The Jammeh Regime: Blind Patriotism And The Willfully Ignorant

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The Jammeh Regime: Blind Patriotism And The Willfully Ignorant

Monday, 02 January 2012 01:28

Ousman Mbenga

(Opinion) - A sociologist once observed that: “the general population of a society usually behaves like the elite of that society”. Since there is no organized elite in the Gambia but Jammeh’s one-upmanship, the general population have begun to behave like him. Jammeh’s one-upmanship with calculated intentions of becoming a monarch has zero tolerance for elites. He is the elite, the one-man elite who will neutralize and eliminate any aspirant, unless you are willing to climb his “slimy pole of success” by carrying out his gruesome policies and crimes at your own risk. There is no need to recount all the examples of his victims, but a special mention of Baba Jobe being the most recent “ally” to suffer a suspicious death will suffice.

The “maateeh” (I don’t give a damn) attitude and his reckless choice of words of intimidation; his primary trademark has infected the general populace so deeply

Ousman_Mbenga

that its manifestation spreads the entire spectrum of Gambian society. “Nyaka haam ak yaradeku maateeh rek la jurr” (ignorance and indiscipline breeds recklessness). From the “civil servants” in the offices to the taxi drivers and society in general, the total disregard for discipline in public service is a reflection of APRC’S brutish ignorance. The tendency to behave “graaw” (to be a reckless danger to others) has worsened under AFPRC-APRC rule.

If there is an “elite” in the Gambia, it is the most impotent herd of sycophants who willfully choose ignorance over thinking. This formless entity claiming the status of an elite have no brain cells left to think, consequently, they surrender their brains at Jammeh’s disposal. With control over these brains, Jammeh declared that he is the only remedy for these pseudo-intellectuals, once he is finished with them; they are not even worth a squat any more. Painfully, this is to Yaya’s credit because all the “intellectuals” that were willing to climb his “slimy pole of success” have been forever emasculated. They regularly grovel to get their jobs back only to get another slap in the face. In the APRC regime, where ignorance and “sucking up” have proven to be the primary qualifications, only the meekly intellectual is being sought after to be at the service of Jammeh; not the “nation”. Infested with rivalry and suspicion, the Jammeh regime has become a cauldron of “cut-throat technocrats” vying to reach the top
of the “slimy pole of success” at all cost. Now, who with integrity (Jom) would want to be part of this inert mass of an elite.

Yaya’s support base is mostly made up of the willfully ignorant, with the most despicable of this base being his “graduates with illiterate ideas”, far worse than “illiterates with a wrong sense of value”. They claim to be educated and worldly in outlook yet without questioning, execute all the senseless policies of the one-man-regime only to protect their jobs. The “illiterate ideas” of these “paper tiger” graduates has a profound effect on Gambian society. From the “courts of justice”, mosques, churches, offices and out into the streets, a servile obedience and acceptance of our miserable conditions of living without critical questioning, is as a consequence of the demoralizing effects of being willfully ignorant. All evidence of tyranny, impoverishment and religious opportunism reign supreme but many choose to ignore and blind their eyes. All unscrupulous politicians and opportunists bank on such state of mind.

To survive this catastrophe, the Jammeh regime created a reservoir for ignorance by successfully mystifying himself and reinvented the stupefying system of patronage to keep the masses and indeed his “graduates with illiterate ideas” permanently drunk and dependent on his handouts and crumbs. His constant threat of terror by imprisonment, disappearance and intimidation has strangled the sensibilities of the society at large; all grounded in ignorance.

A profound understanding of the relationship between the “general populations” and the impotent African elite is of great significance. This process will help us unearth the sensibilities of the Gambian masses in particular and Africans in general, without which any revolutionary changes will ever take place in the continent.

So who makes up the formless elite or ruling class in the Gambia with Jammeh being at the helm of power? The elite – ruling class is that sector of society that exercise authority and control over the social, political and cultural life of a population. Since Yaya owns everything in the country and has unchallenged access to the state coffers to buy and sell his sycophants; only an “elite of sycophants” can emerge out of this relationship. Such an elite see no further than their self-seeking interest of “feathering their own nests”.

And to preserve and protect this backward relationship, they have perfected the business of servile flattery. With Yaya’s ego so easily inflated, flattery is the key to his empty soul. This emptiness is evident in the presence of his pictures hoisted on every light pole from Banjul to the coastal roads in Kombo. In the center of Banjul is a big poster of him with “happy birthday Mr. President”; the birthday that never ends. Aside from his birthday; on all major festivities (Eid prayers, New Year and Christmas) the pages of the local papers are saturated with advertisements from different departments, businesses and individuals wishing Jammeh happy holidays and longevity in office. It’s a confirmed fact that these advertisements are understandably mandatory to stay in business and job security. Adding insult to injury, the parasitic Senegalese praise singers, Chone Seck, Ouza and others instead of singing about the misery in Senegal found easy-come-money from flattering Jammeh. We want to remind Ouza in partic
ular that what he sang to former president Abdou Diouf is true in Gambia. Whoever tells Jammeh that life in the Gambia is joyous is only inflating his ego.

Following their ascension on to the “saddles of power”, AFPRC-APRC deceitfully welcomed the creation of the July 22 Movement to defend the spoils of the coup and in that process attracted the most undesirable elements to defend their “revolution”. Initially, the movement was to prepare the ground for the handover of power to a civilian government and the soldiers return to barracks. Shortly, thereafter, it became obvious that handing over power to a civilian government was never on the agenda of the AFPRC. The movement attracted an assortment of reactionary hoodlums and disgruntled ex-PPP aspirants to “power and wealth” such as Baba Jobe, Modou Picka Jallow and many others who took pleasure in torture and making life miserable for the rest of us. Out of the July 22 Movement also emerged a class of “lumpen-bourgeoisie”, an elite of “tin soldiers”, pseudo revolutionaries and outright gangsters that threatened Jammeh’s absolute control of the loot from the state coffers. Systematically, Yaya eliminated this aspi
ring “lumpen-bourgeoisie” and ultimately dissolved the July 22 Movement that was on the rampage.

On the obverse, revolutionary social conditions in a society can produce a dominant behavior for revolutionary progress dictated by the political will of the people to change their wretched conditions, out of which can emerge a revolutionary leadership that behave like the people and not detached from the people. Cultivating this revolutionary national consciousness can only take place under a new leadership not driven by delusions of grandeur and arrogantly resistant to reason.

Social conditions in any society are the basis for change. Change is either revolutionary or backward and reactionary. The backward social conditions in the Gambia have become a breeding ground for the willfully ignorant. Aimless rallies with dancing and food festivals (courtesy of Kanilai farms) are APRC’S strategy to deepen ignorance under the slogan of “patriotism”. It bedevils the mind to see the “blind patriotism” accorded to Jammeh instead of the betterment of the country.

And to reinforce and perpetuate this blind patriotism and willful ignorance, religion is used to cement the mythical structure around Jammeh, which seemingly looks indestructible. But, unless we forget, the same imposing structure was built around Jawara and it crumbled. At the center of reinforcing this mind set are the reactionary Imams and “charlatans of Islam” that make up the Supreme Islamic Council. Without Jammeh’s approval, the SIC is nothing but a lame duck; a council of beggars in the service of Jammeh not Islam.

Aside from the betrayal of the religious sycophants, the Gambia Bar Association has betrayed our trust to defend our democratic rights. For all intent and purpose, the GBA have long ago relinquished the courts to Jammeh’s mercenary judges. Periodically, the GBA throw up temper tantrums to protest the absolute control of the judiciary not for the dictum of justice but at Jammeh’s dictate. These protests always get settled behind closed doors and all return to business as usual.

These are the social conditions that feed the cancer that is ravaging every sector of Gambian society. And oddly enough, none of the institutions that are supposed to intervene and challenge this madness have turned out to be traitorous. From the courts, where the Gambia Bar Association should have intervened and challenge the blatant abrogation of our democratic rights and misapplication of power; we are thrown to the vulturous mercenary judges. The GBA seems to be devoted to “order” at the expense of justice. From the religious institutions, especially the mosques, we are handed as sacrificial lambs to the most reactionary Imams and “charlatans of Islam”. Fear and ignorance is what they have to offer. From the opposition parties; our dignity is reduced to mere “voting cards”. We only see and hear from them only when elections approach. The opposition is incapable of creating popular pressure to weigh the regime down because of its detachment from the people. Forget about the politicians, they have long been
bought and pocketed by any high bidder.
This is our dilemma. All the trust we have has been betrayed by the Jawara regime but worst by the aspiring monarch, Jammeh. During the reign of both regimes, the opposition has remained opportunistic. It has always been a reservoir of opportunists, ready to be bought and sold for a shameful price to “cross carpet”. The country is demoralized to the core, leaving it open to all kinds of parasites to suck the people’s blood.

With this betrayal of the people’s courage to take action against our deplorable living conditions, the vast majority of Gambians submissively accept “poverty”, squalor and disease as a normal and acceptable way of living – a will of God; the paralyzing ignorance of religiosity.

A NEW BEGINNING IS THE WAY FORWARD
All evidence show that the neocolonial state such as the APRC regime can never satisfy our needs. Jammeh’s uncontrollable desire to own everything has reached tragic proportions. This has become the tragic mentality of African presidents, either I rule or ruin the “nation” for subsequent generations. This folly of African presidents prompted a suggestion to subject them to a periodic psychiatric evaluation to expose their psychopathic behaviors. The buffoonery displayed by these “heads of states” and their “sharers of crumbs” truly validates Kwame Nkrumah’s prophetic book: “Neocolonialism the last stage of imperialism”. Building a revolutionary and forward looking society is more effective than a periodic psychiatric evaluation of African presidents. In such a society, the people will be so advanced in thought and practice never to allow such megalomaniacs to emerge within our ranks. In such a society, development begins with the minds of the people to repel the culture of patronage and sycophancy; the stimul
i to be willfully ignorant.

The current state of utter madness requires solutions that neither the Jammeh regime nor the opposition is capable of providing. They are equally trapped in the pursuit of the spoils of elections and the grave concept that becoming a president is the solution.

Now we are on our own but not alone. We have tested both regimes on their ability to satisfy our basic needs since “flag independence” but they failed us miserably. Those of us who have any brain cells left to think critically must muster the courage and determination to create a revolutionary alternative to this rot of a regime and prove that a new Africa is highly possible. This new beginning requires a revolutionary system of education and organizations tasked to create alternative institutions to primarily develop our human resources – local initiative and community development.

This year 2011, will go down in the annals history as a critical turning point in world history. The resistance and rebellions against the neocolonial regimes in Africa and the “middle east” signals the last stages of imperialism and its repressive satellite states. Even the British imperialist had a taste of the “bile of oppression”, when the African youth in London sparked a rebellion which shook the old empire to its foundation. The vast majority of humanity is fed up and in utter disgust with the corporate capitalist monster, sparking the birth of the “occupy movement” in the U.S and other European countries. The slumbering 99% has woken up to the parasitic nature of the 1%. But we who have historically been the core of the 99% will never relent to worthless reforms.

The hurricane of resistance is blowing over the world heading to the African continent with full force to uproot the neocolonial regimes that sustain imperialism. Also in 20011, we witnessed the third presidential electoral sham in the Gambia with APRC and Jammeh still on the “saddles of power”. According to the Independent Electoral Council (IEC), it’s impossible to steal elections in the Gambia because of the “transparency” of the process in place. Nobody in their right thinking mind will heed what the IEC parrots about elections. The IEC has long been paid for and pocketed by Jammeh. And furthermore, there is a significant difference between “stealing an election” and “rigging an election”.

Stealing an election is easy if the rigging is well done. Rigging an election is an ongoing process way before the campaign and the actual voting exercise on Election Day. When the “public media” become the president’s private property; the army and security forces are mobilized to intimidate any disobedient voters; when the state coffers is the president’s private bank and enticement with rice, sugar and cooking oil (the primary cause of diabetes and heart disease) in exchange for votes are all put in place, rigging an election is in effect. The truth is: “those who cast the votes determine nothing; those who count the votes determine everything”. Yaya has also determined that no elections will remove him from office.

THE SOLUTION
All those who have any brain cells left to think critically will be the driving force for revolutionary change. It all boils down to the “battle for ideas”. We must surrender fear, especially the unfounded fear reinforced by religious opportunism. The great Stephen Bantu Biko said: “the biggest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”. We must demandingly reclaim our minds from the oppressive institutions, be it governmental, religious or traditional. We must overturn the old mind set of the “cart before the horse” approach, the causation of the retrogression in the continent since “flag independence”. Once we liberate our minds from the oppressor’s grip then the horse will draw the cart to its logical destination.

The fundamental problem in Gambia and Africa in general is that social consciousness, the precursor to political consciousness is still at gutter level, where politicians, the meekly “intellectual petit bourgeoisie”, backward tradition and religious charlatans want it to remain to guarantee the despicable privileges they enjoy at the expense of the present and subsequent generations. The logical conclusion to our dilemma is a revolutionary new beginning, the alternative to AFPRC-APRC and the timid “opposition”. Silence or supporting the APRC is not a guarantee for safety. A proud-future Gambia is on the horizon, a civilized society where human life is protected and valued as opposed to the barbaric behavior of the “security forces” and the Gambia armed forces (GFA), among themselves and against the general population. We must be willing to struggle for it and win.
Written by Ousman Mbenga