Halifa Sallah Says President Jammeh is Irresponsible And Unfit to Be Head of
State


The Independent (Banjul)

DOCUMENT
July 28, 2003
Posted to the web July 28, 2003

Banjul

Honourable Halifa Sallah has wasted no time in responding to vitriolic
statements from President Jammeh who castigated the opposition as a bunch of
no-gooders who can never garner the moral clout to rule The Gambia. The
president had sought to ridicule his political adversaries and berate the
idea of entertaining an opposition coalition to unseat him.

We reproduce hereunder Honourable Sallah's full response, which commits him
to calling a press conference to present his credentials among other things
as he is being challenged to do by the Gambian leader.

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"He said people should ask me where I studied sociology. You the journalists
should take both of us to task. Those who read people should speak the
truth. Those who do otherwise are guilty of gross irresponsibility. I will
call a press conference to produce my certificates in the interest of
transparency. If I do the Gambian people should consider Jammeh to be
irresponsible and unfit to be a Head of State. No one occupying such high
office should bow so low in being a character assassin.

He said that he knew me as a student and that I have never spoken to him
about religion.Yes, I knew him as a student. Sam Sarr, a former Physics and
Maths teacher at Gambia High School used to visit students at home to find
out their problems. When we realised that some of them could not pay their
fees we wrote plays and got the students to put them on stage. The audience
paid and we used the money to finance the education of disadvantaged
students. Jammeh was one of the actors in one of the plays, which exposed
the evil of pomposity and promoted the value of caring and sharing. He
should have told the audience the truth.

I also remember Jammeh asking me, during a symposium held in Banjul, whether
they should trust technocrats. I asked him what he would say if he was
seated in an aircraft in the air and asked whether he trusted pilots. I
explained that those with knowledge that is put in use to benefit society
should be trusted. Those who promote their selfish interest should not be
trusted.

Jammeh does not appear to have learned. The only other time I met Jammeh was
when he was in the force and had arrested a welder. I will leave the
circumstances for later publication if he still want to engage in petty
politics.

If Jammeh wants to play into the mud I will certainly not be his doormat and
I will not join him in such exercise in futility. Let him stay in the mud
and soil himself.

On the issue of belief it is difficult to know who is a believer in The
Gambia since religion is part of the culture. All pay their respect when
Christians and Muslims are praying. Who knows who is a believer at heart?
What is important is a person's action. I know that no religious leader has
ever attacked me for saying and doing what is harmful to humanity.

The regime of Jammeh who claims to be a spokesperson for Islam is on record
for destroying a mosque and imprisoning an Imam in Gambisara instead of
helping to bring understanding among believers. He is capable of making 180
degrees turn around on the veil issue only to leave the Muslim and Christian
communities in a state of doubt. He who claims to be a spokesperson of Islam
could lecture on modesty in dress only to invite women wearing skintight
shorts to wrestle before him in a state of half nakedness for fun. It is
Jammeh who puts on air that he is a devout Muslim and by holding prayer
beads just to adjust his " grand mbuba" and dance to the beats of the
traditional drums. It is Jammeh who should probe whether he is a devout
Muslim or deceiver.

Jammeh accused PDOIS of promoting a failed system. It is Jammeh who is
leading a country with 60 percent of the population living in abject poverty
where prices are skyrocketing by the day.

It is Jammeh who is the head of a state, which is classified as a highly
indebted poor country with an D18 billion debt, 2.5 billion trade deficits
and a heavy dependence on treasury bills to sustain the recurrent budget.
PDOIS has never handled the Gambian economy. People like Jammeh who depend
on Cuba for medical doctors have no moral authority to talk about the
failure of a system. It is those who have built successful systems who can
critise others by their own practice.

The Gambian people need to free themselves from these stultifying comments
by political illiterates and take all political parties to task so that they
can explain clearly what they are doing or intend to do if they handle the
affairs of the country. Jammeh should explain PDOIS programme and critise
it. Since he is not capable of doing so he would only make irrelevant
comments.

About Jammeh's alleged wish for the coalition to fail my position is that a
Coalition should have strategic objectives and programmes that are
acceptable to the people. Any Coalition whose programmes reflect the needs
and aspirations of the people would succeed.

On his reported prediction that I will lose my seat if I join a Coalition
Jammeh has shown all the bad will he could show just a day before the 2001
National Assembly elections. However, he could not influence the process. I
do not own the seat. I am not a career parliamentarian. I am simply
rendering a service. I spend D5000 out of my income to support community
programmes. I am gaining nothing to warrant me to deceive the people in
order to stay in office. It is Jammeh who has gained much from being
president. If he thinks titudinal change if he can sink to fabrication and
character assassination to pursue political ends".

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