Culled from AllAfrica. This is yet another example of the many
opportunities that the opposition have at their fingertips to address the
corruption that has brought us this misery we currently face. The
opposition know who these people are, but as usual, they know what is best
for Gambians. This brings me to Ngorr Cise's article which I will address
later. Our situation is similar to that of Venezuela, and look at how our
opposition parties are responding to ours. When are they going to stop
giving press conference after press conference and go to the streets? If
they are not willing to lead then let them step aside. They know that this
government is composed of nothing but criminals, so why are they still
preaching rule of law or consciousness, or trying to outdo each other? They
know who Lang Conteh is, so what is so difficult for them to expose the
criminal enterprise he is running. They also know that the rat pack in
Jammeh, Baba Jobe, Amadou Samba, Yankuba Touray and many others were poor as
church mice and they are the ones that bled us dry. Any opposition worth
their salt will take to the streets and expose the criminals that hold our
economy hostage. No one ask the opposition leaders to lead. However, once
they decide to lead, they better lead. And, this poor counter punch that
they always sling on diasporans, that if we really mean to change our
situation or want to take on the government we need to to be on the ground,
is the most ridiculous. To say that means that they don't have a clue what
is expected of leadership. For, as a leader, you do not have time to be
jabbering with those whom you chose to lead. This leads me to believe that
they are not ready for Prime Time. Please read on.
Some Startling Facts
The Independent (Banjul)
EDITORIAL
December 23, 2002
Posted to the web December 23, 2002
Banjul
Yet again, we feel the need to point out the lack of transparency, which
casts a blemish on our fledgling democratic system. We are groping in the
dark because 'some at the top' do not feel comfortable with transparency's
searchlight and have laboured to switch it off. We in the press know how it
feels to be kept in the dark and shut out from information wounded up in
so-called official secrecy. We know the fear and anxiety in government
circles, when we get too poky with our stubborn inquiries. We also
understand the apprehension of some functionaries who for fear of losing
their jobs would stay reluctant to give out the vital information. This
feeling is understandable going by the usually bad-tempered mood of the
government towards journalists who distinguish themselves from any other
group of national inquirers.
We do not love to hate Yahya Jammeh or his government and all that they
stood for. Ours is not to hate people, important people at that, but to hate
anti-social, antidemocratic tendencies and bad policies and programme that
undermine our nation and eventually render our claim to statehood laughable.
It is in this context that we observe that transparency is now a taboo
subject for the government, which has erred so many times in matters of
transparency that we all take them for granted. As a matter of fact only a
leader whose mediocrity makes his government consistently prone to mistakes
- some deliberate, others accidental - would now shy away from being
transparent. The Independent is revisiting the issue of transparency because
of some annoying revelations that certain public officials run big time
businesses abroad, more pointedly the United States where one of them owns a
property in the Atlanta (Georgia) province of Alpharetta, which he bought at
$4 million. Our investigations have also led us to details of another
official owning a house in Dakar, Senegal valued at 76 million CFA. There is
nothing wrong in owning these properties. No sin. Our beef is however, how
these properties were acquired and kept as matters of the utmost secrecy for
a long time. How can public officials buy properties using millions of
dollars ticked away from transparency's searchlight? Some may be asking
whether it is our business to poke a finger in other people's pie. No, if
the pie is acquired transparently and honestly. But, yes if the whole
process was shrouded in mystery and the acquisition of the dole used to get
it shady. The latter case appears to hold sway here. Although we are still
conducting investigations in US, Dakar and other countries where our
officials have bought expensive 'pies', the details we have now show that
these properties were acquired illegally by officials (names withheld until
investigations are concluded) whose earning power over many years could
never have upgraded their purchasing power into several millions.
We also know that several brand new vans plying the Banjul-Serrekunda
highway belong to them but that is a small kettle of fish compared to 'the
personal empires' abroad. Will someone answer to the properties in Morocco
and elsewhere or we will bring them out in due course?
One cannot fail to be exasperated by the fact that all this corruption and
lack of transparency is taking place against a sordid backdrop of acute mass
suffering for deliberate and accidental misapplication of policies.
Once again, we do not hate anybody in the government. What we are joining
others in hating is the things that saw to our current politico-economic
crisis.
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