COLUMN | ‘Three Years Jot Na’: A Cause in Futility?
By Pa Louis Sambou If anyone was opposed to the ‘Three Years Jot Na’ (three years is due) holding their protest for fear that it would turn violent, today’s historic and textbook display of peaceful people’s power should reassure them that the notion that protests are risks to be avoid is one which holds no water. On the contrary protests are useful democratic tools which can be utilised peacefully and effectively; this has been proven by today’s march. Every democracy requires such in order to thrive. On this occasion, the authorities called it right at last by trusting in democracy and, not hindering the exercise of the right to free assembly. Likewise, the protesters could also not have conducted the exercises of their right to free assembly any better; it felt like a carnival with the only Smokey scent anyone would have sensed coming from the popular ‘attaya, bradda ak kaas’ (green tea being brewed) on the move rather than emerging from a torrent of rubber bullets or tear gas.