Joe, you wrote:
"My question to you is, if you use your gun to get rid of him,
how do we get rid of you if you decide to stay and still with gun in
hand?"
I never said I was going to take over power. The interim president is going
to be a Gambian currently enjoying an illustrious career in the
international arena. Someone with no ambitions to run for political office
in the Gambia. In fact there will be laws to prevent the interim
administration from staying in office. I am not a power hungry soldier who
want to replace the present tyrant we have with another tyrannical regime.
We want to set benchmarks which we can use to measure the forces that are
going to remove Yaya. If we all stay aloof and leave our fate in the hands
of some power hungry half-baked soldiers, we will just have another April 10
massacre while still waiting for a non-existent election defeat for Yaya. If
we lay the ground rules for our restoration to democracy now, then we will
be clear about what we want to see happen when Yaya is ousted. The
alternative, is for us to sit and wait for elections and in the meantime a
set of disgruntled soldiers will remove Yaya and entrench themselves in
power while we still sit around and cling on to our ideals of non-violence.
What we are trying to do is to create order by setting clear objectives
which will unify us all against anyone who violates those rules. Imagine
what would have happened if only 70% of the urban population in Gambia had
gotten up on July 22, 1994 and told Yaya to hand over to a civilian interim
president. The guy would have packed up and left. The first few days, they
weren't even sure about what they wanted to do. We should not allow
ourselves to be caught off guard like that again. We should have a plan that
people can rally around with their hearts. That is how we can ensure that
whoever uses force to get there, does not use that force to stay on.
You also said:
"I don't think invoking Mandela's name has any bearing
on this issue."
Most of the time, I used his name to show that using force as a means to an
end is not a bad thing. We know a lot of us are very reluctant to advocate
the use of any form of force. Some of us have gone on record saying that we
will never support a military takeover. I myself have said that in the past.
That is precisely the reason why even though I did not like the Jawara
regime, I had opposed Yaya and his cohorts from day one. We are using
Mandela's name to show people that advocating for the forcible removal of
Yaya does not make someone an unprincipled person who does not respect the
rule of law.
You also said:
"we don't have any guarantees besides your
promise that you will step aside."
You will have more guarantees than my word. The benchmarks that we set
together are going to be the guarantees. These benchmarks will unify all
peace-loving Gambians against anyone who wants to violate them.
"Yahya was the soldier with a
difference, what will you be?"
I mentioned in another posting that it will be unfair to compare our future
interim leader with Yaya. As I said before, our next interim leader will be
different. Unlike Yaya, and his cohorts, he would not need the celebrity of
the presidency or high office in order to have basic necessities like
marrying a wife. This person will have something to go back to upon leaving
office.
"If the overwhelming majority of Gambians want Yahya out, as much as our
Senegalese relatives wanted Abdou out, why do we think our only
option is the barrel of the gun?"
I don't think you are suggesting that Yaya shares the same democratic ideals
as Diouf or that Senegalese hate Diouf more than we hate Yaya. It is not
about what our people want. Yaya will simply rig the elections, period. It
is obvious that our people hate Yaya more than the Senegalese hate Diouf.
What differentiates us is that in Senegal the mechanisms that are in place
to remove the president, were not tampered with. Diouf might have tampered
with them if he had a grip on power as Yaya does in the Gambia. Yaya can rig
elections in Gambia and get away with it because he can use force to
intimidate people. Diouf couldn't do that. If I was convinced that the
elections in Gambia can be free and fair, I would live with the people's
choice, even if it is Yaya. But everyone knows that the system is flawed and
Yaya and his cohorts have no incentive to fix it for the next election or
the one after that.
"Bringing it closer to home, are any of us that are out of harm's way going
to be in the frontlines? Also, would you uphold your principle if your
mother, father, or child perished in your quest to get rid of Jammeh?"
Again, I reiterate, this is not about me or any one particular person. For
your information, a lot of us were in Banjul when Yaya took over. We were
criticizing this regime even before people like Ousainou Darboe started
criticizing Yaya. We were criticizing Yaya when they (Sabally and others)
would take their enemies and bury them alive. It is not personal. We want to
get rid of Yaya in order to avoid another April 10 massacre and other
atrocities. None of my family members was hurt on April 10 (thank God) apart
from ankle injuries my little brother sustained running away from the
callous soldiers and their bullets. So am not being lead by emotions in the
aftermath of some personal loses. We hope that no one else lose their lives
in this struggle. Yes, if it is going to take me, my father, mother, wife
and child to save our country from this tyranny, I'll gladly sacrifice that.
That is how much I despise what is happening in our country. I don't want to
go into detail about what I (and a lot of my associates) sacrificed and
continue to sacrifice as a result of this regime.
To conclude, let me just say that all I want to see happen is to have
contingencies should Yaya be removed by force, through elections, through
natural death etc. You don't have to go to Banjul personally to lead
soldiers to the state house to remove Yaya. But you can contribute by giving
those soldiers ideas about how to lead our country back to democracy. That
is all am asking. We can disagree with the means, but let us all stand
together to fight a common enemy and not allow ourselves to be divided by
people we all know are so entrenched in this regime that they would rather
die than see Yaya removed from office. I know I have fundamental differences
with a lot of people here ….yourself, Beran, Hamjatta, Saine, Ebrima Ceesay,
Dr. Touray etc. but I respect your principled stance and would give you all
the support I can personally give you. However I would also not discourage
anyone who want to get rid of Yaya through the use of force. What I want to
convince you to do is to engage those people and set benchmarks for them.
KB
>From: joe sambou <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Is Gambia L wearing too many hats?
>Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 11:17:53 -0500
>
><< text1.html >>
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