does not guarantee him the right to continuously flaunt the laws of our land, abuse the rights of dissenting citizens and even those that support him. His actions and ways are not the ways of our country and people. He has divided us against each other, instilled fear in the minds of every Gambian, and forced many to leave the country in exile; there’s also less employment opportunities for our youth and above all, his attempt to turn the Gambia into an Islamic State. This, for me, is the last straw.
That being said, I think we need to revisit our approach so as to have an effective campaign that not only removes Jammeh but also changes the entire Gambian society. I have had this debate many times before. Jammeh is just part of our problem. One may argue that he is the greater part or the lesser part of it. I think he may sound and look rash, but he has great influence on us as a people. For a very long time, he directed the game and all we did as a people was to react. For change to come we must turn the tables around, we must control the narrative and attack with evidence so as to weaken his support base. We must also know this support base. It is not only the security forces. It is his personal economy and the many people promoting his agenda. Again, we must be able distinguish between civil servants and what we call the “Jammeh enablers.” For most of us, we consider anyone working for government as an enabler. I don’t think that should be the case. This whole struggle is about who controls information. What Jammeh wants to do like many other lunatics before him is to control the flow of information; under-serve the masses and keep them ignorant and disenfranchised. We have been helping him to some extent by sending out scary images–some of them seemingly propaganda material– that do not reflect what was on the ground around April 14th and 16th.
We have also weakened his power, yet we do not realize this. Solo’s march for electoral reform shocked the entire Gambian community. In one of my previous writings, I did warn that Gambians are no longer governed by fear. I gave an example of the standoff at Fass Njaga Choi as well as NRP’s defeat of the APRC government in the Saloum by election. What is happening now is just part of the entire game. Everything happening slowly but surely.
So, what do we do now to maintain this momentum? Firstly, as active participants in the New Gambia movement, we must realize that each individual or group have their personal and group agenda tied to the removal of Jammeh. My own agenda is to change Gambian society (democratize) and I believe my greatest obstacle like many of us is Jammeh. However, I believe we will not be able to achieve this if we continue to tell the people — that we expect to act through mass protest or election — what we want and reject especially where we do not understand their own personal agendas. I have quite often seen many people in the diaspora or even at home and on the same team calling each other hypocrites. The reason I believe is, we do not understand our personal interest in this whole movement. I strongly believe and it is evident that people only engage in most cases when issues affect them personally. It is true that unemployment is high; the human rights abuses are rife, but why are some people indifferent and why do others act? For the activists, we can argue it is their work and that even where they are not paid to push an agenda, the abuse of human rights makes it personal for them. But for the ordinary person to act, either a family member or close relative or friend must be affected. I must also say that in my own experience, I saw many people that I did not know on a personal level show concern about my safety. This, however, could be a limitation to what I am trying to put across.
Secondly, the general picture in The Gambia is a weak opposition and a strong incumbent party. For the longest, the contention has been between the weak opposition parties interested in political power and the ruling party that will do anything to stay in power. Now enters a third group mostly young people with no interest in political power. Dealing with such group especially when they are extremely organized is a huge challenge for any autocratic government. However, the danger with this group, especially when they realize their worth, is that they can threaten the survival of the state and society. Hence, they need to be controlled and by control, I mean there needs to be a form of leadership within them — people leading the actions. Power within such group must be horizontal and not hierarchical. The current challenge with our movement is that power is diffused randomly. No one knows who does what and when. It must be harnessed. When Ibrahim Ceesay, based on his activism, stood up, putting his life and that of his family on the line, we could detect a huge interest in the youth. With our situation, what the young people need is a face that will lead them. I have had this discussion with friends and the consensus was that if people are really concerned they will not wait for a face to lead, however, based on our context and history, our movement needs a face to champion the course.
In my last article, I argued that even if the opposition in The Gambia formed a coalition, they will be defeated by the ruling party. Yes, that was before all these events happened. It might be too early to conclude the outcome of the election later this year, but now more than ever, the movement must put pressure on the political parties to unite. I am sure the fate of UDP has also shown the party the need to stand up together to achieve their dream for political power. Even if we lose the election to Jammeh this year, I can guarantee that this will be his last term in office. I know some of you do not want to hear that, but it just might happen.
The third point or lesson that I have learned from the workshop and want to conclude with is the organizational bit. I briefly mentioned the leadership issue, I think the reason why the New Gambia movement — despite having people on the ground ready to get to the street and face the paramilitary — did not materialize, was due to lack of proper planning and organization. Everything was spontaneous. I learned that the worst enemy for a non-violent action is spontaneity. Our approach this time like always was reactionary. I think this should serve as a lesson for all of us involved. We must organize and strategize, understand deeply the need of our people on the ground and attract them to take action. We must not in any way also underestimate our opponent — Jammeh. His tactic is to not inform the people, whilst ours is to use information to bring him down. Hence, the information must be credible and should be channeled in a way that will make people act. I also do understand that there is a whole team on Jammeh’s side posting information to distract us from achieving our agenda. Their aim is to discredit our movement and render it untrustworthy. We must be careful before sharing anything. We must make sure the sources are credible. I can understand that at some point, the idea is to get people to act, but for a country with a history like ours, people do not react to things they have no idea about. We should take note of that.
Finally, what is our vision of tomorrow? What is it that we want to achieve from this engagement? What capacities do we have individually that can help us get to where we want to be? How do we harness all our efforts and channel it towards a strong movement that is responsive to the need of every Gambian; one that is respected and trusted by the international community? These among others are questions we need answers to. Our quest should not be to make Gambia ungovernable. We need the institutions no matter how ineffective they are in governing.
We must continue to engage in non-violent actions, not actions that may cause injury or lead to death. This was a valuable lesson that I learned. In non-violent or peaceful struggle, we need our numbers and every life counts. We will not move ahead if we lose our ranks. We must understand that we are dealing with a government that is willing and ready to shoot people to death. Hence, let us not give them that opportunity to kill and maim. It is true that non-violent actions are not usually violent free; however, we must always try as much as possible to avoid actions that might lead to death. As yet, I do not have answers to questions regarding the best actions that suit our context, but I hope in due course we will come up with various campaigns that will slowly weaken the power base of Jammeh and shift it to the people.
Aluta Continua