I am conflicted, between the law and what I believe to be right or morally correct, between unjust law and just action diametrically opposite. “The law is the law until it is changed”, my one part shouts. “It is in place to disobey a bad law, to fight against it in every way possible”, my other part encouraged. Tragedy, according to Hegel, is conflict between right and right.
30th December 2014: A group of men, actuated by nothing but the desire to free their country from the clutches of tyranny launched an attack on State House which turned deadly for some of them. I have always maintained my admiration for these men and I offer no apology for that. I think their act was heroic, patriotic, selfless and for Mother Gambia. Was it Constitutional? According to the book, may be not. Was it moral? In my book, mine I mean, absolutely it was. Isn’t this a conflict? In my position, may be.
In greater measure, I believe in democracy as the best form of government known to us, at least better than all other systems tried and tested. A key part of democracy is respect for the law, for the Constitution which a people give to themselves, a covenant they enter into with other. Thus, whatever is done outwith that Constitution is, to the degree or extent of the deviation or inconsistency, ultra vires or illegal. So overthrowing or removing a government without following the due process laid down by that law is “illegal”, is treason, is unconstitutional. Watertight argument? May be difficult to argue against if one is a democrat. Legalistic, one should not go against the Constitution. But that is only legalistically speaking.
But what if that Constitution has been bastardised over the years? What if that Constitution no longer speaks or addresses the aspirations of the people? What if that same Constitution has been used against the people, to imprison, to crib their rights and freedoms, to kill, to shrink their spaces for dissent, to take away their rights, to abuse and misuse them? What if the Constitution has been used to usher in a tyranny or a dictatorship? What if it is a “Constitutional Dictatorship”, a some what “unconstitutional Constitution’?
The law is not necessarily a safeguard of morality, of what is considered good. The law is often not in the best interest of the people but rather a tool to safeguard and protect the interests of few, of the ruling class. We reached a stage when the law or the Constitution was a tool to safeguard the interests of Yaya, when it was used against the people whose rights it was supposed to protect. It was a classic case of the fence eating up the crops. All the instruments torture were used against the people, in full force. The citadels of protection, the National Assembly, the armed forces and the Judiciary, were convenient handmaids. They watched helplessly, nay supported, the bastardisation of the Constitution. They were against the people.
What were the people supposed to do? To continue to obey the law? To use constitutional means to change their rulers? To wait untill the whole society is actuated for change and then, only then, to fight for change? To resign to fate and pray for divine intervention? To endure, with the belief that nothing lasts forever? To take up arms to change their Government, by whatever means available? Apartheid was legal. Colonialism was legal. Slavery was legal. The Third Reich was legal. The Governments of Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Barry, etc were all legal.
In the United States Declaration of Independence, it is stated that “Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient cause…” True…. But what if the people, after a train of uninterrupted abuses and violations, now consider these causes as neither light nor transient? What if what the people eventually get is “Constitutional Dictatorship”? What if the laws are used to violate the rights of the people? What if the Institutions which were supposed to check the powers of the Executive got emasculated and deeply compromised?
We form a government to secure our rights, to protect our lives and property, to satisfy our needs, to expand our liberties, to give us happiness and to ensure we are able to reach our maximum potentials. When the will of the people are subverted, when the Government betrays its main raison d’etre, when the people become cannon fodder and mere cog in the turning wheels of the Government machinery, when sovereignty of the people itself is taken away, when the voices of the people is silenced arbitrarily, they should have the right to change that Government by every means possible.
What is constitutionalism to a people living under tyranny? What is due process to a people who have seen their laws subverted and used against them? Will the argument of Constitutionalism mean much to the suppressed people of Togo, to people everywhere living under stifling dictatorship?
The message should be to all governments that when the will of the people is subverted, when tyranny becomes the other of the day, when the law is used to suppress and violate, the people will have the right to change that government by whatever means available and necessary, whether by the whole people or a group of them. This has been the case throughout written history, the only means available to the oppressed and down trodden
“A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People” US Declaration of Independence
Yahya Jammeh coup and his subsequent acts are illegal acts. The attempt to seize power from him on Dec 31, 2014 was irresponsibly, dangerous and illegal. One can make a case for mitigation and justification even sympathize with the coupist, but their actions can never be just.
The coalition process was the right approach and yielded huge dividend. In all societies there will be bad laws and actors. Change must come legally and peacefully but it always comes. The only remaining question is when. Gambia has bad laws, oppressive laws, our duty individually and collectively is to obey the laws of our land while we work to remove or modify bad laws. Our remedy, only remedy is struggle to change our bad laws hopefully to good ones.
God Bless The Gambia
I’m with the conviction too, that humanity thrives one ‘giving your more (& while in expectation) to receive your less’ in selfless endeavour; in dedicated service genuine to the society & greater humanity selflessly worldwide; (my sister Dr, I’m with you on your view, in context of the humanely innocence of the ‘Gambian’; I’m just buttressing to your point of patience in obedience but it comes to time (at some point) that inaction disappears out of the equation conclusively… History & religion teaches for tolerance to a limitation; truth & moral conviction & every religious inclination world over teaches this notion for eventual salvation of humanity on earth as well as in the hereafter…
Njundu’s opening (first) & last message paragraphs can’t said it better; as been proven throughout the test of time in the history of humanity from Adam, Ebrahim(a), Musa(Moses), through to time of Jesus onto to Mohammed; religions were as result of bad laws in stiffness evil stiffly oppressions & were fought & established on disobedience towards those ungodly manipulations in names of governance & authority…
Yaya Jammeh came through forceful illegal coup & illegitimacy, & claimed falsehood in the pretense of bettering the country upon improvements of what used to obtain previously under the PPP Democratic dispensation for the people & by the people….
Only to turn out a Predatory Dracula Devil on doubleft human legs; worst in every sense of the word than THE previous house it forced itself upon us to clean in honesty with a dirtier hand than the predecessor…
Then, there’s the extreme barbarous edge unGambian deadly pomposity & manipulation of the general communal harassments of the whole country & the subregions in all areas, shapes & forms; blackmail, torture, rape, disappearance & liquidations, etc etc etc became the norm in the kanilai Murderdom…
I see the Dec 30 & anyone who died &/ suffered any forms of physical barbarities directly under the kanilai Killerdom as Martyrs & my heroes & heroines; otherwise everyone are the winners collectively together because the whole of Gambia really, factually & actually suffered the psychological effects together as a community, if not for anything else…
The one-of coalition temporary unification which obtained the political breakthrough were as result of the issues among the efforts all along & the events preceeding before all of which culminated to the closing ranks & cohesion of the greater society towards a common enemy for the better, dead &/ alive; to the bitter end subsequently…
Just like Mohammed Said Barry, yaya Jammeh too foreplanned a Somalia scenario for the Gambia beyond the evil kanilai Evildom; with the secret kanilai family farm weapons & ammunition scheme piracy under building materials invoices into the country & region…
Even, after the coalition ballot winning, it took the resilient resolve of the international community, through the implementation of Ecowas community additionally, to see to the flush demise of the kanilai Evilness & devilish cohorts….
May God bless & kindly reward the ‘departed’ & us all in eternity; the devils contrarily are foretold of the opposition alongside Lucifer Ibliz(a)…
God bless Gambia; Ameen…
The coalition and everything else that was in the name of ousting Brutal Jammeh, were really good things going, but most Gambian hsve had expected those efforts to come down to nothing but keep the same trend of inefficient efforts to oust the brutal dictatorship. The poll results of 2011 was a 70 something percent victory for monster dictatorship according to claims. It was more than 50% in ’96, then more than 60% in ’01 and nearly 70% in ’06. That trend was bucked after fearless efforts by selfless statesmen to demilitarise the Gambia’s statehouse and to urge the military to answer to the a constitutional call of duty of the people of the Gambia. 30th Dec. 2014 marked that day! It was from that incident that the coalition and every other freedom fighter were really really inspired for purpose to take their paths in the nation’s struggle with a Do or Die attitude. Thanks to God now efforts materialised to unstuck a national problem in the majority of Gambian throats. May God sets us far from the wrath of undisciplined militaries in the Gambia, West Africa and Africa. Gee! Some did say it could have been Jammeh’s plot to entrench himself more in power …. Let’s ask ourselves now why whole populations can be struggling to breathe under one man’s boot!
May all the lives lost in the struggles against the 22yrs Jammeh brutality rest in eternal peace. Many will speak of how the diamond quality of their democrat state of minds disagree to all forms of violence. However, there will always be those private citizens who will be ready to stake their lives against dictators when the need arrives. Weak hearts can call it violence or unconstitutional for they must have seen some constitutionality in a brutal dictatorship. Their failure was all due to the perfected art of hypocrisy of certain Gambians in the midst. Hypocrites! Imagine the brave men really succeeded on that day, to invite the honorable coalition for an emergency meeting the next morning… Some views of the aftermath of the incident would have remained under the carpets.
May the souls of the fallen of the 30th. Dec 2014 incident rest in eternal peace and may their families and loved ones be protected and guided by God Almighty.
May the survivors of the incident be rewarded with honor, good health and long life by Almighty God here in life.