Africa-Press – Gambia. The resistance approach to the Public Order Act would be irrelevant if Gambia is a well governed and non-exploitative egalitarian society.
Protest is relevant because for citizens to get to the right answers to problems that are facing them, citizens must ask the right questions and one way of doing this is through the exercise of their constitutional right of petitions to find out what went wrong – where and when; and whether what went wrong owes from a deliberate malfeasance by government officials including corruption by power-hungry people whose motive is authority, security, wealth and comfort at the expense of the public whose trust they hold to administer according to our “good laws”.
The denial of permits therefore, to hold public assemblies has become a source of public discontent. This is because although the Public Order Act was merely introduced as a measure of a crowd control mechanism to guarantee peaceful procession and managing the use of public addressing electronic systems to avoid nuisance, what has become the norm is that government has used the Act to oppress citizens by denying them their right to peaceful assembly without giving any specific or tangible national security justifications.
Protest is an indispensible tool in the democratic tool box. The street can be as valid as the courtroom and that reality was amply demonstrated in 2016-17 in The Gambia. Henceforth, Gambians have learned to accept that no group, however benevolent, can ever hand power to the vanquished on a plate. We must accept that the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
The GenZs in particular, have realised that government concedes nothing without demand and that their situation of extreme abject poverty is the direct result of deliberate acts of maladministration by public officials and not merely a mistake on the part of public officials, and that no amount of moral lecturing or legal actions will persuade the public official to “correct” the situation. GenZs also knows that government always gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit and as such they reject the beggar tactics that are being forced on them by those who wish to appease their superiors by demanding that they wait to obtain permit before protests. For they know that so as long as they repeatedly go to the Police begging for permits to exercise their God given rights to assemble and protest and choose to come to a round table to beg for their deliverance against injustice and transgressions on their rights, they are asking for the contempt of the police and those who have power over them.
In their protest battle cries, Gen Zs say that Gambians you are on your own. Your Country has become nothing else but a sophisticated concentration camp where native people are allowed to “suffer peacefully”. Thousands of GenZs see no end to their plight, but as well they see no human dignity in taking to the perelious back way to Europe where many of their brothers and sisters have already suffered great ordeals of hardship, inhumane treatment, ill-health and painful deaths.
Certainly under the Gambia’s multi party political patronage power system where the poor are native citizens who have no connection to public officials, the GenZs know very well that the poor even with PhDs will grow poorer and the rich even without formal education will grow richer. Like the diamond pen Mustapha K Darboe said, “We will all come to realise that hard work pays”.
In Gambia, connection pays! people have become millionaires overnight without a word… there are folks in this country, total liabilities on the economy, who just turned millionaires with an overnight allocation of a state land at a prime location.
The GenZs are tired of enduring the entitlement of public officials who seek to control the narrative of their misuse of power because the fact is that government has always been the problem of citizens. Still these public officials who by some strange and twisted logic in a democracy, they convene so called Mansa Kunda (Mandinka word meaning Kings Court or Palace) meetings to tell citizens how to deal with the problem they create. They do so by dragging all sorts of red herrings across the paths of protest assemblies and say that the problem is not them.
However, they are failing to realise that these citizens particularly the young generation Zens are unrelenting in their quest for equality in an unequal societies. The likes of the ghetto pen knows all too well that they are on their own in The Gambia where government fails to provide even the bare minimum to educate children for free even to secondary level. That is why ghetto pen was visibly upset when the Justice Minister tries to speak down at them with indifference as if their concerns are misplaced. And, behold, Galas Csay Jnr sends a wakeup call saying to his colleagues “you do not belong to dialogue held in cozy air-conditioned conference rooms” Galas warns his fellow Gala members whatever happens in that state-organised press conference, remember this: you people are not armchair activists. You only honoured that invitation out of respect for what the organisers represent (the state), but you do not belong to dialogues held in cozy, air-conditioned conference rooms that have yielded no positive results for the masses in our 60 years of nationhood. Gala believes and belongs to the streets in its cause to catalyse meaningful change…most importantly; we submitted 5 petitions to the state 37 days ago. In 53 days, the 90-day deadline we gave the Gambian government to improve the lives and livelihoods of its people will expire. If they fail to act, no number of press conferences or intimidation tactics will stop Gala from returning to the streets, and eventually, our new found home (Mile 2).
Galla’s words are enough for the wise. It shows that not only is the GenZs consciousness awakened from reading novels the likes of Animal Farm and Things Fall Apart and Decolonising The Mind, but that these GenZs youth knows not fear because they cannot tolerate their inequality with the children of the bourgeoisie which inequality is mostly the handiwork of the public official. “Killa Ace” a prominent Gambian activist and artist says that “Baayi ken mormut deka b!!!” and this resonates very well with GenZs because they very well know that everybody in the country knows their protest against corruption is right but that all are looking for the most seemly way of dodging the responsibility of saying what is right because to do so means they shall loose some little privileges they enjoy from almighty government.
The Gambian GenZs are awake and they led us all in the fight for justice against corruption and government oppression. As our moral compass Madi Jobarteh has been relentless in highlighting corruption in public office. Recently Jobarteh noted aptly, “from 2017 to date, the gov’t has only succeeded in manufacturing new millionaires with public funds. Through corrupt officials, new & old oligarchs enjoy huge gov’t contracts even in areas they have no experience. It’s called state capture: national cake for self”.
Indeed this is not hearsay because it is backed by findings of the National Audit Office reports and Police and National Assembly investigations but the mighty government officials consumed by hubris of power says that these findings are all not binding on government.
The GenZs say otherwise, they have taken the cudgels in their own hands to fight their legitimate cause against corruption and in so doing, doing us all a great deal of good. Who best to fight their cause than themselves a generation divorced of fear and mental slavery. You see, even under detention at Kairaba Police Station, the ghetto pen says the youth (GenZs) must not relent. Indeed Kex Sanneh’s contract with Alport got terminated due to his participation in peaceful protest but he is unrelenting, from the outside he was still useful in canvassing lawyers to free his colleagues and least we forget that his younger brother is a GenZs Barrister and the terms GenZs and barrister is the epitome of fearlessness.
The GenZs shall always triumph with their mindset of fearlessness. Their preparedness to take upon themselves the cudgels of the struggle will see them through. They have not in their colourful verbosity the concept of fear and they dare say louder than ever before, that, government is for the people and by the people. Young Omar revolutionary Sanyang rephrased this to say citizens must change their vocabulary “from Karrteh Fayo to Karrteh Karafo – Saani Karrta to Denkaneh Karrta.”
Truth must ultimately triumph over evil. GenZs are aware that the National Intelligence Agency and police force and the drugs law enforcement have been deployed against them to turn their truth into lie, and they have ignored them. In a true bid for change they have taken off their coats with courage never seen before, and prepared to lose their comfort and security, their jobs and positions of prestige, and their families, for they know that just as it is true that “leadership and security are basically incompatible”, a struggle without casualties is no struggle. They know that any proposals for change emanating from the citizen outside of government are viewed with great indignation.
Finally, GenZs know that even some so-called opposition parties will have the nerve to tell them that they are asking for too much. That some journalist benefitting from government contracts or merely paid by some government official will describe them as militant, impatient young men and women for telling the truth. But they very well know that everybody in the country knows their protest against corruption is right. The charismatic oratory and personality of Omar Saibo Camara shows that these youth are serious in their activism for change.
Killer Ace mastered activism both nationally and internationally. Indeed, as he said, “They can cut my locks but they can’t cut my voice”. He is acutely aware that the government of the Gambia has power over him individually but peoples power also has power to police the government and that the International community is watching with their useful tools of sanctions and humanitarian intervention to protect civilians.
The author is the founder of the Gambia Alliance for National Unity Party (GANU).
Source: The Standard Newspaper | Gambia
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