Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue

Issue No. 50/2004, 24-27 June, 2004

Editorial

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BOYCOTTED BY SOME APRC NAMS TO CAMPAIGN IN JARRA

Many APRC Members of the National Assembly refused to attend the National
Assembly sitting of Tuesday 22nd June because of the fact that it coincided
with their campaign in Jarra West Constituency.

Interestingly enough, this is the day when a man by the name of George Aziz
should have been sworn in to replace Ramzia Diab.  The new Member of the
Assembly must have received a baptism of Ice Water when he sat for an hour
without having half of the number of the Members of the National Assembly in
the chambers to commence a meeting.  According to Section 104 Subsection (2)
of the Constitution “The quorum of the National Assembly at the commencement
of any sitting is one half of all the members.”

It should be noted by the public that the National Assembly now meets
quarterly every three months.  Important International agreements involving
the Mandinaba-Soma Road, which is in a dilapidated state, were among the
agreements to be considered.  The meeting had to be suspended.  Infact, the
other agreement involving the farming community would have to be ratified
before the end of September or be considered void.

Many of the National Assembly Members are campaigning in Jarra West for a
seat which each of them hold and should have given due regards.

Are people who can show gross disregard to the proceedings of the National
Assembly fit to campaign for a person to be elected a National Assembly
Member?  To have interest in a post while neglecting its responsibilities is
a sign of betrayal of public trust.

The people should draw lessons from this and consider who to elect as
National Assembly Members in subsequent elections.



Halifa Requests For Air Time
Following the broadcast by GRTS of statements made by the president and SoS
Edward Singhateh in Wuli and Sandu during the “dialogue with the people
tour”, Halifa Sallah, Minority Leader and National Assembly Member for
Serrekunda Central wrote the following letter to the Director General of
GRTS requesting for air time to respond to Jammeh’s derogatory remarks in
those places.



Having listened carefully to the broadcast of the Sandu and Taibatou
meetings during the President’s tour of the country on Saturday and Sunday
respectively I am compelled to address this letter to you to request for
airtime to reply to the President.  The dictates of equity imposes on you
the obligation to give us equal time and similarly hours to issue our
broadcast as had been accorded to the President and Edward Singhateh.

To be frank, I was indeed surprised that your media house would broadcast
insults, derogatory remarks, tribal sentiments and even irresponsible
threats to vandalize roads and other public services if they fail to vote
for him.  Such threats to destroy public property are a direct threat to
public order and constitutes gross misconduct.  In actual fact the President
cannot undermine our integrity.  He is simply putting the Office of the
President into disrepute and this confirms my frequent allegation that he is
not fit to preside over the affairs of a free dignified and sovereign
people.  He swore to defend the Constitution and claims to be a man of
faith.  However his conduct betrays his true na..

The President who has sworn on the Quran to defend a Constitution, which
says that he derived his authority from the people and should use it to
promote their welfare, can now stand before the people of Wuli and Sandu and
say that his votes did not come from the people.  That he would be elected
without the people and that if they do not accept his dictates he will
suppress their welfare and prosperity.  This is showing a contempt of his
oath.  It deeply puts into doubt whether the President has any respect for
the holy book he claims to revere to the point of accusing people who are
Ten Thousand times more respectful and well mannered than him of being
Pagans.

It is therefore necessary to appeal to you to give me airtime to dispel all
the distortions spread by the President.  I am not surprised that he says
“Billai, Wallai, Tallai” instead of pronouncing the words correctly in
Arabic is the “Ndogo” or sly way of pretending to take an Oath.

We are however not offended.  We only sympathize with the Gambian people who
have to put up with such humiliation, insults and degradation until they put
in office a President who truly accepts that the power he/she exercises
belongs to the people and the he/she should talk to them with respect to
merit their confidence and trust to retain him/her in office. Until then we
will take the opportunity to clarify issues anytime the President distort
the facts.

While anticipating that you will be true to the verdict of the Constitution,
which states that “All state owned newspapers, journals, radio and
television shall afford fair opportunities and facilities for the
presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinions.”

I remain,

Yours in the Service of the Nation



Halifa Sallah.



Lack of Quorum Disrupt National Assembly Sitting

The Third Sitting of the Second Legislative Session of the National Assembly
failed to take place on Tuesday because of lack of quorum due to the absence
of many of the APRC National Assembly Members.

The National Assembly, which has a total Membership of 53 members, sits only
four times in a year.  The Constitution of the Gambia has indicated in
Section 104 (2) “The quorum of the National Assembly at the commencement of
any sitting is one half of all the members.”

After a long wait by National Assembly Members who were present on Tuesday,
the Clerk of the National Assembly announced that the meeting has been
adjourned till the next day Wednesday, 23rd June 2004.  The Members who were
present in the National Assembly Chambers were, Honourables Hamat Bah,
Halifa Sallah, Sidia Jatta, Sheikh Omar Njie, Sulayman Joof, Alex Carvalho,
Kofi Green Harris, Edrissa Samba Sallah, Adama Cham, Samba Sallah, Kalifa
Jammeh, Amadou Khan, Belinda Bidwell, Suku Singhateh, Musa Sillah, Madi
Bojang, Selu Bah and Jane Coly Faye.

In short out of 53 members far less than half were present.  The Speaker was
supposed to swear in the newly nominated member George Aziz.  Tuesday’s
sitting was supposed to consider the reports on the National Assembly
Authority, Minutes of the Committee of Selection and the Committee on
Terrorism, Arts, Culture and Handicraft.  Two motions on loan agreements
were also to be considered: 1) A Motion of a Loan Agreement between the
Government of the Gambia and Islamic Development Bank for financing the OMVG
Agro-pastoral Development Project in the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea
Conakry and Senegal.  2) A Loan Agreement between the Republic of the Gambia
and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) for the
Mandinaba-Soma Road Project.

Colonel Baboucarr Jatta Testifies
Testifying in court in the ongoing treason trial involving Abdoulie Sonko
and the state, the Army Chief of Staff Baboucarr Jatta informed the court
that the violent military assault that took place in Farafenni Barracks in
1996, which claimed some lives, was perpetrated by the former and some of
his associates.

According to Jatta, he was in Fajara when the attack took place, noting that
he went to the scene two days after the attack. Colonel Jatta said he
mobilized his men and set out the plan for the arrest of the perpetrators of
the attack. He pointed out that Abdoulie Sonko escaped, but his
co-conspirators were apprehended at Bao Bolong. The Army Chief said the
perpetrators of the attack fired machine gun shots whilst noting that some
of the large quantity of arms and ammunition taken from the Farafenni armory
by the attackers was recovered by his men.

“It was a real battle. They used AK47 and machine guns. They also took some
mortars. Mortar is a tube gun and it has a radius of hundred metres”, he
remarked.

Colonel Jatta also told the court that his men seized some guns belonging to
the attackers. Asked by Mai Fatty to shed light on the whereabouts of the
weapons recovered from the attackers, the witness said the weapons are under
the custody of the Gambia Armed Forces. Asked why he did not bring the
weapons to court, Jatta said the prosecution did not ask him to do so.



Johé Ferry Problem due to Engine Failure
As promised in our last issue we got in touch with authorities of the Gambia
Ports Authority for their view on what caused Johé to lose control and
dangle offshore as it attempted to dock at the Barra Ferry Terminal.
According to the Technical Director of the Ferry Services, Mr. Gumbo Touray,
the problem was caused by an engine failure.

He noted that he himself was onboard the vessel at the time the problem
occurred.  He stated that upon examination he and his fellow engineers
discovered that a generator was not delivering electric power.  This caused
the pump, the lighting system and the engine, which derive power from the
generator, to go off.  As a result of the engine failure the ferry stopped.
While they were trying to solve the problem another ferry, Barra arrived on
time and assisted Johé to dock.  Mr. Touray explained that upon examination
of the generator they found that a foreign body choked its engine.  He
claimed that the ferry is now secure.

JAMMEH APPEARS MORE AND MORE DESPERATE AS THE DAY OF RECKONING FAST
APPROACHES

Going by the reports coming from the president’s so-called Dialogue With The
People Tour, one is forced to conclude that the day of reckoning is in sight
and President Jammeh himself is the first person to be aware of this fact.
This is why he is reacting through an unthinking way, as he is always known
to be. He was reported to have threatened to send any Secretary of State who
is heard saying that his government is responsible for this present hardship
to Baba Jobe’s Hotel (mile two prison); attacking the PDOIS leadership as
irreligious people; threatening to deprive any region in the country who do
not support him and his APRC party with votes of their share of the National
Cake and denying the fact that there is any hardship in The Gambia at all,
and blaming the people for being lazy and responsible for any hardship they
claim to be struggling with. He was even reported to have told the people of
Basse that God is punishing them for their ingratitude to him.

I think Jammeh is sighting the day of reckoning which he has always refused
to accept would ever come must have made him so depressed and desperate that
he could not control himself on what to say or do. He is just like a
drowning person who would try to hold onto anything, even as tiny as a straw
to save himself. But this is not the wise man’s way of reacting to difficult
situations. Wise men stay calm under all difficult circumstances and use
their intellect and not heart to work out reasonable and workable solutions
to address problems without aggravating them or causing more confusion. But
a big fool and a confusionist always does differently. They always resort to
measures that breeds more confusion and chaos which later backfires on
themselves. This is what the Gambian people are witnessing these days and
they should expect more of this until the day of reckoning, which is soon to
come. They are to witness the major sign of that day at the by election in
Jarr...
As the saying goes, ‘you can fool some people sometimes but you cannot fool
all the people all the time’. Now that we see the light, we’ve got to stand
up for our right and we shall never give up that fight.

Jammeh should realize that Gambians are not fools not to be able to
understand that he and his party, APRC are put in power not to enrich
themselves at their expense but to work to better their lives, and this was
what was promised to the people when they were seeking that office. On that
basis the people have empowered them to make good laws and better manage
their collective wealth that they put together in the form of taxes to
improve their lot. They have seen that it is the contrary that is happening.
Instead of making good laws to safeguard their democratic rights and ensure
that they live in liberty, dignity and prosperity; investing their
collective wealth into the productive sectors of the economy to create more
wealth thereby enabling them to escape poverty and all its repercussions,
they have witnessed the promulgation of bad laws to strip them of their
power and right to determine their own affairs.

The economy is in a mess, leading to the present hardship, which the
president refuses to accept as his government’s responsibility.

We the Gambian people observe that instead of those at the helm managing our
affairs to improve our lives we are becoming poorer while they are becoming
richer. We have heard the president boasting that he is rich that even his
great, great grandchildren will not experience poverty. This is heard of a
man who was never known to have even more than D2000 in his pocket before he
came to the position of head of state. This same man who poses himself as
the champion of truth, transparency and accountability has not ensured that
his administration produces Audited Accounts for ten years now.

He accuses the businesspersons of being greedy by unjustifiably increasing
the prices of goods and his fellow citizens of being lazy and unwilling to
work. He did everything to find scapegoats from moneychangers to our African
brothers and sisters who he unfortunately refers to as foreigners. Now we
are receiving fresh news from him and his associates that it was Baba Jobe
and his associates who are responsible for the mess we are in today. But the
big question is who are these people and their association. Are all of them
not his associates, and what was the Auditor’s office doing all these years
while this mismanagement was taking place undetected? We are not deaf and
blind! We are witnesses to all that is happening!

As if all what he has said is not enough, he is now venturing to castigate
the true servants of the people as irreligious. Does he have any moral
authority or whatever to call the PDOIS leadership such? The answer is in
the negative. He has until recently admitted that those people have proved
in words and deeds that they are true servants of the people. These people
are hundred percent unlike him! They are not selfish; they are just and
humble; they are not arrogant and will not enrich themselves at the expense
of the people. These people love the Gambian people and the people
themselves have realized that. That love is manifested in Wuli and
Serrekunda Central by the establishment of Constituency Funds and Adult
Literacy Classes out of their income as National Assembly members. He should
have stayed in Wuli for at least a week to be schooled in those classes on
how to address his fellow citizens.

He accuses others of being irreligious. I hope he does not think that
religion is about putting on big kaftans, holding prayer beads and chanting
everywhere that you possess faith. Far from that. If he possesses faith, you
don’t need to go about telling people that you do. This manifests itself in
one’s actions and how one deal with other people.

He said that his government couldn’t bring down the price of rice to below
five hundred Dalasis because it is the world market price that has gone up.
But it was not him and his government, which promised the Gambian people
that if voted into office he would make the country self-sufficient in food
production within a short period of time, five years to be precise.

If he forgets let me inform him that the Gambian people haven’t. We know
that we are blessed with a land that can produce almost everything for us to
live in liberty, dignity and prosperity. We have the land and fresh water
that can irrigate it the whole year round to enable us to continuously
produce whatever we need to survive on. We have the sea full of fish and
other kinds of resources yet we have been living in abject poverty since our
co-called independence in 1965 because of bad leadership.

Now we have been told that there is a discovery of oil in the country most
likely as a means of throwing dust in the eyes of the people. But Gambians
know that already they have something which is as worthy as oil (land and
fresh water) yet it could not benefit them as it should because of bad
leadership. How can their lives improve even with the discovery of oil when
they have the same leadership problem? This is the concern of the Gambian
people today and come 2006 they shall find a final and lasting solution to
this chronic problem which plagues not only The Gambia but Africa as a whole
to be a shining example to others.

By Fabakary Trawally

Baddibu Selikenni

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