Mr. Colly, this is another appeal to you to ignore these frivolous attacks
on your integrity. Few weeks ago more substantive attacks were made against
you and we appealed to you to ignore those attacks and you did. Where are
those attackers today? If you ignore Batch, he will get off your back too.

He is trying very hard to be relevant and elevate the importance of the
debate he wants to engage in. Do NOT be a party to this distraction. Let he
and his friends debate among each other. If they want to form a cabal whose
objective is to tear down people that were in power but are no longer in
power, while we relegate the menace in our society to irrelevance, that is
their prerogative. Let them pursue that agenda. If we have time in our hands
to respond to some of their lies, we will do so. If we feel that their
accusations are NOT substantive enough to warrant ignoring Yaya and debating
with them, then let us ignore them.

You are embarked on a very important program of debunking the lies told by
Yaya and his cohorts about what happened on and about July 22, 1994. This
shatters the whole basis of the false impression Yaya et al were giving to
the Gambian public that they made sacrifices for the people. This is an
important facet of the war against Yaya. Together with your activities on
G_L, you are doing other very tangible things to ensure that Yaya is removed
from power. One day when it is all said and done, history will recognize the
important and sensitive things people like you and Chongan have contributed
to this struggle and are contributing as we write/speak. No amount of
provocation should make you lose your cool and say things that will
jeopardize the struggle.

Fair-minded people that are interested in the truth know that you are a good
man; a humble man; interested in the rule of law. Anybody can stand up and
say that the next person looks ‘arrogant and pompous’. These words mean
nothing. You thought when you were on TV, you looked angry. Samba thinks
that you looked arrogant. Let him think whatever he wants. See, the
difference here is that when you said that you were angry, you backed up
what you were saying by explaining why you were angry. Samba on the other
hand cannot say why you looked ‘arrogant’. These are just semantics that
frankly do NOT deserve your attention. To think that the man will spend his
time writing a thesis on how you looked on TV speaks volumes about his
intentions. Be bigger than him and ignore him.

He wants to make it appear as if you were emotional in your piece and
allowed the discourse to degenerate into insults. Obviously this is NOT
true.  Need I remind Samba that he was the first to attack you? He was the
one who came here to express a subjective OPINION (as opposed to FACTS)
about how you looked on TV. He craftily put that statement in a discussion
we were having on torture in the country. The innuendo here was that you
partook in the torture of those mercenaries. As usual when we took him to
task to back up his opinion and innuendo with facts, he could NOT do so. Up
to today, he dare not say that you partook in that torture.

We remove the torture from the table, we are left with his subjective and
erroneous OPINION that you looked pompous and the charge that you were
mystifying the State House. See how empty Samba’s piece is? I will balance
out his statement that you are pompous by saying that I know you and I know
that you are a humble man. Now let us move to his charge that you warned
people NOT to attack the State House. What did Samba expect to hear from the
Commander of the Armed Forces whose men have just been senselessly
slaughtered? You were saving lives. Letting it be known that it is futile
for lightly armed bandits to take on the State House. What is wrong with
that? Does that mean that you tortured the perpetrators? Does that mean that
if today heavily armed people were going to flush Yaya out, you will stop
them by ‘mystifying’ the State House and Yaya’s might? This is ridiculous. I
have these many questions because frankly I CANNOT see the logic in Samba’s
arguments. Why he is doing what he is doing, is totally beyond me. How does
what he is doing help us in this struggle to remove Yaya? Well, some can say
that he is perhaps helping to avoid us having another Yaya in place. But
this is putting the cart before the horse. Before we put another Yaya in
place, we have to remove Yaya first. Secondly, this premise is also a
smokescreen and an erroneous premise because it assumes that you are
interested in gaining power in the country after Yaya. I say that this is a
false assumption because going by your writings on G_L (which is the only
resource for the people accusing you), you have shown NO INTEREST in wanting
to lead. You are always full of praises for our current leaders on the
ground. You are interested in elections taking place and you certainly have
no plans of running in those elections. So the evidence points to the exact
opposite of what this argument from Samba et al is insinuating. Had you come
here to propagate an agenda the net effect of which would be you being the
next president, then their argument would hold some water. On the contrary,
your agenda is the exact opposite. One of the points Samba is trying to use
against you from your earlier writings vividly illustrates the fact of what
I am talking about you promoting others to lead us rather than you being a
leader like Yaya.

When Samba took you to task about the issue of presidential term-limits, he
did NOT even realize what you were addressing. He did NOT notice that you
were giving great reviews to Ousainou Darboe. You were applauding UDP’s
recent announcement that if they come to power, they will limit the amount
of time politicians spend in their executive positions such as mayors and
president. Now, are these the points from some one who is aspiring for the
same position Darboe wants? This is just one example of how you have
applauded our leaders in the past.

I know you will NOT be fooled by Samba’s pronouncements about how he
respected you in the past and did not want to get here with you. Clearly
this is NOT true. Samba started this in the first place by trying to link
you to a torture you did NOT commit; coming here saying that you are
arrogant and pompous. So, it is disingenuous for him to now try to put the
blame on you. I do NOT understand why he is making a big meal about you
calling certain people nonentities. Does he not know what the word means?
Here we go again with semantics. When I read that word from your piece, I
interpreted the word to mean ‘people without influence’. The interpretation
others want to give that word is their prerogative. If people want, they can
interpret that to mean that you were saying that those you were referring to
were not people at all. This is their subjective view you can do very little
about. You know what you meant. I used the word several times. I know that
when you used the word you were referring to the person that came here to
say that everyone that worked for Yaya must have blood in his/her hands. You
do not know that person and do not know where she came from in Gambia; hence
your generalization that nonentities (people without influence in your life)
wherever they might come from with their allegations, mean nothing to you.
Their wild allegations would NOT stop you from contributing in the manner
you have been contributing. Now, does this mean that you think that all
Gambians are nonentities simply because they came from the neighborhoods you
mentioned? Need I also point out that you mentioned Serrekunda where you
originally come from and where members of your family and friends still
reside? What is wrong in describing people that unjustifiably accuse you of
being a murderer, as nonentities not worthy of your attention? Nothing if
you ask me.

Samba wants to now use that simple statement from you to pit you against the
Gambian public and then give himself the opportunity to call you an
‘intellectual whore’. Like I said, be bigger than him and ignore this
baseless character assassination. Many fine people worked for this illegal
government. Does that wipe out all the good they have done in their lives
before the advent of this regime? Does working for this regime in the past
mean that in future you cannot help in removing this regime from office and
stopping the massacre of our children? Like I said here months ago, this
blanket statement about people that worked for this regime is a hypocritical
statement and like all generalizations, simplifies a very complex issue. Is
Samba going to tell me that all the people that once worked for this
government are equally culpable for the wrongs of this government? I want
him to think deeply about this question before he gives a hasty answer. We
do NOT need to force some good people into Yaya’s camp. What happened to
what Samba was talking about the presumption of innocence until proven
guilty? Why can’t we look at every case on its own merit? Let us look at
what everyone that worked for the government did before we paint all of them
with the same brush. How many millions did some one steal? How many people
did some one torture and kill? Etc. Because Yaya is a murderer does not mean
that his Agriculture or Education Minister is a murderer. Bring tangible
proof before you accuse people of heinous crimes.

Samba’s false allegation about you being a tribalist also does NOT deserve
your attention. His smoking gun is your decision to call yourself Ebou
Colly. He bunched a whole host of Gambians into a group that opposes Yaya
because Yaya is a Jola. What a ridiculous accusation. Is Edward Singhateh a
Jola? Is Yankuba Touray a Jola? You have been equally critical of all those
people. Samba does NOT know what he is talking about. In an attempt to lynch
you, he is helping propagate one of Yaya’s most vicious lies; i.e. people
hate him because he is a Jola. If that is what is motivating you now, why
did you work for Yaya in the first place? Was he not a Jola in 1994? Of
course you do NOT hate Yaya because he is a Jola. You hate the vermin
because of what he has done to The Gambia and Gambians. That has nothing to
do with his tribal affiliation. So far in your narrations one of the people
that came out worst is Antouman Saho. Is he a Jola too? When you explained
the torture at Mile II did you bring Yaya into it because he is a Jola? The
vermin did not even feature because he was not there. Again what we have
from Samba is wild and ridiculous allegations that he CANNOT back up. Any
fool can get up and make allegations. Backing up what you are saying is
something else.

Samba also make the illogical conclusion that given the chance you will go
back and work for Yaya. I say it is illogical because the evidence shows the
exact opposite of his conclusions. How many ex-army men have fallen out with
Yaya’s government? How many of those men are writing to criticize the
government the way you are doing? Are your activities those of someone that
wants to win favor from Yaya? This is ludicrous. As I said before, many
Gambians did NOT know Yaya before 1994. People genuinely thought that he
meant well. They went to work for the government. Years down the line they
discover that the vermin does NOT mean well. Now, those people want to turn
their lives around and help get rid of the vermin. But no, we have some
Holier than Thou people in the Opposition that want to have nothing of that.
Once you worked for Yaya, ‘you have blood in your hands’ and should NOT join
the fight to remove Yaya without being castigated (most of the time for
crimes you did NOT commit).

Colly, I hope you realize that you are NOT in this for these Holier than
Thou people. I also hope others that made a MISTAKE and worked for Yaya in
the past are NOT discouraged from participating in this struggle on the side
of the good people. Many in the struggle do NOT just judge people and banish
them into categories they do NOT belong in. We look at everyone’s case in
its own merit. While we will NOT welcome murderers and torturers, we have no
problems with Education, Agriculture Ministers that did NOTHING to assist in
Yaya’s corruption and thuggery. We are NOT interested in a witch-hunt where
everyone that worked for Yaya is a prey. Unless Samba comes up with tangible
evidence against you showing that you brutalized Gambians, rest assured that
no fair-minded person would take him seriously. Most Gambians will just see
him as doing the dirty job of the APRC for them. Find solace in the fact
that so far no one has contradicted your facts with tangible facts of
his/her own. On the contrary, we had Chongan corroborate your FACTS. We are
NOT interested in OPINIONS about how one looks. We want to hear FACTS. How
many Gambians have you killed? How many millions have you stolen? Some one
looks and sounds arrogant. How laughable?
KB


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