A few months ago when the minister of the Interior, Mai Ahmad Fatty announced the change of name from the NIA to the SIS – that is; from National Intelligence Agency to State Intelligence Services – I wrote a piece entitled ‘What Is in A Name?’. I raised concerns on the manner in which it was done seeing that the NIA was established by an act of parliament and therefore the name couldn’t be changed without going through the same channel through which it was created.
But further, I raised questions as to how deep will the change be because a superficial change of name wouldn’t mean zilch unless the core values of the Agency were also changed. If the way they used to operate remains the same, then my question; What Is in a Name becomes pertinent.
It is said that in the past few days, Baboucarr Bargie was arbitrarily arrested. For what, not clear at all. The DDG Ousman Sowe remains untouched and ‘uninvestigated’. So we ask again: What Is in a Name?
Our nascent democracy has to be watched closely to avoid sliding back to the same thing we have been fighting against for the past twenty two years. If the NIA still arrests people without cause, then it means we are repeating the same thing we lashed out at Yahya Jammeh for.
The citizens have again raised concerns about this but the larger question is: What is the government doing about fulfilling their promise of legal reform? This (change of name) and many others were among the key legal reforms the Coalition government promised Gambians but still now, they have not started, or if they have, it has not been adequately publicized. The legal reforms are among the core targets of the reform agenda that is to be made by the new government if the change is to mean anything.
As I said earlier, fighting evil is tricky. You can either defeat evil and usher in a good and democratic system; or let evil defeat you and you’re consumed by revenge and witch hunt. Which is it gonna be for us?
Tha Scribbler Bah
A Concerned Citizen
