Undoubtedly, True Democracy cannot be separated from noise. That’s the beauty of this system of governance. It thrives when people are guaranteed the right to speak or express themselves without restrictions. But no democracy guarantees the peddling of lies. Even the post-Jammeh era democracy in the Gambia too does not give any citizen carte-blanche to lie for whatever reason.
Sadly, lying has now become unbecoming in Adama Barrow’s Gambia where even dogs don’t fear to bark endlessly, knowing fully that the late night killer squad members have their own funeral to take care of. Some are so fed up with lying that they apportion blame on democracy. We beg to defer. Democracy’s viability or success depends on how the people in a given country think or perceive issues. In that case the problem is the Gambian who thinks democracy is all about acting or talking loosely. Comedian Kitabou Fadera knows most Gambians have either forgotten or misunderstood democracy. Jammeh’s two decades of dictatorship had almost buried democracy in the Gambia.
Let’s take our time to learn and understand democracy. This way we will avoid putting ourselves in hot soup. In the meantime, we can speak but with some caveats, the goal being to do away with misrepresentation of facts. No culture or religion on Planet Earth endorses lying moreso its escalation. The unfortunate violent incident at Farato village gives any truth defender reasons to be worried. Liars invaded the social media heaping blame on the government for what turned out to be legal demolition. Had these people investigated or waited, they would have extracted chaff from the wind. Do these lying folks apologise when it became clear that the said demolition arises from long-running land dispute between Farato and Bafuloto during the Jammeh era? After a legal tussle initiated by the alkalo of Bafuloto Alagi Manku Saidy, the court awarded the disputed land to Farato. Alkalo Manku was ordered to compensate Farato community D25,000. He had his cows confiscated and sold.
The land was left unused. Some people then start building homes on the said land. Any time the matter was taken to the police, they would brush it aside saying the court order gave right to Farato folks. An eviction notice was issued to the occupants to vacate the private land. In essence, the inability of the Jammeh government to act has led to the new crisis. A problem left unsolved is a recipe for trouble.
What has Interior Minister Mai Fatty or President Barrow done to warrant blame and insults? We will do better in our New Gambia only if we red card deceit and welcome honesty with open arms. By the way, lying does more harm than good. It’s a Mother Sin that can harm one’s fast. Look before you!
Ends
However actions and the reactions to those actions by the police cannot be aggregated to the former regime. This govt or the relevant local govt authorities must take full responsibility for the mishaps that occurred during the eviction process. With mishaps I refer to the manner and means employed to execute an apparent court order.
Where we both agree, is that democracy doesn’t confer on anyone the licence to commit lawlessness. The youths must be made liable for any destruction to property and answer to the offences.