At Jammeh's mercy

RPT


Whenever I take a serious look at the Gambia, the more worried I get concerning the political situation of the country. The country is fast sinking and nothing is being done to save it.

By PK Jarju

It is sinking not because the general population is unaware, but because they feel they cannot do anything to stop it.

The Gambia looks like a hijacked ship being flown to an unknown destination. For the past 14 years, a man who many Gambians don't want as their head of state is holding a gun to the captain's head and the passengers and the rest of the crew are all too terrified to say a word or stop him.


The principles that were supposed to make you and me safe in our own land of birth and protect us from such political madness have been badly tampered with to favour the head of state. He is given full control of our land of birth and is empowered to do whatever he wants, anytime, anyhow and to anyone.

He is applauded for anything he does or say whether good or bad. The head of state is said to love our country so much so that anything he does or says is seen as in our best interest. He is seen as a messiah, puritan and reformer hand picked by Almighty God Himself to make the Gambia a prosperous country and a giant of the sub-region.

As a country of true believers, we believe in anything we are told by our head of state even when he told us without any prove that he have discovered a cure for HIV/Aids. Despite him being the richest Gambian, we contributed millions of our hard earned taxes towards his HIV treatment programme.

Patriotism to our head of state, is defined by how much you love and support him. He comes first and the country second. You cannot claim to love the country without loving him. Be the most qualified Gambian but there is no job for you in any government department if you don't worship the head of state.

Our head of state is the heart of all government organs. They operate round him and him alone. The executive dance to his tune and the National Assembly smoothens his path. Every bill he drafted is quickly enacted into law. The judiciary feared him and follows every order he barks.

Anything which is against the head of state is seen as an enemy. And enemy that should be destroyed in the national interest. Criticisms are never welcome. Try telling the head of state how to govern the people and life will be made difficult for you. So difficult that you wish you were never born.

Journalists get bullets put through their heads, their houses and printing machines set on fire, arrested, tortured and media houses closed down on bogus charges. Political opponents are always hunted down, arrested, tortured, jailed or buried six feet deep.

Gambians don't trust each other any more. We cannot talk freely to each other without looking at our backs. Political discussions are out of the way. Talk about the head of state and you risk spending months in a secret detention centre, where you will be tortured and subjected to all sort of inhumane treatment.

Once you are arrested, forget about getting a lawyer. Many of the top lawyers will simply say no to your request as they don't want to upset the head of state. Our legal practitioners according to the London based International Bar Association are "operating under challenging conditions due to the existence of ongoing incidents of harassment and intimidation, which have created a climate of fear in the profession.

It added that government exhibits hostility and suspicion in its dealings with the legal profession which it perceives as an oppositional force, and there is currently an atmosphere of fear amongst lawyers, emanating from the attempted murder of a lawyer and several other incidents of harassment and intimidation of lawyers, that they may face serious adverse consequences as a result of their acceptance of certain causes on behalf of their clients.

The name of our head of state's is sacred. He is worshipped like Lord Voldermort in the Harry Potter series and disobedience is regarded as the worst crime.

In The Gambia today, an accused person is presumed guilty even before being tried in court. Get arrested by our security officers and you risk losing all your friends. You become stigmatised and people become even too scared to get close to you. Fall out with the head of state and no company will dream of even employing you as a cleaner. Ask former KMC mayor, Abdoulie Conteh, for Imam of Banjul International Airport to name just a few and they will tell you.

It may be easy to convince yourself that because you have good personal relations with senior people in the Gambian government you Will be protected in someway if things go wrong. Maybe if you are a close family member of the head of state. If you are an ordinary Gambian then you are on your own.

Your highly placed friends will deny ever knowing you for they have their own careers, their own lives to protect.

What a tragic demise of democracy in a country that shelters the headquarter of African Centre for Human Rights studies? God help us.