Dudu Kassa Jaata to government: Do not suppress dissent if you want to achieve ‘Never Again’

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By BABOUCARR CEESAY

Dudu Kassa Jaata, the acting chairman of the 3 Years Jotna and a political activist has called on government of President Adama Barrow to refrain from oppressing dissent if they want the country to achieve the Never Again objective.

Never Again is a slogan that depicts the prevention of reoccurrence of the human rights violation of the past 22 years of dictatorship under former President Yahya Jammeh.

He said neither the police nor the military should be involved in any forceful crowd dispersing whenever people take to the streets to protest peaceful.

Jaata made these remarks during an interview with The Monitor in the wake of a planned protest on November 11 by a group called Coalition of Progressive Gambians to influence the government to solve the issue of high cost of living among other pertinent matters.

“President Barrow and his team should do self-criticism. He said Barrowed promised the country that his government would reduce the prices of commodities, especially rice and other food stuffs which was received with hope by the people and went viral on social media,” he said.

He stated that when Barrow came to power the price of rice was about D1100 and the price skyrocketed to D1800, D2000 and even D300 depending on the quality.

As a result of the price hike in flour, the size of local bread called tapalapa that a strong man alone cannot finish is now reduced in size to the point that one can finish two or three loafs.

It is evident that cost of living is high and Gambian are facing extreme difficulties, adding that the problem of food, water, rent among other basic human needs made household face unbearable hardship in the country.

“There are numerous households that cannot afford to eat three square meals a day,” Dudu Kassa Jaata said, noting, “imagine having a family without food and basic needs. No responsible government should stop people from demonstrating as a way of expressing their grievance about issues affecting their lives negatively,”

He went further to state that instead of the government finding solutions to the problems, they keep pointing accusing fingers at United Democratic Party (UDP) branding as the party behind all the noise and actions against government.

“The opposition is not an enemy. It’s all about holding the government to account so as to rectify errors or deter them from wrongful acts. Scapegoating UDP is not rational as all protests comprise of people from different political parties and groups even though UDP has more followership among the opposition in the country,” he concluded.