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“Nothing is required, and nothing will avail, but a little clear thinking”.- John Maynard Keyness
It’s crucial to note that there’s no permanent friend in international relations, but permanent interest.
China has a dream; the elusive quest for the greatest untapped market on earth- this dream has maintained extraordinary potency in the expense of “developing countries”.
The China dream is too resilient, and the “developing world” determination to see it come true too great.
President Barrow has to use his position as a moral fulcrum to understand that, the Chinese can milk even an ant to get a liquid, and that they’re eyeing our fish resource and other deliverables to turn their dream into a reality. And given us loans that we can not service, so as to strangle our economy.
Our fish resource is getting depleted every waking minute by the Chinese investors. The Gambia has high rate of unemployment. Unemployment Rate in Gambia increased to 9.50 percent in 2017 from 9.40 percent in 2016. It’s high time for the Gambia government to stop China’s scramble for our resources, and invest in this fishing sector to create employment for the youth and boast our economy.
The idea of Chain’s ‘debt trap diplomacy’ is giving alluring loans to developing countries, when these countries ossify to pay then they demand concession.
Zambia has provided a shining example recently, they defaulted on a couple of loans, and apparently lost the Zambia’s Power Utility (zesco) and Zambia’s broadcasting corporation to China. By all indications, Zambia is becoming the Chinese property and colony. Heaven forbid! This is a prime lesson for the Barrow Administration.
The news of Gambia’s strengthened bilateral relation with The People’s Republic of China has raised fundamental issues. What is the Gambia’s bargaining power in term of comparative advantage? It’s important to note that, like farmers quest for agricultural productivity, Chinese investors press unending forward to be the largest economy in the world, as any means necessary.
To raise the economic positions of Gambians, President Barrow must be inclined to believe that, as a sovereign state we must depend on what we can do. So we can distance our great nation from China’s ‘debt trap diplomacy’.
This is not to say that we don’t need help, but help coming from outside is secondary. We must primarily depend on ourselves for our survival.
As the Socialist Proponent Hon. Sedia Jatta, said, “We have fresh water in the country, which can be used 12 months of the year, so we should think about what we should do to change our agriculture, not only rain fed, but means to make it all year around agriculture”.
The Gambia needs a strategic plan to get the agriculture and fishing sector booming. The survival of our great nation hunches on the agriculture and fishing sector, and not loans from China or any outside power.
Kwameh Nkrumah sums it up: The less developed world will not become developed through the goodwill or generosity of the developed powers. It can only become developed through a struggle against the external forces which have a vested interest in keeping it underdeveloped.
By, Buba S. Njie
Political Science student.
