Analysis

Gambians endure another embarrassment

By D. A. Jawo, Banjul The Gambia

Once again, Gambians have been dealt another devastating embarrassment, with the recent expulsion of the UNICEF Country Representative in The Gambia, Ms Min Whee Kang, no doubt without any tangible reason or justification.

  This is yet another diplomatic blunder, which has now become a hallmark of the Yahya Jammeh regime.

We can recall that this is the third such high profile expulsion of a senior diplomat, after the expulsion in 2001 of the deputy British High Commissioner Bharat Jossy, for flirting with the opposition, and that of the UNDP Resident Representative and Coordinator of the UN system in The Gambia, Ms. Fadzai Gwaradzimba, for making some unsavoury comments about Yahya Jammeh’s unsubstantiated claims that he has cure for HIV/AIDS.

While, as usual, the regime is keeping quite mute as to the reasons why they took such unceremonious action against Ms Min, there are indications that it has got something to do with a UNICEF report on the deplorable situation of Gambian children which the regime was not happy with.

This is indeed yet another clear indication of the regime’s sensitivity and intolerance to any form of criticism, and that it is only willing to accommodate those who sing praises to Yahya Jammeh and treat him like God Almighty.

This latest episode no doubt, firmly puts our dear country more under the radar as a pariah state that needs to be closely monitored. Certainly, Gambians do not deserve such frequent embarrassments through such unmitigated rash actions by our political leadership.

Therefore, it would be quite interesting to see how the United Nations and the international community would react to these latest antics by the regime. Are they going to continue to take it as just another tantrum of an African dictator or are they going to decisively respond to this challenge to international authority and withdraw any cooperation with the Jammeh regime until such time that it recognizes and respects international diplomacy and norms?

Whatever the case however, it is The Gambia that stands to lose. The country is just too weak politically and economically to withstand any sustained barrage of sanctions and pressure from the international community.

Indeed, the regime’s jaundiced views of what constitutes international diplomacy do not auger well for The Gambia’s credibility and acceptance among the comity of civilized nations. If Yaya Jammeh indeed wants to play God and demand absolute obedience from his subjects, it would be a sad error if he also wants to impose such on members of the international community. While Gambia’s civil servants and the general public can accept such demeaning antics from the regime, we cannot see how the international community would take it lying down.

However, if indeed the UN and the international community still want to play ball with Yahya Jammeh regardless of the frequent provocations and excesses of his regime, then they would deserve whatever they get in return. It is therefore, high time that they confronted the regime head-on to let President Jammeh realize that those days of absolute dictatorship and a cult syndrome are over, and he has to either conform to accepted international norms and values or risk being demonized and cast aside by the international community.

Indeed, it is hard to see how such an economically weak nation like The Gambia can withstand a sustained international pressure for any length of time. We have just seen what has happened in Niger when President Mamadou Tandja defied common sense and international opinion by transforming himself into a dictator, just because he was power-hungry and did not care about the feelings of his own people and that of the international community.