It has never been the independent media's fault that so much attention has
been placed on the negative propensities of the A(F)PRC in the Gambia. No
morning or evening broadcast of the GRTS has ever ventured to tell the
complete story of the horrific mismanagement of the state affairs, neither
the total disregard of humanity by the state machinery that are occurring
daily in our own backyards.

It's the A(F)PRC leadership that must be pointed to for the blame.

Yaya Jammeh and the A(F)PRC, brazenly rode into the State House on their
horses, poised to do battle with an enemy that is only existent in their
twirled minds. An enemy they have successfully exonerated with flying
colors. They told us that they were but soldiers with a difference. They
told us that they came to clean house. They told us that they are open to
criticism by the media or any one else who dares. They told us that they
came to serve us, the people of Gambia, to take the reins of the nation on
the right tracks.

Today, the A(F)PRC have been catapulted into a game of one-upmanship over
who can spread the greatest terror within their loyalist ranks, while our
country men and women are dying of ill-afforded health care and while
general poverty has become normal amongst the majority. While Gambia’s
unemployed who can afford to find their way towards the Mediterranean into
Europe to seek jobs outside of the country, find themselves in harm's way
and are dying, too. While the independent media is striving against all
odds to present the true picture of the happenings in the country.
In Gambia today, gun violence in the form armed robberies has begun to
escalate. Violent crimes against media personnel are escalating at a time
when our nation's president is threatening his opponents using the same
terms that fallen dictators before him had used in attempts to thwart open
minded and strong willed activists against corruption and public
mismanagement. “They will not live to witness the next election…”

The curse of irresistible progress is irresistible regression.
Enlightenment that seeks to dissolve myths and to depose imagination
through knowledge must be nurtured at all costs. Gambia’s independent
media on the Gambia is leading the way forward in this regard. Only a
retrogressive leadership will tempt to clandestinely stifle such
progressive movements in a society like ours. Why the violence against the
independent media?

The latest streak of violence against the independent media in the Gambia
is capricious not only phenomenologically but also conceptually. We must
attempt to diagnose the significance of these attacks. We must attempt to
understand what this is by making a distinction between symbolic violence
and real violence against the independent media. Do we refer to these
attacks as physical violence or psychological violence against the media
personnel or both? Shall we refer to these as individual violence or
collective violence against the media houses? Are we witnessing rational
or irrational violence in these cases? Are these state sanctioned
spontaneous or planned violence? Are we referring to destructive violence
or constructive violence from the perspective of the media houses? Are we
referring to violence against the media or an assault on public freedom
and right to opinion? In our conceptualization of these violent streaks,
should we focus on the account, the source, the victim, the act, the
consequences of action, or the justification of action? We must
individually answer all these questions and settle down with an
independent analysis of what is happening in our dearest Gambia. I believe
that, if we understand these actions at an individual level, there is a
chance that collectively, we can come to terms with what is happening to
us as a nation.

Reminds me of S. S Molin (1963) when he said:  “Man is not unique among
the animals in resorting to violence or in organizing groups to enhance
his striking power and his ability to inflict pain and injury. …... To man
alone belongs the ability to compose elaborate systems of religious
values, political ideologies and scientific myths that by the beauty of
their poetry and the cleverness of their reasoning, have succeeded over
long periods of time in legitimizing violence and concealing its otherwise
ugly profiles.”

It is time to end the madness before its gets any worse. It is not too
long before 2006 when the time finally comes for Gambians to make a
change, the world will be watching.

--
BambaLaye

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
-M.L King Jr.

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