Post Jammeh – The legal silence in drumming up ethnic animosity isn’t helpful
By SULAYMAN BOKAR BAH
Since we as a people are fatalistic, and do not study our circumstances or act on credible findings to provide preventive measures, the country is likely going to be set in flames by some politicians in their strategic efforts to delegitimise one another.
In 2018, The Fatu Network quoted Ba Tambedou saying that “Jammeh had bequeathed to the new government a deeply polarized society based on ethnic and political considerations, which had simmered beneath the façade of peaceful co-existence”.
In 2017, the EU Election Observation Commission made two observations in relation to the surge of ethnic politics in The Gambia:
- The UDP appeals for the support of the Mandinka and the Manjago communities in Kanifing, in West Coast Region and in Lower River Region.
- Similar efforts were made by the GDC to call for the votes of the Fula community in the Lower River Region.
In 2018, Lie Saine recorded a 21 minutes long WhatsApp audio calling the Mandinkas “selfish, hypocritical and wicked”.
In 2020, Aji Yam Secka made a “badingyaa faasa” tour asking Mandinkas to vote for Darboe. From inception, the NPP has also been fanning accusatory ethnic politics against the UDP in several political gatherings. Dembo Bojang`s recent speech exemplifies the tension of tribal politics.
Scholars observed that The Gambian law is virtually silent on matters of ethnic politics beyond a minimalist interpretation of non-discrimination, and a ban on ethnically based political parties.
We need a government that will take an expressive legal and policy stance on ethnicity before it becomes too late.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Monitor’s editorial stance.
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