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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Jul 2009 : 10:38:23
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JULY 22: NO REVOLUTION IN THE GAMBIA.
INTRODUCTION
On July 22, 1994 disgruntled junior officers of the Gambia National Army (GNA) toppled the thirty-year old civilian government of Alhagie Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara. At the time of the July 22 military coup, the Gambia was enjoying relative peace and stability in a region severely mired in armed conflict.
The fall of Jawara’s PPP (peoples’ Progressive Party) government that ruled the Gambia since independence in 1965 was considered “…sad times “for African democracy. At the time of the coup, the Gambia was considered to have the longest serving democracy in Africa.
The coup of July 1994 in the Gambia was part of a trend in Africa that started in January 1963 when soldiers brought down the government of Silvanus Olympio in Togo. This event in Togo was quickly followed by Congo (DRC) and Benin in August and October, respectively, the same year (1963) when civilian governments in both countries were toppled. In 1966 Ghana and Nigeria followed.
Since then military coups and attempted coups have been a “yearly” occurrence in Africa: Nigeria (1966 and 1975 and several times afterwards), Ghana (1978, 1979,…), Gabon (1964), Angola (1977), Kenya ( 1982), Mali (1968), Sierra Leone (1968) Liberia (1980, 1989), Senegal (1962), Gambia (1981), Uganda (1971). The military have either toppled or attempted to topple governments in other countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Egypt, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, among others. ( Tordoff, W. 1990).
THE NATURE OF MILITARY REGIMES IN AFRICA:
Three types and characters of military regimes have been identified in Africa. They are caretaker, corrective and revolutionary regimes, (Dent, M. 1978).
The caretaker military regimes take over power only to oversee an election of a civilian government in a short period of time after which they step down and return to the barracks or retire completely. A recent example of this was Tumani Toure of Mali and the National Liberation Council (NLC) in Ghana, 1969.
Corrective military regimes, however, take over power to remedy serious problems in government, and as soon as that is accomplished they often relinquish power to civilians. William Tordoff observed this in both Nigeria under Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, and Obasanjo; and General Ankrah in Ghana.
Revolutionary regimes in Africa often come to power with profound ambitions to institute radical changes in the structure of government and society. They often have radical economic and cultural visions both for the short term and the long term.
Many revolutionary regimes, especially in the 1970s and afterwards, styled themselves alongside Marxist ideology.
Ideology, political education and re-awakening are central components of these regimes.
However, as Dent observed, many of these regimes falls far “…short of their revolutionary promise” (Tordoff, W. 1990).
JULY 1994 REVOLUTION?
The so-called revolution of July 22, 1994 is in fact not a revolution. There is a huge gap between ‘pretention and reality’. The AFPRC/APRC government, despite its rhetoric and lofty development ambition, at best is a reformist regime rather than a revolutionary one.
Since coming to power, despite its rhetoric, the AFPRC/APRC has no radical economic or cultural vision. The Jammeh government’s single area of emphasis is infrastructural development; everything else is a continuation of previous civilian government’s agenda. July 22, 1994, for fifteen years now, has not gotten rid of old ideas and structures for replacement with new economic and social relationships. Both economic and political power remains concentrated in the hands of a few army officers and civilian cronies in the private sector. The masses of Gambians remain poor or even poorer than they were under the civilian government that was toppled on July 22, 1994.
There is no political education or actual re-orientation of the masses, partly because the coup makers on July 22 have no political education themselves. There is also no ideological underpinning to differentiate AFPRC/APRC from the civilian government of Jawara’s PPP.
Instead of mass political education and re-orientation, decentralizing power into the hands of the people, and increased economic efficiency; widespread abuse of power and corruption continues to be the order of the day.
Therefore, Jammeh is not even a “reluctant revolutionary” as in the case of Saikou Toure (Guinea Conakry), and certainly there were no “Arusha Declaration” as in the case of Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.
Although Jammeh’s regime embraced rogue states like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and Taiwan, its foreign policy remains largely that in place in the previous Jawara administration.
Also Jammeh’s “Back to the Land” call which takes away productive land from the ordinary people and put them in the hands of a rich few is not helping his alleged revolutionary standing. The “Back to the Land” call by the APRC is no semblance to the “Green Revolution” of the Pakistan and Indian Punjab.
CONCLUSION:
The military regime of Yahya Jammeh, for fifteen years from July 22, 1994 to July 22, 2009 has not succeeded, as it promised, in seriously transforming the Gambian economic and social structures in any profound way. Poverty and inequality remains high and continues to increase. Apart from a hotchpotch of largely misguided and wasteful development projects, Jammeh’s rule continues to be remembered for its human rights abuses more than anything else.
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Edited by - kayjatta on 23 Jul 2009 10:40:54 |
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shaka
996 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jul 2009 : 18:28:57
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| Typical African intellectual. We love to theorize everything but we are never pragmatic. Life is not a book Kay. At least there is no known documented set of ideas that guarantee human perfection. Any such book is yet to be written. You do not have to have a "clearly defined ideology' to make a revolution. What is ideology anyway except a virtuous Utopian fantasy of a set of ideas and rules conceived by men to determine how you and i should live our lives. Men who will eventually come to believe that they have access to higher truth that would make for a perfect society, government or religious order. Has any set of ideology anywhere on this planet created the Utopian revolution that you claim Jammeh had denied Gambians. We had an ideological republican French revolution that came no where to creating a perfect France, a Chinese revolution that still lays siege to the sovereignty of the masses, a Cuban revolution that is still thinking 1960 or a Burkinabe revolution that stamped on individual freedom. They were all ideological revolutions yet all of them failed to produced the perfect society they preached. The French revolution murdered more than 50,000 French citizens in it's first year alone and they were not all kings, the wealthy and the aristocrats from whom power was seized in the name of the people. They include the revolutionaries themselves as well as poor masses. How many atrocities were committed by idealogical revolution and yet still continues to speak for and had the support of the poor masses. The purpose of revolution is change not ideology. Ideology is just a method of change not the purpose of a revolution. The notion that the Jammeh revolution lacks method is absolutely false. Operation No Compromise, Back To The Land, Clean The Nation as well as 'The West Can Go To Hell' among others might not be your Rousseau, Marxist or Maoist ideology but is ideology all the same. I will leave the complex definition of ideology to you intellectuals. At least try extending your definition to the poor Gambian mother contemplating how to feed her family or the farmer worrying how to sell some of his harvest and see how far you can go. You can romanticize with your perfect revolution all you want but i know that it does not exist. It's all in your head. What i do know is that the people believe in a Jammeh revolution and are wholly committed to it. I do not endorse his revolution neither do i celebrate it but i can only speak for myself. I have seen poor Gambians with barely a crumb of bread to eat but will look at you like another educated mad 'semester' with a burger brain who got no clue what the emperor had achieved, if you as much as try to tell them there is a lot left to be desired from the Jammeh regime. And i don't see this attitude changing any time sooner without a mass re-education of the people or denial of this fact by those who wished to see change. |
Edited by - shaka on 23 Jul 2009 19:39:03 |
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Santanfara
3460 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jul 2009 : 09:17:56
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very fine observations Kay, elaborate more time permiting.
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Surah- Ar-Rum 30-22
"And among His signs is the creation of heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colours. verily, in that are indeed signs for men of sound knowledge." Qu'ran
www.suntoumana.blogspot.com |
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turk
USA
3356 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jul 2009 : 11:25:42
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| shaka has stolen my ideas and get credit. |
diaspora! Too many Chiefs and Very Few Indians.
Halifa Salah: PDOIS is however realistic. It is fully aware that the Gambian voters are yet to reach a level of political consciousness that they rely on to vote on the basis of Principles, policies and programmes and practices. |
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shaka
996 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jul 2009 : 19:33:38
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You see why you shouldn't mess with me Turk. I can read your mind and see through your heart. The emperor has nothing on me. Thanks for the credit anyway.quote:
Originally posted by turk
shaka has stolen my ideas and get credit.
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