IN DEFENSE OF THE GAMBIA BAR ASSOCIATION:

KAYJATTA

Recently, there is so much attorney bashing and attacks on the Gambia Bar Association for its perceived past inaction in matters that were purely socio- political and therefore outside the mandate of the legal association.
I have a different take...
The Gambia Bar Association (GBA) is an association of lawyers and judges. It is a professional body largely tasked with safeguarding professional integrity and the interests of its members concerning the practice of law.
Therefore, the Gambia Bar association is not a political body for the simple reason that different members of the bar have different political views and perhaps loyalty to different political parties. While members of the bar are officers of the court, the Bar is not considered part of the government or the judiciary.
The Gambian Bar has every right and mandate to come to the defense of Attorney Moses Richards in the charges of defamation (of the President) pending against him. As a fee-paying member of the bar, that much is owed to him. However, the Bar does not owe the same or similar obligation to a purely general political interest such as opposition to a particular political regime or political practice. The mandate to change political order belong only to the Gambian people, not the Bar Association. Hence "power belong to the people". If the Gambian people wish to change their political and economic conditions, they will have to get up and do it themselves. The Gambian attorneys are doing a great job under very difficult conditions to defend accused persons against the state, and recently they have prevailed in some very importatnt cases.
The arrest and prosecution of Mr. Richards for making statements that are protected under the law in his circumstance  and capacity is an appropriate occasion for the Bar to act, just like the 'attack' on the Parkistani judge spurred the intervention of that county's bar association (and or individual lawyers) leading to the ouster of President Gen. Musharaf.
The Gambian bar has led the way by writing a protest letter to the government followed by a strike. That alone is a brave move worthy of commendation.The civil society could "compliment their effort" {to use a Gambian cliche :)} and follow suit and help crack down on the APRC regime. Beside the Bar Association and the former Student Union, there is no single civil society group, not even the Gambia Press Union (GPU), who is so far the biggest victim of the government, that has ever confronted the military government this far.
This is a moment of encouragement, not condemnation...