Given the current situation in the country, Foroyaa put this question to Halifa Sallah, and he gave the following answer.
Every decent Gambian who worked for change in 2016 and was politically literate had the aim to build a democratic society that will safeguard the fundamental rights of the citizenry and ensure national cohesion, peace and security. It was expected that the executive, the National Assembly and the judiciary will work in harmony to make it possible for each to contribute its quota towards building a Gambia where the people, despite their diversity, will agree to put the past behind and in the supreme interest of the country, work together for the common good.
It was anticipated that those elected to formulate and implement policies and execute laws would perform their duties to the best of their abilities without fear or favour, affection or ill will to promote the common good.
It was equally envisaged that the National Assembly will pass bills to become laws and monitor government institutions to ensure that they perform their functions in the interest and for the development of the country and her people.
An independent and impartial judiciary was expected to oversee the administration of law and dispensation of justice so that citizens will be protected from the excesses and abuse of authority to eradicate impunity.
The beneficiaries of such an order, where all the institutions exist to serve the common good, should have been a sovereign Gambian people with the highest level of political literacy who would never again be subjected to arrests, detention, torture, inhumane and degrading punishment because of their maturity in knowing how to exercise their rights, not only to criticize and scrutinize the manner of management and administration of the institutions of the state, but also to campaign and change governments when they are deemed not to be performing up to expectation of the citizenry.
The happenings these past days, weeks and months are beginning to show that neither the sovereign Gambian citizens that were expected to take charge of the destiny of the country to determine its manner of government and authority in peace, nor the institutions that were expected to protect them and serve their interest without ever using any instrument of coercion against them are in place. Gambia is indeed at a crossroads waiting for mature leaders and citizens to save her.
It is only a political future where a government is committed to governing according to the Constitution and laws of the land, and is expected and allowed to do so by its opponents, who are also respected and allowed to hold it to account for missteps and misrepresentations, could there be a peaceful coexistence between the government and their opponents.
Where a government holds utter disregard for the Constitution and laws of a country and the citizenry display utter disregard for constitutional and lawful conduct, national cohesion would be disrupted and peace and security would be the casualty. Such an end would constitute total betrayal of the aspirations of the pioneers of the 2016 change.
