The right to life and its preservation is the first
and most fundamental of all rights, it reigns supreme above all other rights;
for without life, what need is there to be free express anything?
Nothing in this life is free, absolutely nothing.
Something as natural as breathing has a price; every breath you take is a
breath towards that final breath. Every being has rights, and as citizens those
rights need safeguarding, but with rights come responsibilities.
Our actions, our utterances, our conduct as citizens
and members of societies are matters of choice but the general welfare and the
greater good overrides any individual or group rights. That needs to be borne
in mind anytime we act or utter a statement. Our individual choices however, are
not so sacrosanct that when our shared values are potentially at risk, one’s
actions or utterances should be ignored because it’s ‘their right.’
Irresponsible behavior and utterance by definition
negate the duty of responsibility that comes with the rights one has been
assured as a citizen or a member of the community. That responsibility is a
promise every citizen made when they claimed membership of that community; when
that promise is broken, through any act of irresponsibility, the culprit needs
to answer for it because it is breach of the social contract that every member
of the community is party to.
It seems we are currently so focused on our
individual rights that we fail to take into account the potential ramifications
of our utterances and actions as individuals or within a group. May be that is
not such a bad thing in the case of ordinary citizens like you and I, but even
in our case the very least that can be said of our irresponsible acts and utterances
is that they are selfish and amount to a breach of the social contract that we
must all uphold. The worst breach occurs when citizens who command support and
loyalty set a course for potential catastrophe by being irresponsible, and that
demands swift and urgent action.
The pseudo intellectualism we see being brandished
all over the place seems to have lost sight of the fact that politicians do not
get a free pass to set us on a trajectory aimed straight for doom and gloom in
the name of freedom of expression. If the advocacy is for a kind of multi-party
political environment is one in which anything goes, then maybe we are not
ready for it, but I’d like to think different.
The claim that Mama Kandeh or Fabakary Tombong Jatta
are being politically persecuted by the police is a flat lie and a dishonest
analysis by all who claim such without exception. Is it a case of amnesia or
blind hatred that we seem to forget the situation we are dealing with as
country; the thorny path we are trying to navigate away from the toxicity that
Yaya created? We are not the American or European democracy we keep getting
thrown at us. Even the deaf heard Yaya loud and clear when he made his hateful
utterance and did not stop there but acted to create clear divisions of favoritism
and hatred amongst us based on ethnic identity.
The situation was so bad that most observers feared
reprisals post Jammeh, not just towards those prominent in his administration but
by extension towards those he shared the same ethnic background with. That fact
was on the ground for all to see, but true to nature the pseudo intellectuals
are never in touch with reality as far as the daily lives of our poor kin are
concerned; badgering us with long incoherent monotony on their walls and blogs
is the one thing they excel at.
Post Jammeh, our fears were allayed by a unified
nation and political leadership who set out to immediately mend fences and
build bridges as is expected of any responsible leadership. If today, Fabakary
Tombong Jatta can use his position and influence to stoke the fuel of
sectarianism and make people feel marginalized and targeted for want of
political gain thanks to the free space we now enjoy that he and his ilk, including
Mama Kandeh denied us as members of the national assembly the pseudo
intellectuals are telling us to let them be; that it is their right?
What if the other parties start making similar
utterances, each appealing to a sizeable constituency; where then are we
headed? It is one thing for those who identify themselves as sympathizers of
one party or the other to make such outlandish utterances, but it is entirely a
different kettle of fish if a leader that wields influence makes similar
claims, they carry a heavier weight.
So while you fight to preserve your well cherished
freedom of expression that you have been denied for so long, remember the
average Joe who’d suffer should tensions build up and boil over due to such
irresponsibility. We get it, being gagged for so long and then having the gag
removed makes you gasp for air, but for goodness sake look at the bigger
picture here. See the potential for turmoil and join the people in preserving
the fragile peace we have. Don’t be so obtuse that you fail see the impending disaster
that we are headed for should the likes of Fabakary Tombong Jatta be given the
space to spread their toxicity. Politics of issues is one thing but politics of
ethnic baiting cannot be justified in any way, shape or form.
When it is said that “let us join hands and build
the nation” or “let us all do our quota in nation building”, this is one such
occasion. This is one such occasion where we join forces and in one unified
voice condemn such blatant divisive politics; there should be no tolerance for
it, period.
Bissi waay!
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