Folks, below was culled from AllAfrica website. A parliament in one of the
wealthiest countries in Africa, said no to their President's request to
purchase a $51 million Presidential jet, and the parliament rejected the
request. Another parliament in the same neighborhood as the first, also
rejected a similar request, this time from their King for a Royal jet.
However, the third Assembly, has an attitude of "see no evil, hear no evil,
and know no evil". This third Assembly has a Philosopher/King -
Dictatorship. He did not request as the first two above, as state funds are
his funds and how can he seek permission to use his own funds. Naaah! This
parliament also happens to be one of Africa's poorest. The first two
Assemblies had a process and went through the established protocols and let
the DEMOCRATIC process run its course. The third Assembly has a similar
process, but has no need for it. Ladies and gentlemen, this third Assembly
is none other than our very own. Please read on.
"Power Tends to Corrupt And Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" - Lord Acton
Power to the People True Or False?
Email This Page
Print This Page
The Independent (Banjul)
October 28, 2002
Posted to the web October 28, 2002
Banjul
Recently, we heard in the about the decision of the Swazi Parliament not to
approve the purchase of an executive jet for King Mswati II.
That was followed a few days later by loud criticisms of the plan by
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa to purchase a 51 million Dollar
presidential jet.
It was indeed quite amazing that the parliament of an absolute monarchy like
Swaziland would dare to prevent the King from purchasing an aircraft while
in a so-called democracy like The Gambia, President Yahya Jammeh seems to
have acquired a 'presidential jet' from the blue without the National
Assembly or anyone else being aware of it. That is indeed another indictment
of the democratic credentials of this regime, which seems to be doing
everything above the heads of the people. President Jammeh appears to be
behaving like an absolute monarch who says and does whatever he likes and
there is hardly anyone who dares to call him to order. One is therefore
tempted to wonder what has become of transparency, accountability and
probity, which this regime has made so much noise about. Of course it would
be foolhardy for anyone to expect that the National Assembly as it is
constituted at present to ever have the courage to question anything done by
President Jammeh and his regime. It is because a majority of its members
seem to owe more allegiance to President Jammeh and the executive than they
owe to those people who they supposedly represent.
As an ordinary lieutenant in The Gambia National Army before the coup in
1994, President Jammeh was never known to be a rich man. Therefore, if
within eight years of coming to power he can afford a personal aircraft and
so much apparent display of wealth and affluence, then he owes an
explanation to the people of this country as to how he acquired all that
wealth. It is certainly not enough to tell us that it is from the Almighty
Allah's world bank because we all know that does not exist.
Since the appearance of his 'personal' jet about three years ago as Central
African, several attempts seems to have been made to disguise its real
ownership, including of course its renaming as Gambia New millennium Air.
However, all indications point to President Jammeh as its real owner.
To crown all that unnecessary extravagance the regime went ahead to acquire
a jet fighter again from the blue. It is indeed hard to imagine how anyone
can justify any butut spent on the acquisition or even the maintenance of a
jet fighter when the economy of this country is in tatters. We certainly do
not need it and I do not think we ever will.
To fight who? Certainly not with Senegal, our only possible adversaries,
considering our geographical location. Even President Kumba Yalla, despite
all his 'open calls' could not have been able to 'crush' The Gambia without
Senegalese acquiescence.
However, neither the purchase of The Gambia New Millennium Air nor that of
the jet fighter were ever discussed in the National Assembly, let alone it
be done with the consent of the Gambian people.
_________________________________________________________________
Unlimited Internet access -- and 2 months free! Try MSN.
http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/2monthsfree.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
