Karamba, please spare your energy for a more worthy cause.  I would not
waste an iota of effort to respond to Mr. Jasseh's ramblings.  Any person
worth their salt would have thanked you for acknowledging and commending
their heroism in the face of vultures and opportunists abound.  However, Mr.
Jasseh saw it fit to grandstand you in the hopes that Masser Jammeh will
have a change of heart.  In the bigger scheme of things, the cat deserved
what he got.  His reaction to your piece really brought out his true colors,
and as I always say to the cowards, "may the next victim to Masser Jammeh's
barbeque please approach the pit, all ready to roast"!  And the band plays
on while Baba, Fatou, Sidat, et al, muscle their way for the opportunity to
be first in presenting their next human offering to the village idiot.  Only
in The Gambia!

I've been running a tight schedule and it will be like that for a while.
However, I'm with you'll in spirit.  Bravo to all and keep the fire burning.
  Happy holidays.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou

>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: The Jasseh Complaint
>Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 18:41:05 EST
>
>Apparently Tamsir Jasseh took exception to my observations of the Police
>Force in general and his role in particular. The accounts as related by the
>Observer Newspaper potrayed a livid Mr Jasseh . Here are some of his
>complaints:
>1-My contention that the Department was led by an incompetent I.G.who
>lacked
>the foresight to lead a professional outfit was not true.
>2-That the department was undermined purposely to serve the nefarious
>political interests of Yahya and his cronies was also untrue.
>3-Attributing reform efforts primarily to him (Jasseh) was inaccurate
>because
>he alone is incapable of the kind of institutional change needed at the
>Department.
>4-Reforms have been underway pursuant to a commissioned study conducted in
>1997.
>5-That I was being unfair to the Police and the government in my overall
>characterization.
>   I first wrote about the Police on 8-23-2000 following a news conference
>in
>which the department publicly acknowledged their perilous state especially
>the all important faith that ordinary citizens need to have in the Police.
>They themselves went into why the people no longer trust in the police to
>enforce the law. The police in the eyes of the public have ominously
>settled
>into selective law enforcement by going after opponents of the government
>on
>trumped up charges while ignoring or in some cases actively countenancing
>illegal behavior by gov't sanctioned vigilante groups. If the Police that
>is
>paid for by the people undermines the basic expectation of equal protection
>under the law, they have deservedly lost the people's faith.
>The reason I singled out Mr Jasseh is because he is the only one I have
>heard
>publicly acknowledge these egregious problems associated with the
>department.
>Any credit I give him is solely based on his public pronouncements which
>tended to sound sincere. I said he was a good man trying to do the right
>thing. I still think so. However I have always qualified my optimism with a
>strong believe that his efforts would not bear fruit because the President
>and his cronies are unmitigated criminals to whom a professional Police
>force
>is anathema. I specifically said he would either be transferred or fired
>for
>his efforts to bring reform. His professed faith in I. G.  Badgie and all
>the
>other professionals bent on making the force the best is his entitlement.
>I
>don't share that view at all. Yahya Jammeh has purged that department and
>brought in cronies of which Mr Badgie is premiere. They have made an
>institutional morass out of the Police department. They have neither the
>ability nor the inclination to fix it.
>As for his notion of me being unfair to the government is  a gross
>understatement. I view this government as illegitimate and my duty as a
>Gambian is to expose, fight and ultimately defeat this criminal albatross
>hanging on the neck of my nation. I neither want nor expect even an
>otherwise
>  good man like Mr Jasseh to agree with me.
>Karamba
>
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