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Editorial: What should Gambia learn from Senegal
Tuesday, 06 April 2010 23:52
President Bill Clinton once remarked that America cannot afford to be an island of prosperity in the middle
of a sea of destitute. By that he tied the security of Uncle Sam to equally prosperous economies in the rest of the world, especially those closest neighbors of the United States. As Africans, we know better than anyone else how it feels like having too much of what everyone around you desperately desires. Prosperous
members of our extended families have found themselves entangled in destitution because of the unbending tradition of sticking to one another for help at all times. While helping one another is the cornerstone to all this, the way we do it hasn’t been ideal at all. The best way to help another person is by teaching them how to get to your level.
There is a great deal of similarity between America and some of its less prosperous neighbors like Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, etc. on the one hand, and Senegal and Gambia on the other hand. Senegal is highly unlike Gambia not just by virtue of its immense size or disposition in relation to the latter, but also because of the many lessons there which the smaller of the two neighbors stands to benefit from.
Economic, social, cultural and infrastructural development hinges a great deal on democratic principles. However, this is one crucial fact the never ending rhetoric of ‘‘patriotism’’ familiar with Yahya Jammeh never touches on. And that is one good lesson Senegal has to show not only to Gambia but many other countries in the sub region.
While President Abdoulaye Wade played host to over two dozens of his counterparts from across the African continent and other high profile guests from elsewhere, the world watched not just the captivating activities that took place in Senegal over the weekend, but also the contradictory messages that emanated from the whole festive affairs.
The theme of Senegal’s Golden Jubilee celebrations has been all about pan-Africanism and how the continent of Africa is akin to all the ‘‘good’’ things that are supposedly often not associated with it.
But what is good about Africa, anyway – diseases, civil strife, suppression of human rights, imposition of dictatorship on the citizens?
Well, the controversial African Renaissance monument at the center of last weekend’s celebrations in Senegal is President Abdoulaye Wade’s honest way of representing the good things about the continent.
Talking about honesty; that is one quality the octogenarian leader has which is lacking in most of his counterparts. He says what he thinks and does what he feels is correct. But most importantly, Senegalese too are virtually free to speak their mind about how their country is run. If they disagree with their honest president, they say it, and they do not get their heads hunted for it. The press in Senegal may have their problems here and there with the government, which happens everywhere on this planet, but they do not get killed or arrested or jailed on some obscurely prejudiced rules. As for how the opposition in Senegal fairs, Saturday’s occasion would be a perfect testimony.
Despite a highly underreported opposition against the African Renaissance project, there is a reasonable support for it, mainly from the politically minded Wade supporters and the president’s own colleagues, who obviously see far less than what the majority of ordinary Senegal see. But the contentious period (from construction of this $27m dollar sculpture to its inauguration) has proven to be a moment of trial for the Senegalese government. And by all account President Abdoulaye Wade has past the test. This is not an endorsement of the man as a politician; (clearly he has his own loads of deficiencies as a leader) it is an acknowledgment of his superior rating among a surfeit of naïve, intolerant, authoritarian and indifferent crop of leaders.
As Senegalese and their guests gathered for last weekend’s celebrations, thousands of other Senegalese demonstrated against the monument that was being inaugurated. At that same time a harmless opposition figure in a less tolerant Gambia was trying to get himself acquainted with his new residence in prison, after Yahya Jammeh had him sentenced to one year imprisonment for merely organizing a political rally, a constitutionally guaranteed right.
What else can we say about the jailing of Femi Peters? The law? It doesn’t work in Gambia. What Yahya Jammeh desires is actually what matters in this country of a place of ours, where there is no such thing as demonstration, despite the constitution providing for such a democratic practice. It is inconceivable for any sober-minded Gambian to attempt to demonstrate at a time when Yahya Jammeh inaugurates a project of his, even more unthinkable is demonstrating in the presence of his invited guests. Can you imagine a Gambian Imam condemning any of the uncountable un-Islamic practices that happens around Yahya Jammeh on a daily basis? Yet we continue to make ourselves believe that there is what we call democracy in Gambia?
On arrival in Banjul from Dakar, President Jammeh, in what amounted to appropriation of the idea of the African Renaissance, a rather familiar terrain for him, called on African leaders to prioritize uplifting the interest of their citizens. How do you uplift the interest of your citizens when you make it a duty to lock them up in a cage? Or are we supposed to pretend that everything is ok in Gambia?
One wonders what could have been in Jammeh’s conscience on hearing about the demonstration in Dakar, while the Campaign Manager of the main opposition party in his country had just been sent to jail for doing what we all rightly know was no wrong.
When he goes to Dakar, does Yahya Jammeh read the papers, does he watch television, does he wonder why the proliferation of independent media institutions in Senegal? Yet with all that Abdoulaye Wade has served two terms as president.
Allowing freedom of assembly and freedom of speech will not make you weak, Mr. President, rather it makes you strong. It gives you legitimacy. That is what Senegal has to demonstrate. No wonder the US is counting on it to help export those cherished democratic principles that are clearly wanting in countries like the Gambia to the rest of the region, including Gambia of course.
Hilary Clinton’s call as part of a message to the Senegalese, congratulating them on the occasion of Senegal’s 50th Independence anniversary is reminiscent of her husband’s statement above.
We say that Senegal cannot afford to contain a potentially unstable country within it and expect to continue on its enviable path of prosperity.
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Comments
Ours is 'karma'/cause for this while, a pungent one for that matter & Allah will surely give us our land back after this ‘trying-times’. We were all naive to have accepted & supported yaya in quench for change. God rewarded us our naivety in portraying the real monster in deceptive yaya jammeh. But Allah will again reward us for repenting our naivety by undoing whatever Predator has his murderous head hung above the clouds in Gambia just like the Pharaoh who proclaimed to be god himself in Egypt before & was equally murderous & treacherous as Yaya Jammeh himself today.
This is Gambia under Jammeh.
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