If in fact this was an incident of thuggish behaviour coming from a section of the APRC supporters, then the best course of action, in my opinion is to ignore them altogether and let them burn themselves out, and not seek to engage them in any way, unless they have been burning, looting, or causing specific threats, or harm to the laws of the land, as opposed to merely behaving, generally, in unlawful fashion. May be they are being coached and directed from afar, or want to give that impression. After all, nothing – absolutely nothing – brings people stronger together than perceptions of a common enemy. It’s better therefore that the police just follow from a safe distance and avoid any confrontation and to act swiftly and decisively only when life, limb, or property is threatened, and not to present themselves as the common enemy, and hopefully the rally will pass without incident as the highly parochial mind that accompanies such rallies both leads to superstition about the police as enemies and boredom because of the narrow focus, such that any action by the police in fact re-energises and refocuses the crowd because now there is an identifiable enemy (and in the same uniform that used to inspire them to into self righteous behaviour).
This should be followed by serious discussion with the leadership of all political parties as part of their registration process. Firm action that will be taken irrespective of the hue of the political party will be laid down as part of the registration process, and in the interest of public, private interests and national security. For now probably a national temporary ban on political rally for, say 180 days can be justified as giving the new incoming government the time and space needed to begin implementing its policies. Such ban will apply, unless a political party and its leadership agree to jointly and severally assume liabilities for any security costs arising as a direct consequence of rallies they hold. This will include cost of police presence, potential harm to life, limb, and property. For these an insurance cover from a recognised insurance company will be needed, or if self insurance and acceptable letter of credit from a bank. This should apply to all political parties. And in addition normal criminal and civil liabilities for property damage, assault, battery or personal injury should apply.
Obviously in such a case, the more law abiding the political party, the less the insurance bill. And there should be very little or no liabilities in common law for damages of any kind, because the leadership has an incentive to keep things within proper ambit of the law, rules and regulations for holding political rallies.
And with the police following at a safe distance being remunerated partly (variable costs of preparing and attending political rallies to keep the peace) from the funds of the rally organisers and partly (fixed costs -pensions etc) from the state, each party now has an incentive to hold an orderly, peaceful, democratic and injury free political rally, with little, or no costly arrests, custody battles, or processing through the courts with all the associated bad blood that come with it.
And since these minor skirmishes of political rallies by “hot head” from political parties of all hues will not go away, and have the potential to derail a government’s commitment to human rights and justices, more sophisticated methods are needed to deal with potential fall outs from political gatherings of any kind, including reallocating of throwing all potential public and private liabilities matters back to the political party and its leadership, and the best way to do this is to make them fully liable to bear all,cost directly from rallies, and to take prior insurance, or have a letter of credit from a reputable bank who has agreed to cover all potential adverse costs of the parties rallies.
And of course, everyone, political party member of not continue to be liable for any loss arising from personal their personal actions or inaction under common law provisions.
Sacred
Ends
What an UNDEMOCRATIC tone. Stop being cynical and farfetched. There is the tendency to silence and eventually erase the most solid single party in the Gambia. The ulterior/clandestine objective of the “coalition” and their surrogates, like you Mr Saidykhan is to see the winding up and subsequent disappearance of the APRC. It’s not true that the APRC fears leading a solid opposition party but it is the pant-drawn fear of the bitty “coalition” to see a rejuvenation of a party that can ultimately return to power.
We will consolidate a responsible and viable opposition and there is nothing that can stop that.
Will you make a repetition of what you accuse President Jammeh of, CENSORING ALL DIVERGENT VOICES/VIEWS? It’s really difficult to accept democratic values, isn’t it? We’ll all live up to the test and trial!
This damn fool is still around. For 22 years, your regime have violated all the democratic rules against the opposition in that country. Babu Soli, you just need to shut up.
I do not subscribe to the views of the writer, but I don’t think you are in any position to cry foul about disappearing political parties from the political landscape. The AFPRC became the APRC by banning the most influential parties of the first republic and thus, positioning itself as the dominant party for all these years. So don’t cry if your invented medicine is prescribed for you.
The APRC should not be banned, not even for a single day, but it must be taken to task to recover all public monies it used to maintain itself and fund its political activities. We have seen a little of how public funds from both the SSHFC and GPA were used to fund APRC political activities.
Taking the APRC to task has to happen and I suspect that when we are finished with you, there won’t be a butut left in your coffers to print even a single T-shirt, never mind run a party.
Let justice guide our actions.
Nasty, ungodly, despicable party, RIP Solo Sangdeng, December 30th fallen heros, April 10th-11th students, Ebou Jobe, Alhagi Mamor Ceesay, chief Manneh.
Our thoughts are with our beloved country mothers, sisters, aunties and nieces who were raped and scared for life by this APRC thugs. And thousands if not million Gambians who went through a 22 years of trauma by this thuggish aprc party. #Gambia HAS Decided.
They will die a slow death. It will be interesting to see where the funds will be coming from since the biggest thief Gambia has ever seen ran away with all of the money. We are now a democracy so we won’t behave like the despot who banned all the major parties when he came in with his bunch of gangstas.
Paranoid “gangsters” Baba, you’re right. These thugs and heartless criminals have no remorse and respect for the direct and indirect victims of yaya. Very interesting to hear heartless individuals yearning for thuggish party’s come back. WELCOME TO DEMOCRACY, NEW GAMBIA. NO MORE HUMAN SACRIFICES. #Gambia Has Decided, for freesom
Peace, living in unity to develop Gambia and democracy. Jinne Musa is out of bottle, now living in freedom. God bless Gambia and Africa
Lock them up.