Dear Mr. President,
Please allow me to address this open letter to Your Excellency, as a concerned citizen with maximum interest in the wellbeing of my country, and as former Executive Secretary of the TRRC. The intent of this letter is to advise, not to castigate. The intent is to point out the dangers of our current crisis and to request that you take decisive and courageous action to resolve it and diffuse a potentially damaging situation for our country.
Mr. President, the recent arrests of peaceful protesters by the Gambia Police Force carried out in the name of maintaining law and order have in fact transformed an ordinary expression of civic dissatisfaction into a politically-charged crisis that threatens our national security. The law the Police are enforcing is a bad law. It is a law that was used by your predecessor to suppress and oppress the Gambian people, including your good self. And it is a law that has no place in our current democratic dispensation. Yes, it might legally be considered constitutional. But that does not make it any less inimical to the wellbeing of our country. The Police may be doing what they see as their duty; but enforcing a bad law simply escalates a crisis that could have been easily resolved to consolidate our democratic gains since the fall of the dictatorship. Many governments have fallen because they escalated manageable crises by clamping down on peaceful protesters. Examples close to home include Senegal under Macky Sall, Tunisia under Ben Ali and Sudan under Omar El Bashir, where state intolerance inspired mass revolutions that led to the collapse of governments. It was intolerance and repression, above everything else that caused Jammeh’s downfall.
Mr. President, the legitimacy of democratic governance rests not merely on holding regular elections, implementing development projects, and brandishing democratic credentials and achievements. It also means guaranteeing rights such as freedom of assembly and expression. Guaranteeing these rights is often difficult; but it is difficult only if the Government, and in particular the President is ill-advised, or chooses to ignore good advice from well-meaning individuals and groups. When Yahya Jammeh started clamping down on dissent and peaceful protests, well-meaning citizens warned him that he was on a path of self-destruction; that if he continued manufacturing crises through repression, he would end up falling from power and in the process, cause irreparable damage to both himself and The Gambia. Unfortunately, hubris and the glamor of power, fueled by a cacophony of insincere praise-singing, boot-licking and self-interested misguidance from political sycophants made him turn a deaf ear. We all know how his story in power ended, and how the rest of his life is likely to end. You don’t want to repeat Jammeh’s mistakes, Mr. President. We hope and pray that you won’t.
Mr. President, peaceful protests do not pose a threat to national security; they are in fact a safety valve for any democratic society. They allow citizens to articulate their grievances and hold their governments and public institutions like PURA accountable without resorting to violence. When the state suppresses peaceful protests through arbitrary arrests and detentions, it does not eliminate dissent. Rather, it magnifies dissent. Arresting and locking up peaceful protesters is never a wise thing to do Mr. President. It does not solve any problem or guarantee national security. On the contrary, it creates more problems and fosters national insecurity by turning a manageable civic action into a damaging and bull-headed positional confrontation.
Mr. President, what the police should have done is simply go to PURA headquarters and ensure that the protest is done peacefully. If that was done, the protesters would have simply expressed their frustration and dissatisfaction with the tariffs and dispersed, and PURA and your Government would have then considered the best way forward in an environment of continued peace and order. As things stand today, you have a crisis on your hands Mr. President, because the Gambia Police Force arrested peaceful protesters to enforce a bad law.
Mr. President, arresting peaceful protesters criminalises legitimate activity and escalates tensions by provoking anger and resentment among citizens who might otherwise have remained passive observers. Witness the crowds that came out – both physically and virtually - to show solidarity with the arrested protesters in the past few days. Witness how further arrests continued to be made in the name of public nuisance and deterrence, creating a marked escalation of the crisis. And witness the current situation where some of the detained protesters have gone on hunger strike. That too, is a form of protest, and a dangerous one at that.
Mr. President, peaceful protests are expressions of legitimate public grievances, not unlawful assemblies that constitute a threat to public order. Arresting peaceful protesters does not help in maintaining public order. On the contrary, it poses a threat to public order, as we see happening right now in the unfolding crisis. If the police had simply provided security to ensure an orderly protest, we wouldn’t be here today.
Mr. President, arresting peaceful protesters undermines democratic governance, values, cultures and institutions by suggesting to citizens that lawful avenues of redress are not available to them, which in turn may push discontent into less predictable, potentially destabilising channels. Arresting peaceful protesters has never succeeded in permanently suppressing public discontent and dissent. It always escalates public tensions and could have unimaginable consequences for a government, a people, and a country.
Mr. President, a strong and secure government has no reason to fear peaceful protests. It welcomes and manages them efficiently instead. When a government reacts to peaceful protests with repression, it is projecting weakness and insecurity, not strength and confidence. When governments overreact to peaceful protests, they create the very instability they claim to be preventing. The decision of a magistrate to send the arrested protesters to Mile Two Remand Wing serves no useful purpose for you, your government, and our dear country. Rather, it adds fuel to the fire and further jeopardises our country’s security situation. Please be advised, Mr. President, that if this situation is not urgently and properly managed, contained, and diffused, it could escalate into further disturbance and cause potential long-term insecurity for our country.
Mr. President, the main lesson we want to share here with your good self and the Gambia Police Force is that genuine stability and national security are never achieved through repression and the arrest of peaceful protesters. The wellbeing of your government and of public institutions, and by extension the wellbeing of the people and the country depends on your government’s capacity to engage with public grievances in a sensible and measured manner, and to trust in citizens’ capacity for peaceful expression of their grievances. Even if carried out in the name of law enforcement, repression generates widespread public anger, erodes public trust in government, weakens government legitimacy, deepens social polarisation, and in general, represents a highly dangerous potential for national instability. The path to democratic growth, sustainable peace and national security does not lie in suppressing dissent or arresting peaceful protesters. It lies in embracing dissent and peaceful protest as indispensable and highly valuable aspects and proofs of democratic governance.
Finally, Mr. President, allow me to end this open letter by requesting that you personally intervene to have the arrested protesters unconditionally released as a matter of urgency. It takes courage to do the right thing, Mr. President. And it is my fervent hope that you have that courage. Doing the right thing is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of good and courageous leadership. Doing the right thing in this instance and advising the Gambia Police Force against needless repression will increase government legitimacy, consolidate our democracy, and increase our national security. News that you have set up a committee to look into the PURA tariffs is a move in the right direction. But, Mr. President, you must go further and do the right thing: have the protesters released immediately. You will be happy you did. May peace be upon The Gambia, all Gambians, their families, relatives and friends everywhere. Thank you for your attention to this letter.
