THE JULY 22^ND CELEBRATIONS: IS A NATIONAL RECONCILIATION CRUCIAL FOR A GAMBIA THAT IS DEEPLY DIVIDED ALONG POLITICAL MERGINS  

BY BINNEH S MINTEH

FORMER ARMY LIEUTENANT 

The contemporary Professor of Government and International Affairs John Ikenberry argued that domestic politics is the realm of shared identities, stable institutions and legitimate authority that are rooted in very different types of orders.” He further asserted that “across the great historical junctures, states have adopted different strategies for coping with the uncertainties and disparities of post-conflict power and as a result have built different types of orders.” The Gambia from the July 22^nd military coup is one such state with shared identities, institutions and a legitimate authority rooted in an autocratic and despotic order that is truly daunting. 

It is against the backdrop of such uncertainties and disparities of the July 22^nd military coup that raises the question: Is a national reconciliation crucial for a Gambia that is deeply divided along political and economical margins?  

Responding to the aforementioned question requires an in-depth analysis of the dangerous divisions that the military coup of July 22^nd 1994 brought to the tiny West African nation. A central problem that needs to be revisited is how the revolution “devised”, “broke down” and failed to provide “conceptual tools” with which to probe a humane transition and “contested junctures” that upholds the rule of law and effective institutions of order in the tiny West African nation.  

Fourteen years after the military coup, numerous citizens have been murdered, many tortured, many held as Prisoners of conscience, whilst a large number of citizens flee for fear of persecution. A devastation, frustration and divisions within such communities could be contended to be a fundamental impact after such horrendous actions. 

The contemporary scholar Danielle Bell puts such communities as “a compound not only mingled with rage at such miseries, but also one that is ever mixed in the modern history of political chemistry.” This is so because such people  according to Richard Porty,  have little security and power, and therefore have the tendency to rebel against the unfair treatment  which they, or others like them, are receiving, or have received.  

In his book titled The Faith of Africa, Martin Meredith argued that “ Africans are intoxicated with politics ; the premium on political power is so high that we are prone to take the most extreme measures to win and to maintain political power.” The case of the Gambia during the second republic is marked by such inevitable and desperate struggle to win state power and therefore has become a question of life and death over the years. 

In the words of Ikem Osadi, the editor of the National Gazette in Chinua Achebe’s novel, Anthills of the Savannah, “ It wouldn’t be so bad if it was merely a matter of dancing upside down on your head. With practice anyone could learn to do that. The real problem is having no way of knowing from one day to another, from one minute to the next, just what is up and what is down.” It is such an unfortunate state of affairs ravaging Gambian communities today. 

The situation in The Gambia could best be characterized per the observations made by the distinguished West Indian economist Arthur Lewis who noted “that governance in most African states is the normal lust of human beings for power and wealth. The stakes are high and the power is incredible and dangerous. Decision making is arbitrary because decisions that are supposed to be made by technocrats are made by an incumbent authority. Personifying the state, they dress themselves up in uniforms, build themselves palaces, and bring all other traffic to a standstill when they drive, hold fancy parades and generally demand to be treated like Egyptian pharaohs. The money also is incredible. Salaries earned, plus per diem allowances, traveling expenses and other fringe benefits are extra-ordinary. There are also vast pickings in bribes, state contracts, and diversion of public funds to private uses and commissions of various sorts.” 

No one can deny that some positive insights and developmental successes took shape following the July 22^nd military coup. However, in spite of such successful strides in the infrastructure, communications technology and education, a critical and crucial bridging of our deeply divided communities should be a major tenet of July 22^nd 2008. It could mark an important day for the Gambia government to use constructive national and international institutions in not only declaring amnesty, but also a successful integration of all political prisoners and political exiles. Such an amnesty must include all those who flee the county for fear of persecution (Journalist, former security and military personnel, former civilian employees including those members of the ousted government of the first republic).  

Drawing lessons from experiences across the globe, it is important to note that the masses were not at all mistaken when they spoke against the regimes of Former Malian dictator Modibo Keita (Mali), Mobuto (Zaire) now Democratic Republic of Congo, Samuel Doe (Liberia), Sekou Toure (Guinea), Houphouet –Boigny (Ivory-Coast), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Pinochet (Chile), Ceausescu (Romania), who all see themselves as elected of God through the people.  

It could therefore be contended that the July 22^nd military coup of 1994 is largely responsible for the deeply rooted political divisions among communities across a one time beacon of peace and stability; The Gambia. 
 
 Calling for a national reconciliation under a spirit of forgiveness, reparations and declaring amnesty for all political prisoners and exiles is crucial for The Gambia’s future. The mechanisms, institutions and golden opportunities to bridge such dangerous divides are available. Only history will judge those responsible for failing to do so.