Hi,
Please we do not need another Liberia, Sierra Leone, etc. here in The
Gambia. If that is the only solution, I would suggest you, I say NO THANKS.
It is not fear for you to sit were you are putting such bad ideas in the
web. This will only destroy the very Gambia we are trying to build and
develop. You are not doing justice to us who are trying to develop The
Gambia. I will suggest you join in the development process of the country if
you are patriotic. Peace is far better than war as in a war no party is a
winner. Think about it.
No hard feelings, this is my opinion.
Regards,
Ro.
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Ndey and her description of a tyranny
>Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 16:58:26 EDT
>
>l agree with Karamba wholeheartedly. l think it has come down to a matter
>of choices, either we do what it takes in making our contributions
>towards
>stopping this madness, or succumb to it and watch the nightmare unfold
>until it is too late.We cannot afford to, and must not choose the latter.l
>believe the time has come for all Gambians to abandon apathy and know that
>each and everyone of us CAN DO SOMETHING as this is not a situation in
>which
>we can just play spectator.Even if all we can do is raise funds for the
>opposition parties' coalition, then by all means let us do it.The time for
>just complaining and then moving on to other things is over.l do not know
>about everyone else, but l would not like to wake up one day when it is
>entirely too late and realize that a small effort on my part could have
>been
>a big help in saving my country from impending doom.
>
>Jabou Joh
>
><< I would like to join those who already spoke in thanking Ndey Jobarteh
>for her account of life and circumstances in a country that is reeling
>under
>the oppressive tentacles of a ruthless tyrant. Her vivid and heart
>wrenching
>descriptions are clear testaments of the extent to which unchecked creulty
>coupled with ignorance can enable people who otherwise can never oversee a
>boys scout troupe to pass themselves off as semi legitimate leaders.
>President Jammeh and his enablers are neither interested in success nor do
>they necessarily want to be in the good graces of the vast majority of the
>people of the Gambia. He is convinced he has just the right receipe to
>maintain his rule by instilling in people a palpable level of fear for
>their
>safety , use the increasingly scarce resources of the country to hook and
>bait enlightened but unprincipled people who would do anything to get a
>meal
>tickect. He is also counting on the population to just roll over and accept
>all maltreatment as a fait-accompli. I am all for summoning a brutal
>leadership to God as the ultimate arbitar but i am equally convinced that
>fighting back in whatever capacity one can muster at a given time in a bid
>to
>defend oneself is not only desirable but it is prescribed. If citizens
>rights
>of equal protection under the law is deliberately undermined by a
>government
>that authorises it's agents or vigilantes associated with it to tear down
>peoples doors and abduct them from their families in the middle of the
>night
>not be heard from for weeks, then most reasonable people would contend that
>acting in defending one's safety and dignity by fighting intruders is the
>only path.
> We must all understand that rights without remedy aren't rights at all.
>Those who abuse innocent people through the tacit encouragement of this
>leader have never been held accountable , on the contrary as we see and
>hear
>, there is an increase in both the level of brutality and the number of
>people. No one personifies these excesses than this guy called Baba Jobe.
>Simply put why should people tolerate this fellow visiting this much misery
>on them? Simple. He has consistently gotten away with every instance of
>abuse
>hence enabling him to build an omnious reputation. Subjecting him to his
>own
>way would not only stop him but would serve as a significant deterent to
>those like him. Someone who threatens to shoot people has earned his own
>bullet in everymans defination of self defence. Freedom , list memebers,
>is
>our very essence and hence must be ferrociously guarded against those like
>Baba Jobe who want to take it upon themselves to deprive others of what was
>given to them by dint of their humanity.
> As for the crushing economic and health crisis and the heavy toll it
>takes
>on the population , I am acutely aware of the practical efffects of the
>hardship. Family members and friends used to regularly transit at our home
>in
>georgetown en route for medical treatment at Basang . Not anymore. Since
>there is practically no medicine at the hospital there , folks are just
>staying home inevitably succumbing to early death. Lest we forget a
>functioning healthcare system and an economy with prospects are predicated
>on
>good governance consisting of leadership that both knows what they are
>doing
>and have a burning desire to do what is right by their people. We can take
>solace in the notion that brutal dictators like the certainty of the sun's
>rise have a definate and determined outcome. Never in the course of history
>has a leadership that visited creulty and corruption on it's people retired
>peacefully to their golden age . Their fates have ranged from being
>publicly
>executed to living as eye sores albeit in ill gotten opulence in countries
>and neighborhoods where they never succeed in being part of their adapted
>communities but are reluctantly tolerated as tyrants who stole to build the
>villa they are in.We must answer the critical question of how long we want
>to
>be subject to the current state of affairs. As every Gambian takes stock of
>their life and the ever increasing difficulty of just getting by coupled
>with
>a lack of faith in the rule of law i think we would be left with only two
>option: surrender the nation in effect and confer a coronation to Yayah
>Jammeh and spend a generation or more as a failed state or commit to
>removing
>him in a concerted effort not only limited to a political process he can
>manipulate but upto and including forcibily ejecting him . I can see some
>list members rolling their eyes and utterly rejecting even the
>consideration
>of the option of violence as a means to get us out of this devastating jam.
>I
>understand street battles runs counter to every thing that makes us who we
>are but i ask you to weigh that concern with the chilling reality of
>ruining the nation and in the process condeming hundreds of thousands of
>people to short and difficult lives under duress. We all have a
>responsiblity
>to be our brothers' keeper. Choosing expediency because it may be
>convinient
>in the short term to divorce oneself of all these problems we all know are
>crushing our people will haunt us as people who can do something to help.
>I
>simply don't want to surrender my country to Yahya Jammeh or Baba Jobe
>and
>the evil they entail.
>
> Karamba
>
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