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NADD: PROACTIVE PRAGMATIC FOREIGN POLICY
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NADD: PROACTIVE PRAGMATIC FOREIGN POLICY
NADD: PROACTIVE PRAGMATIC FOREIGN POLICY
By Foday Samateh
For those still holding out in denial, I wish to inform you in open
confidentiality that Yayha Jammeh and Lawyer Darboe have long since
known beyond all doubts that there is no comparison between NADD and
both APRC and UDP in any area of governance. More so, in the pivotal
foreign policy.
Twelve years as a first-class frequent flyer around the world, Yayha
Jammeh’s foreign policy (if it can be called one) has gone in as many
directions as his countless flights. The only difference is, while his
pilots have always successfully landed the planes at their intended
destinations; his one-man foreign policy team is forever lost
dillydallying in the middle of nowhere. His foreign policy (for want of
a better term, the lack of it) is driven by his Town-boy diplomacy,
which is as ill-advised as ill-informed. And as a result, The Gambia is
playing a heavy price in the lost potential foreign investment,
international recognition and respect, and democratic credibility. I
hear the voices of his “loyalists” shouting me down to remind me that
he recently hosted the African Union (AU) summit meeting. They are
staring at me in incredulity and full of questions, wanting to know in
what planet I have been residing lately. They can bet that I have
always been on Planet Earth. And they can also bet that Yayha Jammeh
indeed hosted the summit meeting. Their money will be good on both.
Now let us find out who is not on Planet Earth. While I have invested
great hope in the stocks, bonds, and futures of the AU for the long
term, my pro-Yahya-Jammeh critics cannot pretend to forget that hosting
AU summit meeting by most African leaders at the present is hardly any
extraordinary event. I would like to kindly remind them that the last
host of AU summit meeting prior to Yayha Jammeh was Omar el-Bashir, a
man supervising the Janjaweed genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan
while AU meeting was taking place in the capital Khartoum. And I can go
on and on. But for a few African leaders (Yahya Jammeh not included),
hosting AU is in itself neither a credible entry in anyone’s diplomatic
resume nor a credential for foreign policy accomplishment.
In the overall scheme of things, Yahya Jammeh is a total waste of time,
opportunity and resources on the foreign policy front. Since his coming
to power through the back door, The Gambia has suffered a linear
regression of isolation from the international community, and a
battered reputation to repair; all thanks to his squandering of
opportunities time and again, radioactive personality, sheer
incompetence, and bad governance. On the domestic ground, he may
purport himself the proverbial second-coming of Jonathan Swift’s
Man-Mountain in Gulliver’s Travels, but on the international scene, he
is the true converse: a Lilliputian in influence. The Gambia needs a
fast-track to reputable recognition both in the region and beyond. And
to do that, Yahya Jammeh needs to be retired this September to the
status of a private citizen whose democratic participation is limited
to voting for others.
While “it is time for Jammeh to go,” the people must not buy into the
simple argument that any change is better. The Gambia does not have a
fresh start in UDP and its “unequal coalition” partner NRP, but rather
a continuation of policies that breed failure. You do not have to
believe me on this one; just listen to their own propagandists who
confess out of frustration that their presidential candidate, Lawyer
Darboe, is in fact a “quiet man.” How could anyone be both a lawyer and
a politician, and end up being a quiet man? That is indeed stranger
than strange! If they choose to be quiet, fine; but The Gambia cannot
afford to be represented by a silent man in this age of proactive
national interest in conferences of nations.
The most dramatic pointer to the inability of UDP/NRP to negotiate
Gambia’s national interest in any bilateral, regional or multilateral
engagements is their dismal performance in making a deal for their own
political careers in the founding of NADD. Lawyer Darboe has spent all
his professional life as a lawyer and Hamat Bah has spent most of his
political life making laws in the National Assembly, and they could not
read between the lines a simple memorandum of understanding they signed
in a ceremonial media event? They almost convinced me in their apology
that their signature to the unity opposition memorandum was a
“mistake.” But when they later turned around in their face-saving
measure to claim that they “know the laws of the Gambia,” my reaction
was categorically dismissive: Give me a break. These shifting positions
perfectly confirm the truth that in their political dictionary,
contradiction is a policy of consistence. They must not be trusted to
act responsibly on behalf of The Gambia’s foreign obligations and
interests. So much is at stake for a country that desperately needs a
fresh start on proactive pragmatic foreign policy.
There is no doubt in any circle of views that the NADD flag bearer,
Halifa Sallah, is the ultimate negotiator. He embodies the right
balance for successful foreign policy. This is not just this writer’s
conclusion. It is also the conclusion of the conference of African
intellectuals in Dakar, which delegated him with the former Malian
president Alpha Omar Konare to address the UN in Geneva on its behalf.
It is also the conclusion of the UNDP that had been courting him to
work for them in Geneva. It is also the conclusion of the nascent
Pan-African Parliament that delegated him (as a distinguished member)
the rapporteur of a fact-finding mission in the troubled region of
Darfur, Sudan. He is a familiar presence in the UK Labour Party
conventions. He is an international standing with a precision for
judgment: he comprehends the implications of commitments from the
beginning, and anticipates outcomes long before they materialize. What
more could The Gambia ask for?
NADD is the way forward. Vote NADD this September.
[This is the Fourth in a series of Ten Articles.] |
Posted on Friday, August 18, 2006 (Archive on Sunday, August 06, 2006)
Posted by PNMBAI Contributed by PNMBAI
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