Ms Barry,
Get a grip on your senses. Your foolish attempts to threaten me doesn't work
and won't work - ever. I'm a lot tougher than that. Do you know how many hate
mails i average each time i write critically of the AFPRC/APRC record in
office, threatening me and my family??!! A screw must be loose somewhere in
your brain for you to imagine that veiled or latent threats will simply shut
me up! I joined this List out of my own volition and when i leave the List in
three weeks time - after the elections - it will also be out of my own
volition. Threats simply don't work with me. The only way you can possibly
silence me is to snuff the life force out of me. Even there and then, more
critics will simply pick up from where i left my indelible marks. So to
silence my fierce critiques of your uncle - in his capacity as a public
figure and an occupant of a tax-payer maintained instrument of influence -
you will have to engage me in a more civilised discourse as to why Sarjo
Jallow is not an opportunistic turncoat for supporting the AFPRC/APRC??!!
Needless to say that my interest in your uncle vis-a-vis his unbecoming
attitude or stance since he joined the AFPRC/APRC arise out of an impersonal
inquiry as per how compatible or incompatible his current position as a
spokesperson of the Jammeh gov't is with his former militant advocacy against
the PPP when he used to be a MOJAG operative? That is to say that had Sarjo
not been the occupant of a position of influence in the Gambian polity, i
couldn't have cared less what the man is up to. Be it noted: i've never met
the man before and aside from some of the facts surrounding his political
activities of yore, i don't know anything about the Brother; and dare i say
that i couldn't tell him from Adam were he to pass me by. So it wasn't and
never will be personal. The point has always been how members of MOJAG - who
have opposed Jawara in such a heady and resolute fashion - could reconcile
their "progressive" views and stance with supporting and aiding the APRC -
formally and informally? That has always been the point.
Be all that as it is, i definitely understand why you are piqued at me. I
have and continue to be highly critically of Sarjo's role in the scheme of
APRC politics. Clearly, this will continue to ruffle the feathers of vested
interests. Let it be so; i couldn't have cared less how much i scared the
hell out of those who have reason to fear my criticality of Sarjo. Before
Sister Jay, Sarjo's wife, unceremoniously left this List last year -
subsequent to her farcical and lopsided critiques of Saiks - she and i had an
argument over Sarjo Jallow's participation in the APRC regime. In that
argument, she pathetically tried to paint a revolutionary make-believe
picture of Sarjo Jallow ala Thomas Sankareh, i.e., the selfless African
proletariat working under poor conditions with a salary incommensurable to
his efforts, training and abilities. She forwarded another dissembling
argument in defense of Sarjo's continued participation in the APRC regime
pace the April Massacres of the innocent students. She held then that the
only way to exorcise, purify or purge the APRC regime of its devilry is for
sincere individuals - like Sarjo - to work within the system and help change
it meaningful. This, of course, is unadulterated nonsense. Try such specious
arguments with the simpletons of the APRC. The fact was and will always
remain that she was merely finding a convenient excuse to explain away what
is inherently a radical change in Sarjo's politics. Needless to say that she
doesn't convince reasonable and sophisticated folks with such a slipshod and
utterly contemptible defense of her husband's hypocrisy. Consider:
1. Has Sarjo's continued participation in the scheme of APRC politics helped
end the illegal incarceration of Dumo Sarho, a former comrade?
2. Has Sarjo's continued membership of the APRC gov't brought about the swift
trial of those indicted by the Commission of Enquiry and the Coroner's
Inquest into the April Massacres?
3.What has he helped achieve vis-a-vis the rapid deterioration of the hostile
Human Rights atmosphere, helped to precipitate by the bully-boy tactics of
the APRC regime?
4. Has his continued participation in the APRC regime helped ameliorate the
sufferings of the legion of Gambian poor, made poorer by the kleptocracy of
Jammeh's daylight looting of State coffers?
5. Are the families of the victims of the 11 November pogrom any nearer
justice for their loved ones?
6. Are other families - notably Koro Ceesay's family - any nearer knowing the
circumstances in which their loved were heinously murdered by the AFPRC/APRC?
7. Insofar as the APRC's silly defence of such internationally proscribed
criminals like Baabaa Jobe are concerned, especially how such proscription
and its decrying by the APRC technically associates the regime with Baabaa
Jobe's illicit activities, what has Sarjo helped impact positively in the way
which the State is being used to further private interests that are inimical
to both the Gambia and the Gambian peoples' interests?
8. In what way has Sarjo's continued participation in the Jammeh gov't ceased
the flagrant harassment and intimidation of journalists, especially given
that he was once SoS for information?
9. Given that Sarjo knows all about the illicit role Jammeh continues to play
in propping up the Casamance insurrectionists' fight for an independent
Casamance and the dangers they present for social cohesion in the sub-region,
has Sarjo's continued participation in the Jammeh regime impacted positively
on the chances of peace in that troubled region?
10. How can Sarjo reconcile his Marxist/Leftist/MOJAG views and advocacy when
he was a member of MOJAG with the politics, policies and activities he is
helping to carry out against the interest of poor and rich Gambians alike as
a member of Jammeh's cabinet? In other words, is the evil that Jammeh is
helping to wrought upon Gambians today what motivated Sarjo to agitate
against the PPP as a MOJAG activist?
Well. I can spend the whole day here enumerating reasons why Sarjo is a
turncoat. Clearly, the onus is on you to persuade reasonable folks why Sarjo
ought not to be condemned. I'm not holding my breath. Be forewarned though
i'm taking no prisoners in my final three weeks on this List. You want to be
personal? Be my guest. I have nothing to lose. I don't make threats - veiled
or latent. I do as i say. I have some three weeks left on this List; and
hopefully i will be using that period to positively propagate and defend the
Alliance's stance. But if you and your ilk have no positive issues to tackle
but to sink into gutter politics, i hope you are in it for the long-haul:
'cos this Brother ain't for turning and won't take it lying down. We can
either debate issues and agree to disagree peacefully and each is left to the
dictates of his or her own conscience; or we can throw the gloves off and
jump into the gutter. Either way, i'm prepared for anything and in it for the
long-haul. I can only hope for your own sake - and those you purport to
defend - that you are a long-distance runner and have enough punches to
throw. The choice, as we would say over here, is yours. Be it noted then
that: until October 19/20, we shall remain undeterred, unequivocal and
resolute in our campaign against Jammeh and all those who formally and or
informally align with him on this List and elsewhere.
Hamjatta Kanteh
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