Gambia-L:

This piece below was published in the Daily Obsever and might be of interest
to some of the members of the L. It was sent by one of my sources in the
Gambia who said he had "enjoyed" reading it.

Ebrima

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   SAGE OR FOOL by Sainey Camara, Banjul
    (Culled from the Sunday Observer June 11, 2000)

Only “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The statement made
by the Sage on Sunday, May 28 on the Newshour broadcast over Radio 1 FM begs
the question. It is interesting that the Sage did not padlock
his mouth. Instead, he uttered statements that only a fool can
make. He categorically denied on behalf of someone, of something
that he was not privy to.

The Sage swore that Alhaji, The President, Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh,
knew nothing about the crude oil saga. He claimed that he was
hundred percent certain that the president knew nothing about it and
that the opposition parties falsely levelled the accusation against
him.

Extraordinary, my dear Sage, how extraordinary! This type of blind
loyalty is indeed extraordinary. Sage, when did you become so
abstruse?  When did you lose your logical thinking and deductive
reasoning? Did you also exchange your wisdom for position, power
and privilege?

This is not the Sage of the Kent Street Vous or the Tonya years.
(For the benefit of the readers who do not know, Tonya is a Mandinka
word for truth and was the name of the student magazine published in
the mid-sixties). The Sage claimed that he stood for the truth and
was a vocal critic of the government of the day.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander. As a youth, the
Sage vociferously demonstrated against the PPP government? Or have
you forgotten?  Let me remind you of two instances.  The first was
when Jean Collin, the Minister of Finance of Senegal, accused The
Gambia of cross-border smuggling and stated that it was the only way
the country could survive on its fragile economy.

That unfortunate statement was made on the eve of President Senghore’s visit
to The Gambia. The student body gave government the ultimatum that Senghor
should not visit The Gambia until an apology was made.  The government
ignored the demand much to their embarrassment.

The Sage was among the leaders who organised the demonstration against the
visit of Leopold Sedat Senghor to The Gambia. The student and youth leaders
came out, pulled down the flags and buntings erected in honour of the
visiting president, overturned cars and threw tomatoes, rotten eggs and
stones at the visiting dignitaries.

Jean Collin had to leave by boat at night and the state visit had to be
abandoned. All the rioters were faced with were riot police shields batons
and tear gas. Yet the demonstration was of international proportion.

Two years later, in 1970, the Tonya movement organised another
demonstration. This time, Stockley Carmicheal (Kwame Toure) and
Miriam Makeba were to visit The Gambia. The government slapped an
order on Stockley, asking him to leave the country immediately.

This was the era when the government was extremely nervous of the
Black Power movement and communism. Anyone who associated with
these two organisations or was suspected to have sympathetic leanings
towards them was regarded as suspect.

The government, like many others, was wary of anything or anyone that would
upset the status quo.  The institutions of capitalism and democracy were to
be safeguarded and the PPP government did all it
could to ensure this.

The deportation of Stockley Carmicheal was seen as an infringement
of the right of association by sympathisers; Tonya, Kent Street Vous
and the youth leaders. They rebelled against the decision. Again,
they clashed with government and the riot police. Some of the
leaders were arrested and some obtained minor injuries. The detainees were
released shortly after their arrest when their colleagues outside clamoured
for their release.

If only Kent Street Vous could talk, it would have plenty to tell.
This was the meeting point of the young radicals known as Kent Street Vous,
where plots were hatched and the government criticised daily. The Sage, the
most hotheaded and vocal among the dissidents, did not bow down in
allegiance and submission to the government.

If his arguments are valid that the APRC government provides educational
opportunities and scholarships to students and the young
and therefore they should be grateful, then in the 60s, the Sage
should have been mute.

During this period, students were not only offered full scholarship
to go to sixth form, that is, uniform and books, they were paid an
allowance. Access to quality education of students in school were
concerns then as were now and to ensure that students attended school,
stayed in school and performed well, they were “paid to go
to school.”

On completion of their sixth form education, every student was guaranteed a
scholarship for further studies. Whether it was in
Africa, America, Australia, Europe or Asia, the funding was
provided.  The Gambian student body was the most privileged class in
The Gambia.

In spite of this, the sixth formers were the most vocal critics of
the government. They harangued the government, used Tonya as their
mouthpiece and sought to establish a system of transparency.  The
students were told to be grateful for their privileges and to keep
quiet.

Those students knew as today’s students know that the money for
their education was coming from the taxpayers money; money that was
provided by the people of this country or another and no single
person could claim the glory.

Scholarships were awarded not to buy the silence of the recipient
but to defray the cost of education or as a reward for merit.  If
scholarships are for the purpose of muting students, then The Gambia
will be losing the very essence of the provision, that is, to
provide erudite and learned people who are not programmed robots.

Did the Sage’s scholarship silence him? It didn’t, yet he continued
to receive others to the extent of getting a PhD. Somewhere along
the line, however, he opted out. Neutralised and neutered, he
clammed up. The path to the truth is too difficult, full of hazards
and less lucrative.

The Sage could not face the challenge and chose comfort over the truth.
Falsehood cannot and will not buy comfort. Like an absent-minded professor,
the Sage was well known to walk around in
wet socks (just washed before putting them on) in tattered shoes and
a frayed shirt and trousers.

Eloquent and erudite, the Sage was blessed with the gift of the gab.
He has misled so many.  Always the demagogue, he can outtalk everyone
pretending to be what he was not.

Those who live for the truth, die by the truth. They are not with
the truth today and tomorrow they are elsewhere. There are no
halfway houses.  We have seen the Alexandr Solzhenystens, Patrice
Lumumbas, Martin Luther Kings, Steve Bikos and Nelson Mandelas of
this world.

There is a saying, “when a person is said to be good, then you
should ask the family.”  Has any one bothered to ask the Sage’s family what
type of a person he is?

If a matter as simple as managing a household is so difficult for
the Sage, then I don’t know how he can cope with running whole party
machinery.

The Sage criticises the press for biased reporting.  He states, “you
only have to take a look at the headlines to know what the intention
of the press is.” The Sage is the last person who should talk of
biased reporting. He is so myopic that he cannot see beyond his
nose.

During the 1996 elections, he was member of a panel that was analysing the
results of the elections.  The Sage’s conclusion was that the APRC won
because they had a clear coherent message for the people. What the Sage
conveniently forgot in his analysis was that the public media was not
available to the opposition members and that there was virtually a media
blackout for them.

In addition, the APRC had a lead-time against the others. As an
educator, the Sage should know that even the best message takes time
to sink, so the issue was not about messages but about something
else. Who was he trying to fool?

When the Sage was confronted with the statement that journalists
find it very difficult to get news or confirmation of stories, he
tries to justify it with the memorandum against civil servants
talking to the press. According to his explanation, every statement
has a political reaction. Thus civil servants should not make
statements to the press because they may jeopardise their secretaries of
states who are political appointees.

He further goes on to buttress this point by arguing that this dates back to
the Jawara regime. The APRC came in with a ticket to change.  Their campaign
slogan was “transparency and accountability.”  Change implies alteration, a
substitution of the older order.  If the APRC are perpetuating the policies
of the PPP government, then what is the new, learned Sage?

Transparency indicates overtness, something that is nor hidden. That is seen
through, recognised, easily detected, open and candid. If civil servants
cannot talk to the press because they may put the SoS at risk, then
something is wrong somewhere.  Then the conditions
of transparency do not exist.

If the SoSs are not accountable to the people, then who are they
answerable to?  Or is that the reason for the separation of the two
institutions?  That instead of appointing them from the elected
members of the National Assembly, they were culled from the citizenry so
that instead of being answerable to the electorate, they are now answerable
to the person who put them there.

The desired neutrality is not to the people but to their appointer.
Demonstrated by the donning of the colours of the green and by their
assuming the role of political activists, they campaign, castigate
the opposition, form members of the executive of the APRC and are
anything but neutral.

No wonder they are scared.  If they are running on the ticket of
transparency, they will be more than willing to interact with the
press. Why should the press not go by unconfirmed reports if they
have no one to confirm it for them?

The public relations officers and so called spokesmen and women
conveniently disappear and resurface when it suits them. When they
need to answer a question, they are nowhere to be found.  When the
issue is published, they appear with a rejoinder that they were not
contacted. He wanted the PPP government to be transparent, yet he
condones the lack of transparency of the APRC.

Why not advice that the archaic law that says civil servants should not talk
to the press is abolished?  It levels the playing field and provides for
better flow of information.

It is not, of course, in the best interest of the Sage and his associates to
make the playing field level. For tailor-made reactions can always be
manufactured when the press comes out with “unconfirmed reports”. At least
the press is trying to inform the people.

In one area, at least, the Sage has stayed constant. His terror tactics have
not changed.  At the department of state where he
worked before, he made life miserable for everyone. Even the
secretaries of state did not escape his bullying. The highly intelligent,
sedate, hard-working 1st Secretary of State found it
extremely difficult to work with him. He was removed from office.

He saw his reinstatement in the same department of state as an
opportunity for revenge. He did everything to put the spanner in the wheels.
  He thwarted her every move. She left him to his devices and made a
dignified exit, resigning on the grounds of ill health.

The second stood up to his “terrorism”. When the two pitched forces
against each other and exchanged letters, it was the Sage’s turn to
go. The main reason in her argument against the Sage was his
“terrorist” tactics.

Lucky for him, he was laying the foundation for a house and was to
move to the headquarters of that house. The department of state
heaved a sigh of relief. In addition to the stress he created among
the human resources, he caused so much wear and tear on the vehicles.  His
weekly sojourns upcountry to God knows where wrecked the vehicles and
created an enormous bill for the department of state and the project
co-ordination unit.

After one such trip, one of the vehicles had to be taken straight to
the garage for maintenance completely stripped down and rehabilitated.  The
Sage, who today is so concerned with the safeguarding of government
property, was not as caring when he was there. Is this a case of “do as I
say, don’t do as I do?”

How solicitous is the Sage of government resources?  In his imbroglio with
the second SoS, the three principal officers who refused to take sides are
still suffering from reprisals.  The SoS wanted evidence to prove
mis-management of funds. The principal officers kept a safe distance. The
Sage was moved and they were left with the person they did not support.  He
is of course impervious to their present predicament.

There is a saying, just show me your friends and I’ll show you who
you are. The Sage and his friend, the Gnat, are two of a kind. They go
around together to do maximum damage to other people’s integrity. They boast
“I will damage so and so”.

The Sage did not accuse the Gnat of biased reporting when he has his
own newspaper. Together, they connived and concocted stories that
they were paid to publish against people.  Their “conscience” was
sold to the highest bidder.

These were the tactics that the Gnat wanted to continue in Rainy
Season. The all-knowing Law knew his tricks and stamped the Gnat to
extinction. Just like the species, when you think you have got rid of them,
they crawl away only to resurface elsewhere. He now follows the Sage
wherever he goes. They have forgotten the biblical saying, “When thou
ceaseth to spoil then thou shall be spoilt”.

The two of them can continue to have a field day. Their day is coming
also. It will not be from the hands of other people but from their own. The
substances of destruction that the two of them are indulging in will not
only destroy their health but their wealth and life as
well. The substance that makes them acts so irrationally and violently at
times.

The Sage is all “sound and fury signifying nothing”.  He believes he
can hide from God. He is as naked as the emperor in Hans Anderson’s story.
He struts around in his nakeness, believing that he is clothed.

However, the truth will be out one day.  The truth that the Sage so
vigorously espoused for in his younger days.  The truth is indeed
difficult to handle.  The most elusive of virtues which even Jesus
Christ could not explain to Pontius Pilate.  The Sage cannot handle
the truth.

Please, do not castigate the press after reading this piece.  They
are innocent.  I am not among the ranks but an interested observer
of current affairs who will make commentaries where and when
necessary.

THE END


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