The Verdict: An Indictment of a Perfidious Justice System
By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor
The verdict is finally in, but there are no winners only losers. In question, is the sagaciousness of the entire judicial process, which led to the harsh conviction handed down to Fatou Jaw- Manneh. But at play, however, is the protracted and abstruse Kangaroo trial that embodies the disdain and mortifying hatred the Jammeh regime harbors towards the free press and free speech. But, make no mistake about it, Fatou Jaw-Manneh, inspite of her grueling ordeal and prolonged suffering, is not the intended victim, rather she is only the appropriate conduit of an ominous message from a regime determined to emasculate and effeminate every Gambian. The stakes for our justice system are high, as the regime’s aversion to justice and the Rule of Law, a reflection of its pugnaciously coercive attitude towards those empowered to interpret the law, has left us with only an obfuscating and vacuous system of dispensing justice.
Magistrate Buba Jawo, in handing down this verdict has demonstrated a callous and worrisome ignorance of the law and a fraying loyalty to his nation that is motivated by political prejudice and a prodigious fear of Jammeh’s deadly regime. The result, as Magistrate Jawo’s dictated ruling has clearly demonstrated is a dysfunctional justice system and a Rule of Law that is undermined by the ambitions of power. Today, we as a nation are vanquished by a constricting and self-censuring fear that the regime calculatedly implanted in our midst in order to strip us individually of our senses of dignity and self-worth. As victims of this one singular trial in which Fatou Jaw-Manneh stood as the fitting representative of every freedom loving Gambian, the regime’s ubiquitous disregard of the Rule of Law must only serve to coalesce our collective determination around the idea of a Gambia that must be freed.
The Jammeh regime, driven by the sheer ambition of holding and retaining power by whatever means necessary, is showcasing and hiding behind our periodic, questionable democratic elections, which in the regime’s view only serve a function of legitimizing the regime’s brutal Machiavellian exercise of power. We as a country have been complacent of the social and political ramifications of the regime’s divisive and destructive politics and policies, and this fourteen year incubation of our apathy and timidity gave birth to and is nurturing this monster in our midst: Yahya Jammeh. But, as the politics of autocracies go, each victory claimed by the regime weakens its power structure and each time the people are victimized, it adds to their resilience and willingness to survive.
But, the Jaw-Manneh saga is yet another story in the tortuous narrative of this regime’s history of acrimonious relationship with its people and with the international community. Another case in point is brutal murders of the fifty-five innocent Ghanaians nationals whose killings have still to be fully and satisfactorily adjudicated by a court of law after the elapse of so many years. At the time the regime committed these heinous acts of brutality, Jammeh and his thugs never counted on the revelation of its cowardly act to the rest of the world. These murders of innocent immigrants and the disposal of their bodies where they could be seen, was in part motivated by the regime’s dark intention of instilling fear and securing compliance among the population of our country. Today, with an involvement of the U.N., into the murders of the citizens of ECOWAS, the story line will finally change.
The Fatou Jaw-Manneh trial and conviction, the latest in the regime’s long list of arrogant disregard of the law, has elicited righteous indignation and stirred the passions of Gambia’s Diaspora and the international community alike. For from the treason charge first leveled against Fatou Jaw-Manneh to the sedition for which she was convicted, the display of the functioning of the judiciary and the shallow, disgraceful knowledge of the law that is continually exhibited by judges and magistrates has turned our judicial system into a parody of fools. Fatou Jaw-Manneh will now walk free after the payment of a ransom the regime held over her head, but we as a nation would have lost yet another battle in a war we cannot afford to lose; a war in which our collective freedom is invested. Yet, as the paper tiger enigma of Yahya Jammeh unravels, we stand united by a common aspiration to live in a country that is at peace with itself, and a Gambia that is “free at last!!.”