In a message dated 12/15/00 11:08:20 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

 The Independent
 (Banjul)
 EDITORIAL
 December 15, 2000
 Banjul
 Several month's ago when sacked DIG Tamsir Jasseh said at a government
 spokesperson's committee press briefing that the police would not tolerate
 harassment of the press and other human rights abuses, we knew that he was
soon
 going to be sacked.
 The fact that he continued speaking on those lines cemented our conviction
that
 Mr. Jasseh would not survive in these reactionary waters of Gambian politics,
 where only the mediocre and the uninventive are likely to survive.
 Now we have been proven right. Officer Tamsir Jasseh, who returned from the
US
 to his native Gambia to help in efforts at national development, has
received a
 slap in the face. He certainly must have been cured of his lofty illusions on
 patriotism.
 Predictably, no official reason has been given for Jasseh's sacking.
 Therefore, we can readily assume, unless the government proves otherwise,
that
 his sacking was a consequence of his unhidden honesty, his readiness to work,
 his realistic approach to problems besetting the police force and his
frequent
 tirades against all the wrong things going on both within and without the
police
 force. >>
****************************************
All the above mentioned reasons are why I assumed that Tam Jasseh would have
graciously accepted  a compliment and ackowledgement of his abilities from a
fellow Gambian like Karamba Touray, and then graciously added that there are
also others like him who are making positive contributions in the police
force.

Instead, he displayed a lack of courage I never envisioned in him for all the
years I have known him, by trying to distance himself from the compliment,
and thereby rendering all these comvictions he has expressed in the recent
past as just another component of the empty rhetoric so characteristic of
those who associate with this regime.

Perhap Tam thinks that this will bring him back into the good graces of his
distator. It is one thing to be fired by Yaya Jammeh, but it is yet another
thing altogether to compromise your honour and your dignity by making the
kinds of statements this former DIG did. He should have been asking for an
explanation from his Boss as to why he was fired, instead of compromising his
character. Nothing is worth that, and there is life after Yaya Jammeh.

You have dissappointed me Tam, as well as all those who thought that you were
a glimmer of hope for the future because you dared to speak the truth in the
midst of all those cowards and empty headed bullies you worked with.


Jabou Joh

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