Crafting A Better Gambia
Our Goals
To ensure that the state exists for the people and not the people for the state, and further underscore that Government is not an end in itself but a means to promote liberty, dignity and prosperity. PDOIS aims to pursue and achieve the following goals: Liberty for all, Equal Justice for all, Equal Representation for all, adequate income for all, education for all, health for all, housing for all, clothing for all, food for all, safe environment for all, access to information and media for all, recreation for all, protection at old age for all (or in case of any infirmity) and Freedom from Discrimination for all.
HOW TO ACHIEVE THEM
A. INCOME FOR ALL
a) To eradicate an economy with a narrow capital, investment, production and taxation base, by focusing on prospecting and harnessing minerals, oil and other resources which are sources of Sovereign National Wealth for public sector use in promoting infrastructural development, sustainable and timely loan repayment scheme, and the provision of social services, thus enabling the government to rationalise taxation by making it affordable and sustainable, while promoting capital formation from all sectors of the economy, public, private, cooperative and informal, to ensure a balanced and proportionate growth of the productive base of the economy to eradicate poverty and promote prosperity.
b) Encourage the Private sector to be an engine for mobilising capital and foreign direct investment for productive private sector investment, so that it would complement the aim of promoting poverty eradication and the enhancement of general welfare through the discharge of corporate responsibility.
c) The cooperative sector will be an engine for accumulating Cooperative finances to support family farms, create small scale processing of grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables and milk products with appropriate technology for grassroots development. Cooperative Banks and marketing cooperatives would enhance processing by purchasing value added products from small scale producers and provide refrigeration and transportation facilities to markets.
B. LIBERTY AND EQUAL REPRESENTATION FOR ALL:
POLITICAL
a) Ensure that all instruments, institutions and normative practices associated with governance, are designed to affirm and consolidate the sovereignty of the citizen and protect and enlarge the liberty, dignity and prosperity of all.
b) A commission of Gambian jurists will be constituted to conduct a review of the Constitution and laws that different stakeholders deem to be unreasonable and unjustifiable in a democratic society, in consultation with the wider public and propose reforms that will be followed by a referendum.
c) Combat monarchical and self-perpetuating rule of the Presidency by promoting a national consensus on a one term mandate after transfer of power from the current administration, followed by a constitutional amendment to introduce a two four-year term limit, as is the case in Nigeria and the USA;
d) Introduce Gender parity for two thirds of Cabinet posts and subject appointments and dismissal of Ministers to National Assembly approval;
e) Introduce proportional representation for two thirds of the seats in Parliament, so that one third of the membership will ensure gender parity and institutionalise it in preparing a selection list for the would-be occupants of those seats;
f) Eliminate the post of nominated members and replace it with a policy of proportional representation;
g) A Special Service Commission will appoint the Chief Justice subject to approval by the president and the National Assembly. It will appoint judges and magistrates in consultation with the Judicial Service Commission. Judges and magistrates will be subject to removal only for misconduct or infirmity after a hearing before a tribunal, and the removal of judges will require impeachment proceedings by the legislature.
h) Ensure Security of tenure of parliamentarians by subjecting them to removal only through the exercise of the right to recall by the electorate.
i) Encourage separation between party, business and state by requiring Presidents to surrender party leadership positions, entrust their businesses to trustees and concentrate on being every body’s President at all times.
j) Implement decentralisation and devolution of power by replacing Governors with Regional permanent Secretaries representing the Ministry for Regional Administration.
k) Establish elected councils to administer villages, districts and regions.
l) Establish a jury system for district tribunals. The Chiefs who now preside over such tribunals will no longer be appointed or removed by the executive and will have no executive function, instead they will be appointed by the Judicial Service Commission because of competency in the administration of codified customary law consistent with rights and freedoms to serve as presidents of district tribunals. They could be removable only through impeachment proceedings for reasons of misconduct or infirmity ascertained by a tribunal.
C. JUSTICE FOR ALL:
CIVIL
We aim to ensure:
a) The eradication of laws, institutions and law enforcement practices which hinder freedom of expression and undermine the security of a Sovereign person, or do not protect and enlarge liberties, rights, security, safety and freedom of Sovereign people.
b) The enactment of laws, establishment of institutions and law enforcement practices which enlarge and protect rights and freedoms. We will ensure that conventions on fundamental rights and freedoms that are ratified by parliament will automatically be domesticated by promulgating relevant provisions in the Constitution. The promulgation of a Freedom of information Act to remove secrecy from public administration and make administrators accountable to the public they serve, and responsive to enquiries of the media that are supposed to keep people informed. The Review of the Criminal Code to decriminalise provisions that are not reasonable or justifiable in a Republic or Democratic society, and rationalise penalties to be equivalent to crime committed. Conduct reform of law enforcement agencies and practices.
c) Establish a National Human Rights Commission to monitor and ensure protection against violations of Human Rights. Educate people on their fundamental rights and freedoms and promote democratic and Republican values and consolidate social justice.
d) Conduct reform of prisons and prison administration. Introduce community service as alternative to imprisonment measures to eradicate retributive justice. Build community police relationship. Establish a National Police Service Commission and a National Prison Service Commission to appoint police and prison staff. Establish a National Prison Supervisory Committee and subcommittees to replace the current prison visiting committees to monitor prison conditions and ensure proper administration of prison services. Imams of major mosques and Priests of major churches, union leaders and leaders of registered civil societies or associations, will be honorary human rights commissioners and social auditors who will visit police cells, prisons and other places of detention to check conditions and make representation for compliance with laws, or propose improvement or reforms in the administration of such public institutions.
e) Establish National Council of Media Practitioners as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism and a means to promote professionalism in media practice.
D. EDUCATION, HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY FOR ALL SOCIAL
a) To build a community of sovereign citizens whose sense of belonging to a community of Gambian nationals will be put above other identities, and who take it as a duty to give to the community what it requires to safeguard the liberty, dignity and prosperity of all
b) Construct a Governance environment involving people organised into civil associations to serve as social auditors who will scrutinise, criticise and restrain tendency towards misrepresentation, bad governance, mismanagement and impunity on one hand, and on the other, serve as the ears, eyes and mouths of the people who will speak truth to the authorities in defence of legitimate individual and public interest.
c) Promote strong community relations as a means of preventing alienation and its attendant problem of crime and harmful social behaviour.
E. CULTURAL
a) Promote and preserve cultural heritages that enhance human dignity, self-worth, liberty and prosperity and thus fuse identities and values originating from diverse cultural backgrounds into identity and values of Sovereign Community of Sovereign Gambian citizens in a Republic.
b) Combat vestiges of prejudices emanating from ethno-linguistic origins, monarchical and caste systems, religious prejudices, gender stereotypes and other practices which undermine the integrity of a sovereign person in particular and diverse groups in general,
c) Establish a house of culture in each village, district, region and urban centre for artistic and other cultural expressions, in order to promote appreciation of each other’s origins and ensure respect for the upholding of republican and democratic values and ways of life of a Sovereign people.
F. ECOLOGICAL
a) Manage air, land and sea in such a way that liberty and prosperity will be enhanced without putting into jeopardy the liberty, dignity and prosperity of future generations through improper management. b) Integrate environmental impact assessment before any action is taken that could affect the environment at village, district, regional and national levels.
G. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
PDOIS aims to give concrete expression to the aspiration to transform the world into a universal home for human kind, where each nation, big or small, will cooperate, and sub regions and continents will establish Communities of states, and even federations, that will co-exist with similar entities, in the spirit of good neighbourliness, equality and mutual interest, and provide to each sovereign person enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social, cultural and ecological rights.
H. REGIONAL INTEGRATION, CONTINENTAL UNITY AND INTERTANTIONAL COOPERATION
a) Promote Sub-regional Integration, African Unity and International Cooperation with the Commonwealth and UN member states through adoption and harmonisation of Republican and Democratic values, instruments, institutions and culture at all levels, so that sovereign Communities of free and dignified persons, rooted in social justice, will thrive everywhere to ensure enjoyment of a life of liberty in prosperity and thus guarantee world peace and security.
b) Enter into a cooperation agreement with our neighbour Senegal, to establish a joint commission of jurists to review constitutional and legal instruments regarding governance with a view to harmonising, standardising and adopting them to promote regional integration and African Unity on a democratic foundation that will serve as a pillar to uphold the fundamental rights of our peoples.
