Commentary

The Gambia Descending into Chaos

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

On Monday morning, Gambians woke up to the news of PDOIS’ politician and 2006 Presidential Candidate for the opposition National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD), Halifa Sallah’s arrest, but by the afternoon, more bad news were circulating around the world about the mass arrest and detention of yet more innocent civilians from the remote village of Sintet, in the Fonis. Similar recent and ongoing events in the towns and villages of Makumbaya, Barra, Jambuor, and Essau have left Gambians both at home and abroad mesmerized with incredulity and hoping this is all a dream. But, however much Gambians wish this is only a bad nightmare; the reality is that Yahya Jammeh is showing once again he is unfazed by the facts of logical deduction and unrestrained by calculations of reasoned judgment. As we now begin to come to terms with the apocalyptic nature of Yahya Jammeh’s sense of governance, our country has reason to worry about what still lies beyond the horizon. The record of Jammeh’s regime is antithetical to our cultural values, and the only antidote to the APRC misery, is the annihilation of the cabal headed by Jammeh that is hell bent of the destabilization of our country. His relentless efforts at creating a state of permanent instability fosters a climate that is conducive to the functioning of a dictatorship, since it attenuates, in the mind of Yahya Jammeh, the argument for the maintenance of civil and human rights protections. Jammeh has so far survived and thrived in this state of social anarchy, but in the end, it is our people who have nothing else to lose but everything to gain, who will prevail over the demagoguery and the irredeemable phantasmagoria of his regime’s tedious loquacity. The prolongation of Yahya Jammeh’s power grab will depend very much on how we respond to the provocation of his insanity, but judging from the venality of his political chauvinism, it is hard not to believe that the end is drawing near for him.

If we have learnt anything from the events of Monday and the recent past several weeks, it is that as a country, we must jettison our fears in order to confront Jammeh and put an end to his petrifying barbarity. At this juncture, the most effective way to address Yahya Jammeh’s proclivity to violence and the abuse of human and civil rights, is to reciprocate in kind and with a ferociousness designed to obliterate his existence from the face of the earth. Yahya Jammeh’s rapacious behaviors have taxed the limits of our endurance and impoverished our country for so long, that given the social and economic snare that we are entangled in; our country can only gain from his demise. And today, apart from a few ignorant dawdlers, we have arrived at a general consensus that Jammeh’s anachronistic regime has over-stayed its welcome, and it is time to reclaim our country from the brink of despair and the chicanery of his perfidious regime. Any efforts to dislodge Jammeh from power will not come easy, as the natural law of self-preservation dictates that he too will utilize the cornucopia of lethal weapons that he has amassed for use as instruments of suppression against our people. This notwithstanding, no overthrow of any dictatorship had ever been a cakewalk, but we must mobilize our young men and women in the effort, because in the final analysis it is to them that we must bequeath a far better and hopeful tomorrow. The sum total of the events that began a decade and half ago, culminating in the senseless arrest of thousands of innocent and terrified citizens on Monday, have only served to drive our mute and seemingly docile military and security forces into the corner of patriotic Gambians motivated by a sense of duty and moral obligation to liberate our fellow citizens.