Interior Minister Abdoulie Sanyang has told lawmakers yesterday that the police are adopting a community policing approach against tribal remarks made in political campaign platforms as opposed to arrests or prosecutions, in order to avoid unnecessary tensions in the country.
Minister Sanyang said this while responding to several lawmakers who confronted him about his ministry’s failure to tackle ethnic politics by not prosecuting offenders.
The lawmakers referenced recent reported instances of hate speech made by people close to the corridors of power.
“We expect your ministry to take action against these influential individuals within the corridors of power but your office did nothing to them,” Hon Yahya Gassama of Kiang East charged the minister.
The minister replied that his ministry is implementing a series of measures against tribalism and other forms of segregation which are “not only limited to arrests and prosecution” but engaging political leaders, politicians and their supporters to reject divisive narratives and embrace the values of national unity, peace, co-existence and respect for diversity.
“The fight against tribalism and discrimination is not only an electoral concern but an all-time national security concern. This is not a measure that will wait until an incident occurs.
Instead, the approach requires proactive measures rather than reactive ones, and the objective is to identify emerging tension early enough, engage the relevant communities and take lawful remedial action to promote national security and public peace,” Minister Sanyang, himself a former police chief, said.
He said the objective of community policing is not only to arrest but to use other methods to achieve the desired results, in this case, total eradication or reduction of tribal remarks.
“Police naturally do not want to resort to measures that will increase tension during political times when campaigns are everywhere and people talking uncontrollably. So the idea is to engage them so that they don’t make tribal remarks in the first place,” Minister Sanyang told the Assembly.
