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Momodou
Denmark
11855 Posts |
 Posted - 14 Apr 2008 : 15:47:40
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LOOK FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL DEN SOME WHERE NOT PEOPLE’S CENTRE
The short comment made by the editor of Daily Observer as a prelude to Amie Sillah’s article, The Gambia and the Women’s Struggle deserves clarification. I have noticed that the editor chose to deviate from the journalistic ethics and attack the People’s Centre, which he calls ‘people’s bureau’. He calls it ‘a den of no hopers’ instead of simply publishing Amie’s article. This is how he put it: “Amie Sillah has such an admirable history of activism and political achievement that one wonders what she is doing at that desperate Den of 2% no hopers! Amie also seems to have in born resistance to verbal vertigo and constitutional confusion that is prevalent at the people’s bureau. We hope she will decamp and join the APRC soon, and reach higher heights under our wonderfully women friendly president, His Excellency Dr. Yahya AJJ Jammeh”
Whatever the motive of the editor may be, it is self evident that he is ignorant of the People’s Centre and this is why I put pen to paper to explain to those who may be deceived by his ineptitude and slander.
This behaviour, which is not expected of such a man in such a responsible position has taken us, the managers of the People’s Center by surprise. The first thing that comes to mind is perhaps that the editor may not have known what the People’s Center is all about or that he deliberately wants to distort reality to his readers.
For the information of the editor, the People’s Centre is a multi-purpose centre and was established by Mr. Halifa Sallah, when the Serrekunda Central Constituents gave him the mandate to represent them in the Gambian National Assembly in the year 2002.
What do we do at the centre?
The centre has two libraries, one for children and the other for adults, who engage in research. The children in the community do borrow reading books of different categories and after reading they would return the books and then borrow again.
The centre also has a Counselling Section, where Halifa Sallah helps those in need of counselling. It could be married couples in crisis, workers or students who need advice, persons who are mentally challenged, intellectuals needing advice as to how to proceed with their academic work or career, etc.
The People’s Center had also established a Micro-Finance Project, which was being funded by Halifa Sallah from his National Assembly salary and allowances.
This fund was utilized to rotate among women in his constituency who wished to engage in small scale businesses without having to pay any interest on it. Many women benefited from this fund. Through this facility, the women began to have the oppurtunity to start small scale businesses that helped them to take care of certain aspects of their family needs, thereby steadily empowering them financially.
The Centre is also engaged in community development. Faye Suso was coordinating this section very well. For the last two years, the Centre got connected to similar institutions in the U.K which sent two 40 foot container loads of school furniture and learning materials. The items were distributed to needy schools in both Serrekunda Central and Serrekunda East. The items included computers which were also distributed to different institutions and agencies that are engaged in charity work and similar ventures, across the country.
The People’s Center is also fully engaged in training the youth to acquire computer skills of different levels so as to capacitise them with essential skills and at no cost at all. There is also an adult library for research purposes.
So one can see why we were really taken aback when we read the comments made by the Daily Observer Managing Director that the People’s Centre is a den of constitutional confusion. I really disagree with him. I think if there is any den of constitutional confusion it could either be the State House or the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Why Did I Say So?
The Gambian people in 1996 voted for a constitution that gave them greater powers to decide how the country is to be run and who are going to run it. It has also given them greater human rights to be free in their country so that they alone become the architects of their destiny.
I think the confusion comes when the APRC executive also had in mind their grand design to continue running the nation in their own way as they were doing during the transition. They must have known that once the people properly understood what their powers are as sovereign citizens, they would exercise it without any hesitation. So they decided to use their numerical strength to change the constitution and tailor it to suit their design in their interest.
HOW?
1) The regime through their large majority amended section 63 of the constitution which says if in the event that no candidate in the presidential election receives more than 50 of the votes validly cast, a second round of voting should ensue to determine the winner. This provision is amended as thus: section 63 subsection (5) now states as follows: a person who receives the highest number of votes validly cast at a presidential election will be declared the winner of the election.
2) The 1997 constitution empowered the Independent Electoral Commission to demarcate boundaries. They did their job in 1997. The APRC was dissatisfied with it and amended section 50 of the constitution by giving power to the APRC controlled National Assembly to establish a boundaries commission which shall be responsible for the demarcation of constituency boundaries for the purpose of elections to the National Assembly.
3) They also empowered the National Assembly to prescribe by an Act, the criteria for the demarcation of constituency boundaries. The constitution also provided that until the National Assembly establishes a boundaries commission any constituency demarcated by the IEC in consultation with the appropriate Department of State (Local Government) shall be deemed to be constituencies for the purpose of National Assembly elections.
This was how Wuli District, which had about 18,000 voters was demarcated into two constituencies, when New Jeshwang Constituency, which had 30,000 or so registered voters was not demarcated. The commission also maintained Janjanbureh Constituency which had only 1000 registered voters, but did not demarcate Kombo North which had over 35000 registered voters. This is real gerrymandering. I can go on and on. The demarcation has not been based on the principle of equal population to equal number of representatives. The Commission simply demarcated as they wished.
Section 58 (1) of the constitution was also amended. The 1997 constitution allows for elections to the post of a district chief which was a popular demand of the vast majority of the people The APRC controlled National Assembly amended the section and gave powers to the president to appoint and remove chiefs in consultation with the secretary of state for Local Government.
Sections 59 of the 1997 constitution also gave powers to the people living in each village to select their village head by consensus and when there is dispute, there should be election to be conducted by the Independent Electoral Commission but the APRC controlled Natonal Assembly amended the section and gave power to the secretary of state to appoint village alkalos in consultation with the Divisional Commissioners, now Governors, and District Chiefs.
The 1997 constitution has its section 63 given 30 days to a president to hand over power after his defeat in an election but the parliament controlled by them amended it to 60 days after his defeat. The 1997 constitution is also amended to indemnify the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council as thus:
No member of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council, any person appointed minister by the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council or other appointees of the AFPRC shall be held liable or answerable before a court or authority under this constitution or any other law, either jointly or severally, for an act or omission in the performance of his or her official duties.
Is this not something that is now getting closer to a monarchy rather than a democracy?
Jury Trial is provided for by the 1997 Constitution, but the executive has not yet tabled any bill before the National Assembly to give effect to it. They hide under the pretext that it is expensive.
Even the method of registering voters had a law, which allows for scrutiny before a registering officer registers a person as a voter. All that has been amended to allow for non-scrutiny of the system and so on and so forth.
All these amendments, especially, in the election laws make a mockery of our whole democratic system. A lot of amendments in the Local Government Act were also carried out. Instead of decentralization, the Councils were stage by stage being reduced to centralized institutions controlled by the central Government.
Recently, on 7 September, the National Assembly amended the Local Government Act, which stipulated that the chairpersons of Area Councils shall be directly elected by the universal adult suffrage. That, too, has been abrogated. It now reads: Area Council chairpersons shall be chosen by the Councillors.
As you can see, the domination of the ruling party in the parliament has allowed for the erosion of democratic gains by removing most of the important provisions that safeguard the rights of the people to decide who should be their representatives through free and fair periodic elections.
The end result was the creation of a multi party system as a matter of formality, while state resources enable the ruling party to monopolize all channels of information and facilities to exercise patronage.
Even though many parties existed and elections were regularly held, a functioning democracy does not actually exist in the Gambia. The monopoly of the state media and the refusal to allow private radio stations to disseminate political messages and the dishing out of the sweets of office to party stalwarts and even elites of opposition parties, consolidates the regime of patronage.
So it would not be an exaggeration if one concludes that a climate conducive for a functioning democracy is yet to be in place in the Gambia after four decades of Independence.
Suwaibou Touray
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issues
Issue No.43/2008, 14 – 15 April 2008
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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