>From: "Ebrima Ceesay" <[log in to unmask]>
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>Subject: [>-<] Sheriff Dibba Taken To Task In London
>Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 23:17:18 +0000
>
>[ This e-mail is posted to Gambia|Post e-Gathering by "Ebrima Ceesay"
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>
>Dear Readers,
>
>The scheduled Royal Commonwealth Society public lecture, featuring the
>guest speaker Sheriff Mustapha Dibba (Speaker of the National Assembly of
>The Gambia), took place last night (Wednesday 22nd January 2003) at the
>Royal Commonwealth Society offices in West London.
>
>The public "lecture" on the theme "Consolidating Good Governance in The
>Gambia: What Role For The Parliament?" was attended by officials of the
>British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, by staff of the Commonwealth
>Secretariat in London, by friends of The Gambia (including one English man
>who taught Mrs Satang Jow at Gambia High School in the 1960’s!!), and by
>Gambians residing in the UK or visiting the UK at the moment.
>
>The "lecture" was moderated by Dr Karen Brewer, Secretary General of the
>Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association.
>
>Mr Dibba read from a prepared text and spoke for about one hour, after
>which questions and comments were allowed from the floor.
>
>I am still waiting to receive the official text of Mr Dibba’s speech, and
>so I am not able to do a comprehensive report at this time. The full text
>is in the hands of Mr Aime Sangara, Head of Public Affairs at the Royal
>Commonwealth Society. He has promised to forward this to me next week.
>
>The Royal Commonwealth Society plan to publish Mr Dibba’s speech in full on
>their webpage (www.rcsint.org). I told them that they also had a duty, in
>the name of fairness and objectivity, to similarly publish a rebuttal which
>I shall be undertaking, once I have received the full text of Mr Dibba’s
>speech.
>
>What follows in this message is my brief first report of what transpired at
>the public lecture. Please take note that there were occasions when Dibba
>spoke "off the cuff" or deviated from his prepared speech. Some of my notes
>below may well not appear in Dibba’s prepared text when this is published,
>but they do reflect the actuality of the meeting.
>
>Mr Dibba claimed that the PPP and former President Jawara were to be
>blamed for the 1994 Coup d’Etat, because Jawara overstayed his time in
>power. Dibba said that he personally welcomed the Coup and thanked the
>Coup leaders for the way in which they undertook their mission – not one
>drop of blood spilt !!
>
>Dibba went on to say that President Jawara had announced his decision to
>retire in 1992, but people around the president had persuaded him to stay
>in power. In Dibba’s view, this was a grave mistake.
>
>In Dibba’s view, democracy under President Jawara was just a façade. Dibba
>cited his own detention in 1981 to support his views. He said that he was
>illegally detained by the PPP regime, in connection with the ’81 abortive
>Coup, until he was later acquitted by a Court of Law.
>
>Dibba claimed that under Jawara, the electoral process was neither free nor
>fair, and that he himself during many elections was denied access to the
>media, and even in some cases, he was personally harassed. Dibba
>castigated the PPP and laid the blame for the past problems (and even the
>current 2003 problems in The Gambia) at the feet of the deposed Jawara
>regime.
>
>Dibba said that The Gambia, under Jammeh, is "progressing very well in most
>areas", that "there are human rights violations but these are very minimal"
>(he likened these to finding a needle in a haystack !). He told the
>audience that he was proud to have combined his party (the NCP) with the
>ruling party.
>
>He claimed that following his careful studies, that it was in the best
>interests of his party and himself to join up with the APRC. He said that
>the October 2001 Presidential Election, which he himself contested, was the
>fairest and free-est in the history of The Gambia !!!
>
>As for the new Constitution, Dibba said that it was the best in the
>sub-region in terms of its provisions, and that it guaranteed the rights
>and movement of Gambian citizens.
>
>First to react to Dibba’s comments was Mr Abdoulaye Jobe, a Gambian living
>in the UK. Mr Jobe rebutted Dibba’s claims, adding that based on the
>information he was receiving from the media and from people in The Gambia,
>the opposite was in fact happening. He said that the human rights record of
>the APRC regime was poor, that people were arbitrarily arrested and
>wrongfully dismissed from their jobs. He went on to say that the poverty
>in The Gambia had worsened, and he did his best to set the record straight
>for the audience.
>
>Next to speak was Mr Ebrima Chongan, the former Deputy Inspector General of
>Police in The Gambia, and now living in the UK. Chongan also took Dibba to
>task: he said that contrary to what Dibba was claiming, The Gambia under
>Jammeh left a lot to be desired in terms of good governance!
>
>He cited the dismissal by the Jammeh regime, of Justice Hassan Jallow from
>the High Court of The Gambia, and went on to remind the audience that the
>Constitution of The Gambia does not allow for this type of dismissal. He
>went on to catalogue the many human rights abuses of the APRC regime under
>Jammeh, and told Dibba that he, Chongan, was illegally detained by this
>present regime for 30 months at Mile Two Prison.
>
>Chongan said that the issue was not about the past, but rather about the
>need to confront present realities, and for Gambians to address these
>current issues.
>
>Following Chongan, James Bahoum of the Movement for the Restoration of
>Democracy in The Gambia (UK branch) completely shattered Dibba’s
>statements. Using his legal mind and his considerable oratory skills, Mr.
>Bahoum exposed Dibba as a propagandist and mouthpiece of the APRC regime.
>
>He set the record straight for the benefit of the audience, and painted a
>picture of the true Gambia of 2003 and since Jammeh came to power. He
>spoke eloquently about the repression, the poverty, the wrongful
>dismissals, the arbitrary arrests and corruption, all of which he noted to
>be growing by the minute.
>
>He reminded Dibba of the massacre of our students on April 10/11th 2000 and
>he noted how Jammeh indemnified all those who were connected with this
>terrible outrage, by the enactment of an Indemnity Act.
>
>By the end of his contribution to the lecture, James Bahoum had set the
>record straight and people were in no two minds about the state of affairs
>in present day Gambia.
>
>At this point, Tamsir Jallow, the Deputy High Commissioner for The Gambia
>in the UK, came to Dibba’s rescue. He described Jammeh’s regime as being
>good for the country, and he blamed the PPP and Jawara for whatever wrongs
>were happening in The Gambia today. Jallow regretted what happened on
>10/11th April 2000, and claimed that his own nephew was one of the victims.
>
>He then claimed that the present Indemnity Act was just an extension or an
>amendment of the 1981 Indemnity Bill, signed in to law by former President
>Jawara. He attempted to downplay the importance and significance of the
>current Indemnity Bill, saying that it was less draconian than the 1981
>Indemnity Bill of Jawara.
>
>Mr Ousman Manjang, former spokesman for MOJA, interrupted Tamsir Jallow and
>told him to shut up: Manjang pointed out very forcefully that the UK was
>NOT The Gambia, where APRC members or speakers could monopolise a public
>forum and present an unchallenged viewpoint.
>
>He also reminded Tamsir Jallow that he was NOT the guest speaker – this was
>Sheriff Dibba’s evening !! Tamsir duly took note, and sat down !!
>
>I then myself had the opportunity to take the floor, and I started by
>saying that as far as I am concerned, Dibba is an insignificant player in
>The Gambian scene of today. I told the audience that Dibba was not
>competent to answer my questions, and that I wanted Yahya Jammeh himself to
>face me and his critics in an open forum anywhere in the world (except The
>Gambia !!).
>
>Since however, Dibba was there and Jammeh was not, I went on to ask him
>some leading questions.
>
>I prefaced my questions with a heartfelt statement that I believed Dibba to
>be a Liar – "Mr Dibba, I put it to you that you are a Liar and an idle
>dreamer. You lied to this audience by painting a kind of Gambia which you
>know in your heart does not exist".
>
>I then went on to tell him that many Gambians are sick and tired of his
>type, and that of Tamsir Jallow. People like them just keep spinning for
>Jammeh or telling lies on his behalf.
>
>The moderator of the lecture interrupted me and asked me to rephrase my
>questions and comments in quieter language. She objected to me publicly
>calling Dibba "a liar", but I did insist that I stood by my words and that
>in the name of fairness and objectivity, the Royal Commonwealth Society had
>an obligation to publish my rebuttal of Dibba’s text.
>
>At this point, Dibba was very angry: he lost his temper as much as I had.
>
>I asked him to describe to the audience the content of the Media Commission
>Bill and explain to the audience how this Bill could consolidate good
>governance in The Gambia.
>
>In reply, Dibba, of course, failed to convince people that the Bill
>represented good governance. Nonetheless, he claimed that journalists did
>need to be checked and that he had no problems with the Bill and its
>provisions.
>
>Ousman Manjang and O.J Jallow (currently visiting the UK) demanded the
>opportunity to contribute to the discussion, but the Moderator brought the
>meeting to a close, saying that "time was up".
>
>It was a good forum and there was time for both sides to air their views. I
>am sure that Mr Dibba has learned a good lesson, that he may not take
>Gambians for a ride any more.
>
>I really do urge Gambians to attend meetings such as this one, in order
>that we can present OUR case. If no Gambian had been present at this
>particular lecture, then many officials in the West could have been misled
>and duped into believing that all was well in the state of The Gambia. As
>we know, this is far from the case. Hopefully, we conveyed our opposition
>and our evidence for it, to the forum.
>
>
>Ebrima Ceesay,
>Birmingham, UK
>
>
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