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Gambia’s unending constitutional coup d’état
Thursday, 06 January 2011 13:00
Heading from quasi democracy to self imposed one party stateBy Abdoukarim Sanneh
The fragmentation of opposition parties on the basis of nationalist tribal politics and also selfish individualist ambition of power struggle for leadership, have continued to put the Gambia in the map of nation-states stuffed and starved for a political change for yelling to functioning democracy and rule of law. With the decline of opposition
parties, our country is virtually a one party state. News coming out of Banjul for Yahya Jammeh to be crown as king becomes clear to everyone that with unending sycophancy is social ills within wider fabric of our societies. The political terrain in the Gambia since 1994 is a transition from one form of coup d’état to another. These over-whelm with astonishment when our elite politicians usually in constructing their political debate keep quoting section after section of the bogus philistine 1996 constitution as if the regime is operating within the context of the legal framework of constitutional democracy.
Yahya Jammeh’s driven agenda of building a capitalist enterprise called a nation- state Gambia. Through criminalising our nation in his pursuit for wealth and material accumulation, and siphoning our national coffers, with his mentally sick brain and fainted heart, is ready to use the force of absolute power if even it will caused to Gambia to break into civil conflict just to stay in power. Since 1996, there have been a continual manipulation the constitution to entrenched or consolidate dictatorship. The only changes from military rule to a cosmetic constitutional democracy was that Jammeh’s APRC having jettisoned the letter F but his absolute power and dictatorial tendencies continue time after time.
The 1996 constitution has gone through amendment after amendment using the rubber stamp parliamentarians most of whom don’t even have a School Leaving Certificate qualification, so cannot determinate the legal ramification of your actions. For many of these MPs is the only means and end to their life. Many will never think of such privilege position in the Gambia when the rules are base on educational background, skills and experience and democratic culture free from individual manipulation.
The first manipulation of the 1996 constitution started when the majority decision for limiting the term of Presidency most advocated during National Consultative Review process and during the review of the 1970 constitution was never included in the final draft. The constitution as a political document was subjected to discussion when there was a banned on political parties. It was crafted to indemnified members of Armed Force Provisional Ruling Council in the name of crimes committed for our so-called freedom /liberation.
The removal of trial by jury, amendment of the provision on local government clause and thus given the dictator the power to sack and removed divisional governors, elected councillors, chiefs and Village Heads ‘Alkalos’ was the handy work of our legislators. They further went into extend of empowering to even sacked and removed the head of electoral commission and with this 16 years, Gambia have seen the sacking and hiring of 4 commissioners of Independent Electoral Commission. It is part of these loop holes that continue to undermine the conducting of free and fair election in our country. Now giving that the crack headed paranoid mentally sick head of state knows that there are looming threat of prosecution over his head on numerous accounts of human right crimes committed, he thus turn his professional sycophants for lobbying to safe his soul. The rubber stamp Parliamentarians will do their bidding knowing their track record but it is the referendum which is the main determinant for genesis of Gambia into one party state because of the mechanism as an entrench clause in the constitution.
One of the dazzling characters of Yahya Jammeh which every Gambia know is that he is a liar, manipulative, egoistic, divisive and thus have a bloody in his hand.Yahya Jammeh have sown the seed for the destruction of our nation and about time for Gambian to be mature and forget about silly nationalist tribal party politics. Removing this archaic autocratic regime whose only aim is infantile disorder strategising making the impossible, possible. With these 16 years, we have seen how Yahya Jammeh has build his own personal fortune by looting our national coffers or using national institution in his money making business ventures in a true leadership style with melancholic character. Gambians should not be surprise with the present move about the machination process to one party state. The 1996 constitution is design to entrench dictatorial powers using APRC Parliamentary majority in all the acts regimenting or excessive orderliness.
The constitution of the Gambia has gone through numerous amendments after and after amendments by the rubber stamp parliamentarians the vast majority of which are APPRC whose political maturity is a cause to quest. These bunch of nonentities and political prosecutes can even sacrifice their own children without proper reasoning for nothing order political power and position. There never reason what is their role and function to the citizenship. There allow their hands to be twists in the name of loyalty to a party with its archaic authoritarian leader. There continue to pass bills after bills leading to enactment of laws that undermine abuse of power, retard civil liberty and functional democracy. For 16 years now, every move of the rubber stamp parliament is motivated by greediness, egoism and systematic selfishness, which are a continuum to destroy the fabric of Gambia society.
The deficit of the 1996 constitution is so numerous that it requires a scholarly research for students of constitutional jurisprudence to ravel into. The first violation to signal that Gambian people that the constitution would be respect after soldiers civilianise them was the provision of constituency demarcation. In his pursuit to strengthen his tribal/ regional politic, Yahya Jammeh’s regime re-demarcate constituency of Foni contrary to what is stipulated in the constitution. Giving Foni more representation than Kombo North, Central and South, each with more a voter population more than Foni. The regime prevails also on its majority in the parliament to amended section 63(2), which deal with possibility for a second round of voting.
The enactment of military decrees and imposition of such decrees as statuary codes, which are never put into scrutiny also, undermine functional democracy in the Gambia. The 1996 constitution legalise most of the military decrees as legal binding statuary codes without giving the law-makers to scrutinise their efficacy in a democratic environment. Three General Elections were conducted, which are all administered by military decree. In most of these elections when rules of fair level playing field or electoral malpractices is challenge by the opposition parties in High Court. Judgements are given in favour of the regime mostly base on technicalities arises from the loopholes in the drafting of the decree and thus open to abuse in favour of the incumbent. It is also the electoral which gave the dictator absolute power to appoint and sack members of the commission.
The enactment of decree 70 and 71 and its replacement with Media Commission Act was all part of the efforts of the criminal regime to cocktail press freedom. The enactment of the decree in 1996 imposes heavy fine on media houses with astronomical sums of money and thus led to news black out for weeks. In July 2002 came the media Commission Act. The Gambia Press Union strong opposed this act. The act was challenge with a lawsuit in the Supreme Court on the merit of its unconstitutionality. The commission, which was composed, of non-journalist draw a code of conduct for media houses and thus give themselves the power to dictate what the media houses have to do. Journalist should reveal the sources and their stories and they could issue arrest warrants. Hen the court rule the act as unconstitutional, the criminal regime used the rubber stamp parliament to enact the Newspaper Amendment Act and the Criminal Code Amendment Act 2006 that today have reduced all the media houses in the country to self censorship because of its repressive nature.
On the Local Government matters, efforts to decentralised local government was seen by the regime as a threat because lead to some local government authorities into opposition party domination. Divisional now called Regions and Commissioner now called Governors who are civil servants also become involved in the machination process of the rural folks. Campaigning in APRC party platforms and also intimidating rural folks to vote for APRC was added to their job description. The qualification for a District Chief become a strong APRC militant and any district chief suspected as opposition supporter or sympathiser is sacked and detained for days unending by NIA.
The removal of Yahya Jammeh is the only way forward to build a sustainable democracy in our country where every citizen will be treated equally. But the disunity within the opposition has further remote the course for the emancipation. Their indecisiveness and indifference to the plight of Gambian people and their wishful thinking, ignorance, un-patriotism is day in day out questionable with the state of prevailing madness. Jammeh’s dictatorial rule is so entrenching and now is time for ideas for the way forward. We should act before it is too late!
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