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GAMBIA: Where Arrest Represents
Innocence & Patriotism
By Nanama Keita, New York
In a civilized society, an arrest is made when there exists a “probable cause” to believe that a person has, or is in a process of committing a crime. But in our little Gambia, being arrested or jailed could come with a complete different meaning, and ironically, a positive one - patriotism!
In other word, if one does not have an arrest-record in present-day Gambia, then that should be a probable cause to suggest that that person is a criminal. To simply put it, what we're witnessing in today's Gambia is daily arrest of the innocent and robbed while the robbers live loose in a tax-payer funded luxuries.
From a top politician at Quadrangle to decorated 'home-based' military general on Marina Parade; from a poor farmer at Sabakh Sanjal to a 3310 Nokia dealer at Serrekunda Market; from a cleaner at KMC office to a poor single-mother selling "Gerteh Saff" on the dilapidated streets of Bakau, not a single person is being spared by Jammeh's act of barbarism.
As I write this piece on a fast moving Manhattan-bound train, there is an unknown woman, an innocent poor mother, undergoing a trial in Banjul. Her alleged crime: Giving "false information" to a public official. The particulars of her alleged offense: Writing to the President to seek financial assistance to cover her poor little daughter's school fees. After receiving her letter, the President's Office issued a directive for the woman to be arrested and charged with the offense of giving "false information" to a public official under the claim that the woman daughter's school fees were being covered under the Free Education for Girls project.
By all accounts this is one of the most "unnecessary" arrests & prosecutions that will bring no good, but only a bad name for the already tainted regime. If one writes to the President to seek for a financial assistance, he (the president) has a choice to either honor or snub their request. But ordering the person's arrest and subsequent prosecution after turning down their request is nothing short of "total madness!".
Cheap Popularity
And while these unnecessary arrests in the country continue to taint the country's already battered image internationally, the persons being subjected to these arrests & imprisonments continue to be the biggest gainers - with most of 'em earning a popularity, a cheap popularity, they should never have had, ceteris paribus.
A typical example is the case of the muslim cleric, Imam Ba-Kausu Fofana. The controversial preacher was just like any other little-known preacher in the streets of Banjul. But once the intolerant president decided to turn his goons on him, he quickly rose to national fame, becoming a national icon that every Gambian wants to hear preach a sermon that's so daring that it'd agitate the President.
And what did the Jammeh government gain from his arrests aside the damning local and international condemnations of its cruel and barbaric action in illegally detaining the venerable imam.
When I retrospectively reflect on my own case, I still ask myself: What was there for the Gambia government to gain in arresting a harmless and little-known journalist other than adding to its long list of "human rights victims" on a US State Department and Amnesty International's annual country reports. And in the process, gave that unknown journalist the luxury of having his name printed on those internationally acclaimed documents. Personally, when I look back, I could comfortably say that I was known to a much fewer people then than today...all because of Jammeh government's autocratic policy of arresting people who should never have worth its time or resources in the first place.
If my memory serves me well, President Jammeh once mockingly said that when Gambians, specially Gambian journalists, want to travel abroad and there's no window of opportunity for 'em to secure a visa, all they do is stir trouble with his govt, then walk to the British/American embassy the next day to get a visa. So if the philandering fool himself knows that a simple run-in with his intolerant government could be used as a plausible ground to grant a UK/U.S visa, then why is he still in habit of arresting people who pose no serious threat to his rule?
And whether the president's above assertion holds water or not, what is certain is that his pleasure in crushing with impunity, the slightest sign of dissent, continues to give Gambian asylum seekers (genuine or un-genuine) the much needed "prima facie evidence" to support their asylum cases. Do mention the name 'Gambia' to any outsider, and the first keywords you'd hear 'em blurt out are: Crazy Yaayaa Jameh!, HIV/Aids, Killer, Missing People, Drugs, Human Rights & Dictatorship. Nothing positive, sadly, but expectedly.
President Jammeh needs to wake up and realize that the unwarranted crackdown on innocent Gambians designed to send a message of terror to the populace can only achieve one objective: A scared, but very angry and frustrated citizenry...which is unarguably a perfect recipe for one BLOODY REVOLT needed to send a strong message to any future autocrat that it's the government that must be scared of her people, and not the other way around.
Posted on Friday, September 20, 2013 (Archive on Monday, September 30, 2013)
Posted by PNMBAI Contributed by PNMBAI
