BY:OMAR S. SAIDY-KHAN
   
  It is with a great amount consternation that I write to my fellow country men.To start, let us give a little historical perspective to this endeavour . I remember as a young student at Yundum College in the late 1960s,  when men full of fire for justice, energy and favour like Ebou Janha, Saja TAAL, Bai Mass Taal and many others I do not remember now met to decry the injustices and neocolonial tendencies that prevailed. We swallowed every word this young firebrands uttered.They exposed and excoriated nepotism, government. corruptions in the interest of the people.
   
   It is the greatest betrayal,  I can imagine that they have taken a 180 degrees turn to support a government. and be a part of an undemocratic regime, that has tortured, maimed and killed Gambian citizens.To hear  that they are virtually in bed with a  callous ,ignorant brutal dictator is unfathomable for me . It is no surprise that big brother,  Ebou, whose tendency to be a lap dog to any and all power in place, but to hear that Saja or Bai Mass have stooped this low is a slap in the face,  I believe to my generation.I am at a loss why? To me,  the only answer got to be greed pure and simple.
   
  My second and I believe the more important issue is the lack of credibility in the eldership within the religious, social and Legal communities because of their inability to stand and be counted with the poor masses. The fact that they continue toto take Yaya Jammeh's hand-outs of monies to go on pilgrimage knowing he could with all honesty legitimately have  the means.
   
  To do this with clean hands is sinful..They will be accountable to their God one day. For they know or ought have known that Yaya,  has stolen this monies form somewhere.I have yet to hear  any one besides Imam Baba Leigh,  who can claim his rightful calling as Iman of God,  standing up the injustices  and the plunder that is being perpetrated on my people.
   
  Thirdly,I have no personal axe to grind, but the gull that the Jahumpa kids are the blabber-mouth that attack honest Gambians for opposing the undemocratic ways of the regime makes me sick.May be the young may not know,  but this empty cymbals were raised and sustained by the corrupt PPP government. I have known FJC  at Yundum college and Bala as new employee at the Banjul court house unless he denies it now we used to hang ,for a lack of a better phrase.There is no personal animosity here,  but to hear Alhagi  Ibrahima 's children in a regime so despotic is very ironic indeed. But  I should not wonder they sucked the milk of corruption thus they are being themselves only.My first experience with the famly was in the early 60s,  when their father sent Gambian youth to Ghana to become young pioneers and left many stranded among them was my brother.He was at times generous for he sheltered some provincial students who attended secondary school in Banjul; one such was my cousin. But I
 cannot imagine that his children would be sleeping with the junta that overthrew his government. There is no doubt in my mind that he pulled so many strings for this blabber-mouths while he was in the PPP government. Have they apologized yet?
   
  Yaya,  has castrated many people morally,  but so many have sold their soul to find favor and privilege it is pathetic. My visit in 2002,  confirmed this sorry situation in the country. Persons,  I looked up to growing and placed a great amount  of respect and honor have betrayed every of bit of  trust I had for them.This is very sad for me. It is apparent people have lost hope. There is acute dispair  throughout the country.The lack of elderly counsel to effect temperance has sipped out to the ocean.It seems the growth of beggarliness is glaring.Religiousity is exploding,not because of spirituality but a lack of hope.Young teenagers continuously pray so much scarred foreheads and a religious buildings are sprouting out of every corner.The elderly have surrendered to the arrogant young and people of disrepute, who have no inkling of what responsible power is.
     
  Another fallacy that the supporters of the regime claim is that the regime has brought great development to the country, under the dictatorship. I totally disagree. Case in point;I found the condition at the RVH to be criminal. The patients where in everywhere they could lay down. I visited the hospital with a friend,  who is a doctor,as  we climbed the steps, I noticed the Metal rails had holes which could cut you  if you do not take extra care. This had jagged edges sticking out. I found my great niece who was admitted two days ago sharing a bed with another patient .The mattress was dirty and stained with what looked like urine. I dreaded falling sick in The Gambia seeing this condition; but as ill-luck would have it , I needed an x-ray.
   
  But when I went to get it the technician told me you are better off going to the Westfield because your dentist would not be able to read our x-ray, our machine is too old.My MD friend told me that the rest of hospitals in the country are in worse shape.One could imagine how I felt knowing the dictator sends his mother to the US with an entourage for medical checkup and treatment at least once a year.
   
  I took notice of the many white-elephant projects like the new  Serekunda hospital,new Ministry of infor. Airport; the fur furnishings upkeep of which were wanting ,Brikama-Soma road,the slum-like conditions in Serekunda to cap it all the total disregard for our main stay agriculture.
   
  What about the psychological castration of the civil service who are subjected summary dismissal culminating in instability of govt .services and this leaves no option but to conclude that the only thing stable is irrationality of the dictator. This is why many like me wonder whats happened to the souls of the TAALs,NSZ Njies and people of their ilk? Yaya is continually pillaging and prostituting our dear country with aid and acquiescing of the people who are supposedly in the know.I wish to say to you all the day of reconing is fast approaching beware.
   
   






		
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