JAMMEH MUST GO; THE GAMBIA IS BLEEDING.
        In 1994 when some military officers took over the reigns of power, there was widespread jubilation among a disillusioned public. I witnessed first hand the riots in Brikama over water and electricity shortages. I survived a lynch mob that measured me up and down and decided that I belonged to the enemy. Fact is, I was just a reporter trying to get the story of the people to the Daily Observer. 
  
  MK JALLOW TAKES ON JAMMEH
  Those were trying times. Rolling blackouts and darkness that blanketed entire towns. Water shortages and the ugly street fights, some communal, at public water standpipes, everyday, all across the Western Division from Brikama to Bakau. 
  Then the military boys came and promised change. The promise of a better future filled the air, and the sweet dreams of a new tomorrow permeated every aspect of our lives. Hope was reborn. We clung to it. 
  More than ten years later, it is deja vous all over again. Very little has changed. The blackouts and water shortages still occur. The people are as frustrated as they have been before; perhaps even more now. Yet, Brikama our revolutionary trend-setter, this time round is sitting tight-lipped. 
  What has changed is that the freedoms that young Brikamankas exercised to turn out into the streets in large numbers and vent their anger and frustration against their government, have been taken away. Now, these boys turned men, have an exaggerated view of themselves for in their minds, they see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil and do no evil. 
  Their regime continues to occupy our government only to make sure that the people forfeit the liberties that rightfully belong to them as enshrined in our constitution. Then came April 10th 2000, a day of infamy, when young school children were massacred by our own security forces. 
  It was a turning point in our country's history, a low point, gruesome and barbaric, that will forever haunt every Gambian for decades to come. It was a day accentuated the machiavellian methods the military regime would employ in order to maintain an unpopular and a tenuous hold on power. 
  We know from recent history that the government of Jawara was, in the end out of touch with the population. Jawara either through indifference or senility let the country slip into the hands of two bitter and competing rivals; the Banjul mafia and Terri Kafo. The two opposing camps jockeyed for power and the wealth that went with it. In the process several institutions were looted and ransacked until they were completely bankrupt; The Gambia Commercial and Development Bank (GCBD), National Trading Corporation (NTC), Gambia Produce Marketing Board (GPMB), Public Works Department (PWD) Gambia Fish Marketing Board (GFMB) come easily to mind. 
  As a result of bankrupting these institutions, which in their haydays were performing much needed service to the nation, many corrupt former officials of that regime are today enjoying their ill-gotten wealth with their families. The regime then and the regime now are very similar in their modus operandi. The one big difference is that this time, the president Yahya Jammeh is a corruption machine all by himself. Like a rat, he is drawing everything in his path to his hole in Kanilai. When he goes there, the whole government goes with him. Nowadays, in Kanilai, it rains gold I suppose. 
  While the level of corruption has not changed an iota, there is a new dimension in the way and manner this regime operates. First, the Gambian people elected a president, but what they got is a man who has morped into a despot. Jammeh's powers have no limit. His actions have no boundaries. And his stupidity and cruelty has no parallel. Given the nature of our cultures and how much the death of a person means to us, Jammeh's government has turned an absolute rarity into a norm. 
  Today, killing, maiming and torturing people has become a part of our socio-political lexicon. To make matters worst, Jammeh is answerable to no one, not even to the judiciary and our military exists exclusively to serve him, and perpetuate his ugly bloodletting leadership. As far as our military is concerned, the people do not matter for they do not count. Everyone in the military is supposed to dance to Jammeh's music or else. Hardly a week goes by without someone somewhere being fired or arrested for God know what. If there are no qualified people to run the country, it is because Jammeh himself is not fit to hire anyone, especially because he has no clue what we need in terms of skill sets to move our country forward. Jammeh's ignorance, his paranoia, and his shaky emotional state combine to make him vulnerable and susceptible to making bad decisions and wrong judgment calls.? This lethal combination manifests itself, because each time Jammeh opens his big mouth to
 speak, a lot of hot nonsense comes out. In his book, Africa in Chaos, Professor Ayittey, laments that African leaders are so engrossed in the business of fighting their political enemies that they have time for little else.
   Yes, enter Yahya Jammeh. He has been locked in an unending battle agaist perceived enemies from day one. Twelve years on, he is still fighting. The difference this time is that he has made himself very real enemies. And they wait in the shadows. 
  In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe quoting from W.B. Yate's The Second Coming, says; Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer things fall apart; the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosened upon this world. This poem written so long ago, still rings so true today in our Gambian context. 
  Yes, the past ten years have been a nightmare, and Jammeh has lost his way trying to navigate through the labrynth of governing that he knows nothing about. He seems clueless that running a country through the barrel of a gun has no place in modern society, and as in Greek mythology, there is usually a tragic end to it. Countless dictators around the world tried it, as an insurance to perpetuate their misrules, but it failed in most cases. It is a common mistake to think that a people, any people can be kept in subordination in perpetuity. I believe that Gambians have now reached the limits of their tolerance, when they hate their government more than they fear the guns of their military. 
  Besides, lessons of history have taught us that when angry people stand up because they have nothing more to lose, even mighty armies retreat. The army and the president are only as strong and invincible as the people allow them to be. But, as the angry and the disillusioned impregnate the ranks, a ground-swell of anti-military dictatorship will eventually take over our country by whatever means necessary. Jammeh should preoccupy himself with the thought of how some day, angry young mobs will rip his shirt or kaftan off his back right in the heart of MacCarthy's Square? 
  Of course he won't, because he thinks this ride he is on will last forever. He does not realize each of the people he killed beginning with Koro Ceesay to the very last man, will be avenged, and there is no shortage of people willing to put a noose around Jammeh's neck. President Eisenhower once said; "The buck stops here." The ultimate responsibility for any crime of murder, violence of any kind and other infraction rests with the man on top. So, Jammeh watch out. We will get you some day. That will be your own day. Just wait and see. 
   
    
Posted on Saturday, April 29, 2006 (Archive on Monday, May 29, 2006)
Posted by PANDERRYMBAI  Contributed by PANDERRYMBAI
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        Rating:           [input] 1   [input] 2   [input] 3   [input] 4   [input] 5    Comments:      Save  
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          Current Rating:  4.25                        Rating:   3    GOD BLESS JAMMEH AND THE HUMLE GAMBIANS, AND LET THE EVIL LIVE LONG TO SEE THE PROGRESS OF THE MAN AND THE GAMBIA            Rating:   3    the day is closing on jammeh start packing true voice of bakau            Rating:   3    WHO MURDERED BOYE BAH, THE GREATEST SOLDIER GAMBIA PRODUCED? dID JAMMEH KILL HIS FRIEND BOYE BAH? WHO KILLED BOYE BAH OF SINTET VILLAGE, IN FONI.            Rating:   5    Jammeh's satanic powers are failing. No more shelter to keep him out of sight            Rating:   5    This is the Mathew I knew!!! Jaraamah Pulloh!            Rating:   5    go gainako go, weare all proud of you, ajaramade            Rating:   5                Rating:   5    
             

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