By Baba Galleh Jallow
Despotic regimes have a way of making more enemies that they can handle and manufacturing more victims than they can account for. Perched on top of his blood-soaked throne, the despot is beset by crippling paranoia on one hand and a bloodthirsty determination to eliminate all that appears to be the source of that paranoia. The despot has neither friend nor partner.
His only friend is the power he wields, and as long as those under him wielding the guns keep their eyes to the ground and carry out his bloody bidding, they are partially safe. They are never really fully safe, for the despot’s paranoia could possess him so much so that he wakes up from a nightmare and the first loyal partner he has in mind immediately morphs into a mortal enemy that must immediately be eliminated. Thus we have former partners of the despot and former members of his killer squads and loyal cronies suddenly tumbling to the ground or into their graves with no comprehensible reason.
Of course, a loyal crony or partner who suddenly finds himself grabbed, accused of plotting to overthrow the state, tortured, and dumped into a mosquito and rat infested cell in a malignant jail can no longer love the perpetrator of those deeds. And so even if they put up a straight face and continue to sing the praises of the despot if they ever get released, there is little doubt that in their heart of hearts, they hate the despot more than they hate anything else in this world.
Gambia’s despot Yahya Jammeh is a quintessential specimen of his bloodthirsty kind. Jammeh believes that he is beyond reproach and beyond the fallibility that is every human being’s fate. He believes that whatever he does or says is right and that all who suffer his wrath deserve their fate.
So do all despots think. And so over the past twenty years, with the levels of his paranoia soaring to head bursting heights with every passing minute, Jammeh has made more enemies and manufactured more victims than it is possible to compute. Despite the seeming complexity of his actions, they are all motivated by one single thing: his obsession with remaining in power forever, and his bloody determination to eliminate all perceived threats to the achievement of that objective. And so he throws all care to the winds.
He refuses to see or hear reason. And he is more comfortable dealing with the animals in his zoo than he is in dealing with any person who betrays a modicum of common sense. He does not care what the laws of the land say and openly scoffs at any suggestions of the existence of such a thing as human rights or the rule of law. He invokes the constitution only when it suits his nefarious purposes and tramples on it whenever it suits him. Yet, like all bloodthirsty despots, he has the audacity to pose as the champion defender of all human interests in The Gambia, which he forces himself to believe, belongs personally to him.
The most recent case of Jammeh’s contemptuous disregard for all sense of probity and of our national constitution is the jailing of opposition UDP campaign manager Femi Peters Sr. Femi was arrested and put through the process of a dubious trial, at the end of which he was sentenced to a one year jail term with hard labor, in addition to a ten thousand dalasi fine.
Those who know the workings of Jammeh’s dark and sinister shadow state knew from the moment he was charged that no amount of arguments by defense counsel could save Mr. Peters. It was clear from the get go that those judges and magistrates who were handling the case had received their orders from Jammeh and knew exactly what was going to happen. Jammeh is a vindictive individual, a cruel and unjust man who is always eager to show less powerful people that he can put them in one spot. Neither the tenets of natural justice nor the demands of man made law are strong enough to deter a despot from doing whatever it takes in his jaundiced imagination to keep his greedy tongue stuck in the national honey pot.
Section 25 subsection 1 (c and d) of The Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia, 1997 guarantees every Gambian citizen the “freedom to assemble and demonstrate peacefully and without arms” and “freedom of association, which shall include freedom to form and join associations and unions, including political parties and trade unions.” As far as Yahya Jammeh is concerned, however, these rights and freedoms are totally subject to his personal whims and caprices.
It is clear that Femi Peters Sr. did not break any law in defying the authorities and holding a rally. The police who repeatedly refused to honor the UDP’s formal requests for a permit to hold peaceful rallies are the ones who broke the law. And of course, there is little doubt that the decision to deny the UDP permits to hold peaceful rallies came from Yahya Jammeh.
If the ruling party does not require a permit to assemble peacefully, why should any other legitimate and legally registered party be required to obtain such a permit? And if the opposition parties are bending over backwards to accommodate this ridiculous and unjust non-law, why should they be denied a permit? It is thus a curious feature of a despotic political dispensation that the natural logic of justice is stood on its head. Law abiding citizens are bullied, jailed, exiled or killed, while the real criminals – the despot and his tools - on account of the power they wield, are elevated and sanctified.
Imposing a one–year jail term with hard labor on 64-year old and innocent Femi Peters is an act of brutality that can only be perpetrated by the most heartless of tyrants. It is an act that is repugnant to all truth or justice loving human beings.
And now, sadly, Mr. Peters’ son Femi Peters Jr., who has always tried very hard to steer clear of politics in his brilliant writings, has come out with a strong condemnation of the injustice inflicted against his poor old father. In him, Yahya Jammeh has made another enemy who, for no fault of his, will now be among Jammeh’s most wanted. Who, in Femi Peters Jr.’s shoes would not react in like manner? Who can sit idly and silently by while the most gross of injustices is inflicted upon your 64-year old dad, whose only crime is to insist on enjoying his constitutional freedom of association and assembly?
Eventually though, the despot will make so many enemies that when the ugly moment of his dramatic fall comes, he will not know what hit him. In fact, from the moment he starts making enemies and manufacturing victims, from the moment he starts inflicting cruel acts of injustice on his fellow human beings, the despot begins to fall. The ancient Roman thinker and statesman Solon put it very nicely when he remarked that tyranny is a very high place from which there is no easy way down. Let him ask the various tyrants of history.
