Politicians Make Assessments

Sunday July 22, 2007 will mark exactly 13 years since some military officers led by the then Lieutenant Yahya AJJ Jammeh toppled the government of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara.

As the country prepares for yet another celebration of the anniversary, The Point’s political correspondents, Abba Gibba and Baboucarr Senghore, were out and about to elicit the opinion of all the political parties in their various offices.

First to speak to the reporters was the Speaker of the National Assembly, Fatoumata Jahumpa-Ceesay, a staunch supporter of President Jammeh and the APRC party.
The views of the various people concerning the day follow hereunder:

Fatoumata Jahumpa-Ceesay
APRC

There is a cause for celebrating July 22. On seeing before 1994 and looking back at the work accomplished in 13 years since the July 22 revolution, it must be said that July 22 is a great and correct undertaking. This July 22 has witnessed great changes in The Gambia.
Take a look at the present human rights and press freedom. There is conducive environment for press, perfect freedom of expression, association and assembly. The Gambian people are now enjoying genuine rights and freedoms.
Elections held under the regime are (sic) excellent, democratic one. There is more donor confidence.
The re-export trade is also flourishing. We should accept each other in this country. There had been a lot of success for Jammeh.
Let us unite as one for the development of the country.

Ousainou Darboe
UDP

It is the AFPRC, APRC that has been in power for the past 13 years. The APRC in actual fact has been in power for 11 years - that is from 1996 to 2007.
I think it would be a shame at this time to ask anybody to assess the AFPRC/APRC rule because, by doing so, you are really giving a great deal of prominence to military takeovers.
In a democratic dispensation, there is no room to evaluate undemocratic dispensations; there is no room to evaluate the achievements of a government that is celebrating a military takeover. We have seen how military regimes have failed. In fact in March last year, there was a 10000-man march against coups. Why should anybody want to celebrate that and why should anybody want to assess the achievement of that government, making the takeover as the criteria, or the marking point or assessment? It baffles me a lot.
In many cases, in as much as a government that calls itself a democratically elected government, a government that is committed to the rule of law and constitutionalism - a government that proclaims that if it goes on to celebrate military takeovers…

We will nonetheless try to assess from our own point of view what these past 13 years have brought us, because where there is no distinction between 1994 and 1996, it is all together 13 years. That in itself shows that the government, though in point of fact working under a democratic constitution, is a military government. That is why they say: “Look at our achievement for the past 13 years.” APRC has not been in existence for 13 years. It has only been in existence for 11 years.

There has been harassment, intimidation, journalists being picked up, brutalized. Legislation has been put in place in the country to muzzle the press. The National Media Commission is a typical example. Decrees No.70 and 71 are also living examples of legislations to muzzle the press in the country. All know that two prominent opposition members, Kanyiba Kanyi and Ousman Rambo Jatta, have since September last year been in the custody of the government of The Gambia despite orders by the court for their release and their bodies to be produced and brought before the court. The government has just ignored it.

Now what do we have on the side of the economy? A bag of cement costing D320.00 and how many ordinary Gambians can afford that, with all other materials that are needed to put up decent housing. Compare that to the average earning of the average Gambian. How many Gambians are above the D5,000 income bracket? Yet they go to the same markets as the Ministers. They also want to use the same facilities, like electricity, water, and probably send their children to the same schools. But can they afford it?

One would have expected that the much-talked about revolution of 1994 would have brought in its trail decent living standards for the ordinary Gambians; that their earning capacities would have increased.
In the past 10 years, lots of schools have been built. But they might be misplaced priorities. You have to build schools in catchment areas and also have quality teachers.
Celebration of July 22 is a contradiction for a democratically elected government to celebrate a military takeover. You are sending wrong signals to other people in the army that there is a great deal of virtue in military takeovers. There’s no military takeover that can be justified.

The country has been turned into an estate of Yahya Jammeh. Even where the government of The Gambia does anything that is commendable, it is Jammeh who has done it. Jammeh is not the government of The Gambia. Everybody’s tax has built these schools. It is not a gift from anybody.
The 13 years APRC rule has only given us irresponsibility. I cannot imagine how a president can take more than a week from work and go and sit at a cultural Jamboree, instead of brooding over how to tackle the numerous economic problems the country is facing? He has wasted valuable presidential time. I am a great lover of culture. I myself would like our Gambian tradition and cultures to be honoured, respected and remain undiluted.

Halifa Sallah
NADD’s Spokesperson

July 22nd deals with a coup d’etat. If you follow the protocols, the declarations and the conventions of the African Union, there is one specifically directed at unconstitutional take over of power and the Union’s provision is that this is unacceptable and will never be recognised again.

In The Gambia, one would have thought that what happened on July 22nd, 1994 would be history and if the regime really values the sovereignty of the country and the people, it could have initiated another celebration and that is the commemoration of the founding of the Republic of The Gambia, 24th April 1970. That is the only genuine change that could have occurred if any government comes to office, which truly values the sovereignty of the nation and the people.

We analyse the society holistically and I believe this is the basis where my analysis is different from others. A holistic analysis of society requires you to look at all the elements in society and then find out whether development is taking place or is not taking place.

You can have schools, hospitals, airport and television. You can build all these things with the assistance of loans but if you don’t develop the means to be able to generate income to sustain it, ultimately then you will fail, and we will not call that progress.

It is essential for people to go beyond looking at certain infrastructure to find out how that infrastructure came into being, and what is going to sustain its development. If you rely on loans until you become heavily indebted, then your capacity to take loans is restricted.

If you rely on states like Taiwan doing quite a lot for you, yes you will see quite some progress here and there, but with a change of government in Taiwan, then what happens:
Economics says that development must be sustainable and sustainable development must be based on the development of the productive base of a society. The productive sector can be either the public or the private sector.

Every celebration, they say this particular public enterprise has donated this or has donated that. Is that the way to run an institution? The way to run public institutions is not to give people authority just to give money like they wish, and at the end of the day they have nothing to give to government.
Essentially I can say that this government has not been managing the public enterprises in their proper way, so therefore it cannot expand the productive base and it cannot expand employment.
There is no comprehensive programme that is geared towards helping the young people to be able to develop their capacity and also comprehensive progamme that will create expansion of the productive base of the economy.

So, as far as I am concerned, all the developments that have taken place are not sustainable in the long run, because of the failure to build the productive base of the economy.
Handouts cannot be the basis of sustainable development and that is precisely what our problem is. The basic problem of the government is the lack of a right policy, lack of implementation of the right programmes.
Looking at our agriculture for 13 years now, government has been incapable of keeping a structure that will help the farmers to be able to export their nuts. That is total failure. Poverty cannot give rise to dignity and The Gambia is a nation with a heavy loan of D22,000 million, and 70% of the rural population living in abject poverty, living on less than one dollar a day. That is Gambia today.

Waa Juwara
NDAM

There are certain positive sides in certain areas of development. Big strides have been taken. The president has courage and has been independent in choosing his friends, which the nation has the right to do. I think there’s strong Pan-African element into what he is doing.

Politically the opposition has nothing to complain. Really, the opposition should see how to contribute positively to better the conditions in the country. We praise when it is due and you criticize also went it’s due. I was expecting much worse than what they have done. I believe that they have survived, with their age and experience. Now we can build a better Gambia. And now that they have laid that foundation, everybody should be on board.

I am concerned about agriculture. The agriculture sector they should make much more effort because it used to be the backbone of this country. They should increase productivity and also solve the marketing problem. We need now incentive in the area of agriculture.

As regards press freedom and human rights, exceptional improvement is needed. We live in a world where there are certain standards of behaviour which are normally the standards that are acceptable. We live in one world. We cannot live on our own.
I think there are certain areas that are very positive and there are certain areas that need to be improved. What we need now is just to criticize but to come out with ideas and to see how we can improve. Because after all it’s not a one-man thing. If deals with a country. Whether you are in the opposition or you are in government, it affects everybody. We should be able to come together and see that we make The Gambia a better place for everybody.

I call on the government to release Chief Ebrima Manneh, Kanyiba Kanyi and Rambo Jatta if they are in their custody and if not in their custody to do all it takes to know who is holding these guys. After all they are not important. And it is only going to give the country a bad name.