To paraphrase Human Rights lawyer, Emanuel Joof, let me also start by saying
that I feel sorry for Gambia and Gambians. As I said in an earlier posting
in the aftermath of the elections, we MUST NEVER forget that almost half of
the electorate in the country and their families and friends did NOT vote
for Yaya. Those people deserve and need the protection of the Opposition
leadership. When I hear people say that it was a good (peaceful) thing to
allow Yaya to continue to impose himself on us, I always ask myself: ‘good
and peaceful for whom?’

Certainly NOT for the numerous Opposition stalwarts that were savagely
attacked by APRC thugs in the aftermath of the election. Certainly NOT for
Human Rights activists like Muhammad Sillah that was illegally abducted by
the NIA and held incommunicado for several days. Certainly NOT for Dr.
Manneh. Certainly NOT for OJ’s poor mother whose person and house was
attacked by APRC thugs.

Who does the ‘peace’ serve? Certainly NOT Babucarr Gaye and his Radio
Station that is reported to have been closed by the APRC Dictatorship. The
‘peace’ served the bully (Yaya) that used intimidation to force Gambians to
let him stay in power. As I said before, what the Opposition did by
succumbing to the bully, was just postpone their plight. If anybody thinks
that votes alone is going to remove Yaya from office, that person need to
have his/her head examined. What it takes is votes and the tenacity to
safeguard those votes.

Make no mistake about it, Yaya has stooges ready, able and willing to
perpetuate him in power. I just saw on Gambian newspapers the IEC readying
to conduct a Referendum to (yet again) amend our Constitution. Can people
believe this? This is the same outfit that few weeks ago was crying about
lack of funds and tried to rationalize conducting a dodgy election. Yaya and
his cohorts at the IEC and vermin like Yankuba Touray were all over the
place saying that the IEC does NOT have enough funds to conduct a fully
transparent election called by the Opposition. The mental midget (Gabriel
Roberts) disenfranchised Gambians in the Diaspora (mainly critical to Yaya)
because ‘there were NOT enough funds to register Gambians abroad to vote’.
Meanwhile Roberts oversaw the registering and voting of tens of thousands of
non-Gambians in our election. What was stopping these mental midgets at the
IEC from putting two extra boxes at the polling stations to cater for the
Referendum, while using the funds that would now be used for the Referendum
to ensure a free and fair presidential election? The answer is simple? All
along, Roberts was conniving with Yaya and Yankuba Touray to steal the
election. The vermin will now use this Referendum to further entrench Yaya
and further enslave the Gambian people. I feel sorry for Gambia and
Gambians.

But the problems do NOT stop there. The legal system in the country is
virtually impotent when it comes to protecting defenseless citizens from the
‘might’ of the Dictatorship. No one is talking about the plight of Dumo et
al (political prisoners illegally incarcerated for a crime they did NOT
commit). No judge wants to step up and set these innocent citizens free. No
judge wants to step up and release the numerous Opposition stalwarts that
were illegally arrested in the aftermath of the election. Meanwhile APRC
thugs are running around terrorizing people with impunity. There is even
talk that Yaya is going to ‘pardon’ and ‘release’ the notorious Sanna
Sabally. Commonsense is just turned upside down. While Dumo et al are
languishing in jail, Sabally is let loose. Mind you, Dumo et al were NEVER
tried and sentenced by a court. Sabally on the other hand was sentenced and
now the Dictatorship is ‘releasing’ him. Goes to show that the courts have
been emasculated and the Dictatorship (Yaya) is the law of the land.

But the above still leaves out a more catastrophic problem that might just
hit us if we continue to succumb to Yaya’s intimidation and thuggery. To
fully grasp this problem, I respectfully urge those that did NOT go to
ffdig.org to read Colonel Sarr’s piece there, to do so. That brilliantly
written piece shed light on a problem that was neglected by most during the
euphoria surrounding the elections. That problem is the Casamance Rebellion.
The thought provoking piece in ffdig.org challenged us to ponder on why the
rebel movement in Casamance was silent all this time leading to the run up
to the election. Frankly, to the untrained eye, Colonel Sarr’s assertions
could be dismissed as farfetched warmongering. But that would be a fatal
mistake that Gambia will live to regret.

Today I read Gambian newspapers and guess who was making headlines? Yes, the
Casamance rebels. Now we all know that the rebels are no longer welcomed in
Bissau. They are desperate and need Yaya big time. Does Yaya have what it
takes to ‘betray’ the rebels after they helped him get elected by sending
thousands of Senegalese (Casamance) citizens across the border to go vote
for Yaya? As Sarr predicted, Yaya MUST ‘repay’ his fellow Jolas in Casamance
for helping him in the election. Barely a week after the election, the
rebels are back making headlines in our country. Are Gambians prepared for
what the Wade government is going to do about the ‘hospitality’ the rebels
have in Gambia? Again I ask, who does the ‘peaceful’ resolution of the
election serve?

You read Gambian papers further, you realize that there is a shake-up in the
upper echelons of the military. Top army officials FIRED for no apparent
reason. Is this not the type of thing that brings instability in a country?
Top military officials fired without just cause? Who does the ‘peace’ serve?
Which one of us will tell their children to give in to the school-yard-bully
in order to foster peace between the bully and your child? Naturally,
bullies only pick on easy targets that are going to give in to them. When
some kid that was five years older than my child was bullying my child, I
did NOT tell my child to fight back or give in. I just counseled him to let
me know about any bullying. Then I go and threaten the bully and give him a
doze of his own medicine. There is a deep morale to this simple story. It is
foolhardy for 60 or so people to stand up to the NIA when they are illegally
arrested. But, it is an entirely different ball game if the entire
Opposition gets rid of this ridiculous ‘peace’ thing and stand up to the
bully (Yaya). This ‘peace’ does NOT serve us. It only serves Yaya and his
cohorts.

Despite that in the name of ‘peace’ the Opposition ‘gave in’ to Yaya, the
thuggery still continues in the country. Innocent citizens like Dumo are
still languishing in jail and there isn’t a darn thing the courts can do
about it. Innocent and patriotic citizens like Muhamman Sillah are
incarcerated incommunicado for spurious ‘crimes’ like ‘inciting genocidal
confusion (whatever that means). Scores of Opposition supporters are
languishing in jail just for being Opposition supporters. APRC thugs are
terrorizing people with impunity. Gabriel Roberts is readying to pull
another fraud on the Gambian people and in the process further entrench the
Dictatorship. Yaya and cohorts like Baabaa Jobe and Yankuba Touray are still
stealing from our meager resources. Loose-canon Sana Sabally is about to be
unleashed to an unsuspecting public. Radio stations are being closed and
journalists harassed for reporting the news. Government servants are being
dismissed willy-nilly. The Casamance rebels are creeping back to the
limelight. Who does the ‘peace’ serve?
KB


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