By Mathew K Jallow

Recently, Yahya Jammeh said and did two things that are significant. He commanded his entire senior henchmen to Kanilai to deliberate on a dream as remote as the ends of this universe. Then while there, Jollofnews reports that he denied being a tribalist. The latter somehow makes sense to me, but the first, consists of a dream drawn from the depths of lunacy. If tribalism is described as a hatred of tribes other than the one someone is born into, as many of our fellow citizens are, then surely Jammeh is not a tribalist, because I do not for a minute believe that Jammeh hates other tribes, but his actions are tribalistic in nature, and that is exactly how many bureaucrats behaved during the Jawara era. It is Jammeh’s actions that will speak to us louder than his voice, because by treating other tribes in a manner that degrades their humanity and denies them fundamental rights, he is creating divisions, acrimony, and anger in them. And by showing preference in accessing opportunities to his fellow Jola tribesmen at the exclusion of other tribes that have equal rights, nothing that Jammeh says matters to the rest of us, it is what he does that counts. Jammeh does not think of the long term consequences of his actions; that anyone who is now gaining unfair advantage over others by his regime’s sanction, stands to lose all their accumulated wealth. And the Jolas as the preferred tribe will stand to lose more than any other tribe. In terms of administration, nothing Jammeh and his regime have done is done right and according to time tested principles of effective and efficient management. As a result Jammeh and his gang of slaves must learn a basic lesson public administration; in other words; what it and what it is not. But my fervent belief is that they cannot change and now as the fate of the dalasi has been decided by market forces beyond their capacity to control, we are slowly edging in the direction of Zimbabwe, when people had a million shillings in their pocket, that was worth less than one U.S.$. It is only divide intervention that can stop his gathering storm, and making us a laughing stock of the world. Gambia will be the next Zimbabwe-like failed state in West Africa as merchants begin rejecting our currency for its worthlessness and decline in its purchasing power. This is inflation, but I bet they don’t know it yet. For Jammeh and his gang of thugs, below is a lesson in management of public institutions drawn from new and previously researched material and has been modified to hopefully fit newspaper publication.

Lesson One

Public Administration is defined as the art of managing the state apparatus to fulfill the objectives of governance. And the concept of governance can be viewed from a state-centric and society-centric perspective. From the state-centric perspective, administration focuses on how the state enhances the welfare of the citizens. Governments, through their bureaucratic structures assume responsibilities for executing programs, which promote citizen welfare, economic growth, and accountability. From a society-centric perspective, public administration focuses primarily on democratic relationships between society and government, while giving priority to democratic norms, participation, accountability and monitoring and evaluation. Such governance process must be institutionalized to ensure the survival of good governance and an effective and efficient public sector. Thus public administration represented by the bureaucracy and executive; from the local to national levels, is the key apparatus that executive the functions of the state or government. The pursuit of public administration is, therefore, the quest to rationalize procedure as the sole organizing and executing basis of government activities. To this end, procedural reform of the public service is necessary in order to promote efficiency; characterized by merit, professionalism, impartiality, and accountability. Deficiencies in democratic governance aggravate the culture of bureaucratic impunity, and failure in enforcing laws, rules and regulations is a primary weakness contributing to the indifference, laxity and lack of accountability and transparency. The essence of democratic governance is immutable and its basic principles universally acceptable and applicable. Governments must articulate and assert ownership of the universal principle of democratic governance. And the thrust towards good governance must involve the mobilization of government, private sector and civil society. The articulation of the challenges of governances and administration is of overarching importance, just as is working towards finding a solution for them. These challenges include, but not limited to, using the public sector, government bureaucracies and public institutions as vehicles for promoting democratic governance and sustainable development. The implementing public sector reforms and gearing such reforms towards achieving the long-term objective of making bureaucracies vehicles in promoting systems of governance, which are effective and efficient in the delivery of public services. It is important to remember how and why governments have failed, and the consequence of the public policies made in public administration and development, must reflect in the organizational and institutional form of administration and management. The success of administrative and bureaucratic reforms hinges on the imperative of reinventing the state and investing it in its people in a much more substantive way. Until now, bureaucratic incompetence, nepotism, corruption, and the absence of democracy and of any form of defined political philosophy, have become the defining characteristic of many states. The implementation of new reforms that introduce new norms and legal measures to guide and govern the bureaucrats and the governing class are necessary. It is these, rather than any tribal or ethnic affiliation that will solve existing social, economic, political problems facing most countries. The recruitment of younger professionals, guided by principles, rather than by narrow affiliation of tribe and ethnicity, will help to create a climate that is more conducive to the democratic process. More over, new institutions are needed to meet the demands of new and emerging democratizing societies. Such institutions must be spread around the countries, because experience has shown that existing institutions are generally concentrated in the capital cities.

The Millennium Challenge Account, is designed to promote and strengthen democracy, and calls for a creation of new incentive structures to help countries rebuild civil society. The failure of governance derives to some degree from the traditional patronage system found in most countries. This necessitates the development of systems to ensure probity, transparency, accountability and rejection of the existing dysfunctional systems. Good governance will require aggressive and sustained efforts that endow governments with high performing public sector institutions. The re-construction of state institutions and processes must be undertaken to promote the values of good governance, and executives and legislative branches must reflect the racial, ethnic, religious and regional profiles of their people. Accountability, greater citizen participation in the political processes, ability of every citizen to freely express them selves without fear of retribution must definitely be promoted, institutionalized and expanded. These are necessary interventions measures that can help develop a critical mass of capacity at individual, institutional and societal levels.

The calls of public sector reform were first articulated in a 1981 study report. That study identified a number of areas as militating against economic growth and equity. The need for good governance was identified as important in ensuring the behavior of the state was accountable, customer oriented and efficient. The notion of a good, efficient governance system was, therefore, related to the need to address issues of the internal apparatuses of the state, the public sector and the government bureaucracy. The bureaucracies must be accountable to the people, and be complemented by checks and balances, within as well as outside government and between government and civil society interests. A failure in this area has been an absence of the supportive mechanisms aimed at embedding methods of governance in the societal and governmental structures. The multilateral agencies and governments promoting effective democratic forms of governance call for participation in governance, reinforced by social accords that institutionalize democratic governance. The challenge facing bureaucracies now is how to define the roles that government and public administrations play in promoting democracy, economic growth, and development. Thus, it is necessary to investigate how a state and society relation, relations between executive, legislature and judiciary, relations between civil society and public sector, and relations within the government bureaucracy itself can be made more democratic and accountable to promote the long-term objectives of consolidating democracy and a sustainable human development.