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Momodou
Denmark
11805 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Jan 2006 : 21:51:50
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The following interview is a continuation of this topic: http://www.gambia.dk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=189
INTERVIEW WITH HALIFA SALLAH:
Foroyaa: The public notices in the media that you were at large after allegations of subversive activities had been made against you struck the country like a thunderbolt from the blue. What is responsible for this?
Halifa: Infact on Tuesday 15th November 2005 I spent sometime at home to coordinate the trip of the Select Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development I was due to attend the November/December session of the Pan African Parliament. Our going was still uncertain and I was trying to clarify issues with the Department of State for Finance. I went to the Foroyaa office around midday and later to the Peoples' Centre to attend to what is essentially a social clinic. Anybody who wanted to trace me should have been able to do so without any difficulty. I am still in doubt regarding the motive of the announcement.
Foroyaa: Why are you in doubt?
Halifa: When people continued to call my office number to indicate that an announcement had been issued that I had disappeared in connection with allegation pertaining to subversive activities I called Radio Gambia to tell Seringe Faye that the announcement was false; that I was in my office and will not report to any Police Station, that anybody who had instruction to arrest me should come to my office to do so and that I will go willingly to answer to any charge. My phone kept on ringing as people made enquiries only to have me on the line. I must say that a lot of damage was done to the integrity of the Radio and TV by continuing to announce what many people considered to be untrue. The worst scenario was the fact that some people suspected that I had been eliminated and that the announcement that was nowhere to be found was a cover up. They became relieved only after speaking to me. I really believe that such announcements are very unhealthy during times peace. They belong to war situations.
Foroyaa: Have you been charged with subversion?
Halifa: I have said it again and again that I can never be part of a government that is brought to office without the popular consent of the absolute majority of the Gambia electorate. I have not only declared this but had rejected ministerial posts offered by the present regime because of its manner of coming to office. I strongly subscribe to government by popular consent and I am fully committed to a political system where opponents struggle to win the hearts and minds of the people. No State will ever find me guilty of subversive activities at this stage of my life. I stood for election twice within as period of five year and won. I do not need any shortcut to public office. A post, to me, is a position of service not one of privilege. I would occupy a political post only if the popular will is expressed for me to serve.
Foroyaa: What are the charges?
Halifa: The charges read in Court on 18th November 2005 are in connection with something I am alleged to have said in an interview with The Independent Newspaper. In its 1-4 August 2005 edition as well as something I have allegedly published in November 2005, which is considered to be false.
Foroyaa: All your charges are in connection with something you have said or published?
Halifa: Yes
Foroyaa: You are not charged for giving information to Senegal?
Halifa: Let me tell you one thing. When President Wadda was a Minister of State under Ex-President Joof's government he organised a Conference for Intellectuals in Senegal. At the end of the conference they selected two participants from Francophone and an Anglophone country to deliver a message to the Heads of State of Africa regarding the position of intellectuals on the State of the African continent. It was President Wadda who pointed me out to say that for the Anglophone group. I had distinguished myself to be elected. The group concurred. Needless he says, I have attended conferences with Mr. Djbo Kah, Professor Abdoulie Batchilly and the leaders of AND Jel had been our contemporaries.
How can such people respect us tomorrow if we find ourselves in government if we transform ourselves into informers and liars? Regarding allegations of being informers to Senegal I should be counted out. Infact I strongly urged the President to reveal the names of the persons rather than accuse the opposition in Senegal.
Foroyaa: The accusations and counter accusations between Government and opposition are rampant. Does this augur well for peaceful coexistence in the country?
Halifa: NADD has seized the peace initiative. As long as I am alive the Gambian people will combat the APRC regime with their ballot. They will be educated to know that leaders do not have power. They are of mere caretakers of the power of the people. They will be educated to free themselves from mystifying the exercise of power to arrest, detain and imprison people. They will be guided to know that it is their votes that will replace one caretaker of peoples' power with another; that they should back their dissatisfaction with any method of exercising power by refusing to vote for these who fail to build an open society that guarantees liberty, dignity and prosperity and vote for those who are likely to build a free and open society.
Foroyaa: What lesson can you draw from your experience in detention?
Halifa: I have two novels in mind that I have little time to write. One will be entitled "The Cracks of Dawn" and the other "Voice Behind the Wall." Both will be fictions that will help readers to know the importance of "liberty as the heart of life." My prison experience reinforced my conviction that the heart of life is liberty. The first most precious thing to a human being is life. The second most precious thing is liberty. Life without liberty loses its creative powers and remains fettered by bars and walls. The loss to people and society of such creative powers is unquantifiable.
Foroyaa: Can you give us an idea of what the two novels entail?
Halifa: The cracks of dawn came in mind during the early hours of the morning when I looked outside my maximum security cell and saw a lizard trying to find food from the crack on the wall surrounding the prison. How can life be denied from cracks on a dry wall? This gives a real meaning to the notion that in the midst of adversity one must look for a crack of light at the end of the turn. The novel will go into scenes on how liberty can be put in chains and then show why one should believe that behind every dark cloud the golden sunlight is waiting to shine.
Foroyaa: What about the Voices Behind the Wall?
Halifa: The novel "The Voices Behind the Wal" seeks to capture the seemingly imaginary voices of prisoners. It is amazing how people sent to prison for one reason or another could develop a sense of community that surpassed the communities left behind. The whole setting for "Voices behind the wall" developed when I heard a young Nigerian detainee crying out to his lord all night for salvation. He has been detained for 2 years without judgment. The Chief Justice and the Secretary of State or Interior need to visit the prisons and check the number of prisoners who have been there for years without their cases being heard or judgment being passed. The voices behind the wall speak with the voice of silence. One can read the mind of those sentenced to death who display a spirit of sharing that defies all notion of a murder convict. It amplifies the aspirations of those who were almost becoming eventually ill and are no longer capable of maintaining proper sanitation. It reflects the spiritual devotion of those who master the Quran or Bible in prison as well as the intellectual devotion of those who yearn for libraries, correspondence courses, skilled centres, canteens, occupational preparation and so on. Voices behind the wall are voices from prison reform and its transformation into correctional institution rather than a punitive or penal one. It presents prisoners as human beings whose lives are in transition and who are entitled to fundamental rights and freedom other than the deprivation of their liberty due to their imprisonment.
Foroyaa: What effect did the detention have on you?
Halifa: The experienced has enriched my conscience for social justice. There is need to review the social value of long custodial sentence. There is a general view that deterrence to certain crimes will be enhanced by increasing the term of imprisonment. This requires sociological research. The Department of State for Interior needs to do a research on the lives of those who are serving long prison sentences. Some are likely to spend the best part of their youth in prison only to come out to be social misfits. Society must find alternatives to custodial sentences such as community service programmes to give the convict social conscience and enable him/her to live a productive and contributive life.
Furthermore, the state should examine the logic of remanding those who have not been charged or tried in the isolation cells of maximum security prisons. This serves to harden people who otherwise would raise much national concern for those people have supply reported to court after receiving police bail.
Foroyaa: What is the way forward between government and opposition?
Halifa: I strongly call on the APRC leadership to contact the IEC and give them assurance that its representatives will sign and implement the Memorandum of Understanding prepared under the auspices of the Commonwealth. This is the way forward if we desire peace and tranquility in our country.
One day or the other opposition and government must close the chapter of confrontation and open up the chapter of peaceful coexistence in diversity. Power does not belong to government or opposition. It belongs to the people. Both government and opposition should do what will enable our people to gain liberty dignity and prosperity. None should desire to preside over a government that will increase the poverty, oppression and unhappiness of our people. This is the verdict of the sovereign people of the Gambia and it is incontrovertible.
Foroyaa: Finally, we have gathered that you were nominated to be flag bearer for NADD but that you had asked for the nomination to be withdrawn; can you explain what is going on?
Halifa: There is popular demand for NADD to select its standard bearer/flag bearer. The method of selection is spelt out in the MOU. The most desirable method is selection through consensus building; the second method is to rely on voting by party supporters on the basis of equal representation. In my view, the consensus principle requires mutual consultation among the members of the executive until a candidate acceptable to all is found. It should not be based on lobbing, party consideration or factional approaches. The Memorandum of Understanding is very clear. The NADD presidential candidate will undertake commitment neither to seek a record mandate immediately after serving for five years nor supporter another party or candidate in the next following election. This calls for impartially and neutrality. If this is the case, then the best method of selection is mutual consultation rather than parties putting up their own candidates and lobbying other parties to support them. NADD was created to enable us to rise above individual party loyalties and assist us to establish a united front that will be also led by a presidential candidate whom all executive members could trust. Such a candidate must be capable of maintaining unity among the leadership, and among the supporters of the different parties, inspire trust in the country to attract the support of the non party voters or those who support the ruling party. The members of the executive should enter into dialogue to look for a unifying figure to be the caretaker of the transition process.
Foroyaa: If you withdraw from party nomination how will you be selected?
Halifa: I was made a Coordinator by people I did not share party affiliation with. At this moment I will resign as Coordinator if any member of the executive expresses opposition to my holding of the post. This gives me integrity. In the same vein I will never seek the mandate to be NADD flag bearer nor will I ever accept the office unless it is unanimously agreed to offer it to me. I am not interested in offices. I simply want to serve in any capacity that can promote the people's interest.
Foroyaa: The postponement of the rally in Brikama, the repeated promises are beginning to force people to raise questions regarding the ability of the NADD leadership to come to a decision.
Halifa: Contradictions are inherent in all things. Developments come through struggle. The members of the NADD leadership are confronting each other and each of them is being confronted. What is best for this nation or what is second best must emerge. What is important is that the process is taking place. The outcome is just a matter of time. It is then that we can pass judgment on the process and NADD itself. At the moment each should play a part to resolve the question rather then lament or raise alarm.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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