Gambia-L:

I was telling a Senegalese friend of mine the other day that in the wake of
their victory, they still need to be more vigilant; no sleeping, no dozing
off! It is usually at the height of our excitement that the thief comes in
to steal our conscience. I have few comments on some of the issues mentioned
in this forum.

Amensty Inernational

The Gambia branch of Amnesty International was formed in September 1992.
Since then its membership has grown all the way to Tujereng, not without
much effort.  I was surprised to know that Tombong Saidy is a board member
of this organization.  While Amnesty does not discriminate against anybody
for his political or other beliefs, it looks rather odd that Tombong will
belong to an organization whose objectives are, inter alia, to:

* Free all prisoners of conscience detained anywhere for their beliefs or
because of their ethnic origin, sex, colour or language -- who have not used
or advocated violence;

* Ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners;

* Abolish the death penalty, torture and other cruel treatment of prisoners;

* End extrajudicial executions and “disappearances.”


The present government is guilty of all the above. As the unofficial
mouthpiece and ardent defender of the APRC government it would be unethical
for Tombong to continue his membership with Amnesty International. For
further information about Amnesty International (Gambia) you may reach them
at (220)494140.


Radio Liberté?

I think it would be a good idea to have a radio station air the concerns of
Gambians regarding the abuse of power by the APRC government.  However, I
doubt if any African country, Senegal the least, will want to be the host of
such a station. The new leadership in Senegal may not want to ask for more
trouble by openly challenging President Jammeh to hostilities.  The
Casamance is already too hot a cake to handle. The traditional cat and mouse
game between the two countries should be stopped. And I believe Wade's
pan-africanist sentiments will make him think twice about this.  In my
opinion, the only solution is to continue demanding for a free press and
mass media tools that are equally accessible to all Gambians.  When
Baboucarr Gueye's Citizen FM was arbitrarily closed down we vented our anger
here and there and let the issue slide into history.  If the political
parties and all of us do not act now, the next victim will be Radio 1 FM.


Intellectuals/Intelligentia

This is the mouthful word that we spit out sometimes to express our disgust.
This is the most volatile and malleable class of African societies.  When
small semi-literate boys pick up guns and take over power its the
intellectuals that jump in to write their verbose and deceitful  decrees;
when a corrupt civilian government wants to perpetuate itself in authority
they doctor the constitution to the effect; when it's time to cry foul
against injustice they hide behind their doors in offices and academic
institutions and let the "boys" do the talk. No doubt that the Ghanaian
Professor Dr. George Ayittey called them "prostitutes" in his book "Africa
in Chaos", (excuse my language). Most of us are aware that there are Gambian
intellectuals lecturing in high academic institutions in the West and who
are currently peeping in Gambia-L, but with the notable exception of Dr.
Abdoulaye Saine and one or two others, all of them are drowned in their
academic pride to participate in this forum while we are facing a national
tragedy.  Some would wait for us to talk the talk and walk the walk then
they will publish some high sounding research article to add some weight to
their resumé.

Folks, there should be no room for complacency or naiveté. Let's not imagine
that President Jammeh and his government will just get up and pack. It's
through pressure, pressure and pressure that the APRC government will
crumble at our feet. It may afterall be Dr. Katim Touray's version of the
stick.

Hamadi.
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