Dear Samsudeen,

Thank you very much for your response to my accusations of arrogance and
pomposity that you displayed when you were still the Army Commander of the
Gambia National Army. It is a very welcome and courageous gesture, on your
part, to take up the challenge to defend yourself. This is what we need. If
all Gambians in positions of responsibility are prepared to be taken to task
to answer to their words and deeds whilst in positions of authority, Gambia
will be able to build a very mature, dignified and informed citizenry who
can never be fooled or taken for granted by any person or group of persons.

I have, however, never hoped that our debate will extend so much beyond
rhetorics to the point where you use angry invectives and witticisms only to
try to confuse and befog the fundamental issues that I raised.

Sam, I had never intended to go this far with you because of two
considerations. Firstly, in spite of our differences I still held you in
high esteem as a "koto". And secondly, and most importantly, I have always
had the opinion and belief that at this critical moment of our history when
the dignity and conscience of our nation are everyday continuously being
trampled upon and compromised by the actions of those at the helm, it
behoves all its citizens to create a forum of discourse where our common
interest will be discussed and a clear path paved for the future.

However, hence you have decided to blow the whistle for a rough race, I have
no alternative but to take up the challenge with you to the end.

It is, of course, unfortunate that the time that should have been spent
discussing other productive and more pertinent issues will now be spent in
refuting allegations and justifying one's actions.

Sam, I must admit that the language that you used in your exposition is not
the type of language that I expected from an astute intellectual and a
seasoned military heavyweight of your calibre. You have used all sorts of
adjectives ranging "meaningless creatures" to "nonentities". I do not feel
offended in anyway. I only wonder how you would have perceived me had I
described you as one of the cheapest intellectual whores ever in Gambian
history, who after being used by the "moron" and dumped, is so filled with
rage and frustration that he is beginning to lose all his senses of
direction. Of course, you would have classified me as somebody who hates
you, and who is only interested in tarnishing your records. I will
definitely not stoop so low like you.

When I first took issue with you, my central point of emphasis was two-fold
- one, the way and manner in which you went about mystifying the so-called
"impregnable" fortress of State House where your biggest demon still hides;
and secondly the brutality that the captured "mercenaries" were subjected to
by having their hands handcuffed together at their backs, and the signs of
merciless torture that was so naked on their bodies. Of course, you tried,
as much as you could, to portray me as an insensible hardcore saddist who
was not prepared to take cognisance of the brutal mutilation of those young
and innocent soldiers.

Sam, people in positions of authority, like you were, must never see
themselves as ordinary people. Your words are not also ordinary and
meaningless. You must understand that your every word carries weight and
authority to the ordinary mind, and can invoke passive influence, especially
if they are not enlightening words. This was the crux of my argument.

Secondly, it is needless for m,e the "nonentity", to tell you that it is a
basic tenet of natural justice that an accused person must be presumed
innocent until proven guilty. Please read yourself again, and see how you
expressed being guided by no other thing than mere emotions and sentiments.
What if you had paraded these "mercenaries" before a court of law only for
them to be acquitted and discharged?

Sam, your position is a clear manifestation of how intolerant to justice you
are. This is an invariable characteristic of tyrants who hold justice in
contempt. Such people, like you, only believe in the might at their
disposal. You accuse Jammeh of being a tyrant and being insensitive to the
rule of law, but you never sit down, for a moment, to reflect on your
everyday actions to measure your own credentials. People like you are only
interested in drowning the senses of the ordinary person in a sea of
passion, full stop.

In your usual and dishonest attempt to befog the issue, you wrote "These
were the mercenaries being termed humbled now. It is very likely that this
chap, like his kinds, had jubilated over the death of those innocent
soldiers for no reason other than the fact that they were Gambians who
looked too pompous and arrogant to him."

Your tendency to misinterpret and twist facts to suit your own situation has
again surfaced here. You have the natural orgy to always want to move a step
ahead by making wrong inferences and drawing wrong conclusions aimed at
broadening the scope of the subject matter to create the most positive
impression of yourself. You are so pathologically inclined to exaggerating
everything that surrounds you to the extent that you have unconsciously
distorted your mannerisms and the way you walk just to achieve this state of
esctacy and self satisfaction.

Have I mentioned anywhere before that these innocent soldiers were pompous
and arrogant? This charge was/is still specifically directed at you, and by
your very response you have nakedly exposed yourself to be even more
arrogant and less intelligent than I had thought.

I knew Saidy very well. In fact you will be surprise to know that I knew him
so well. What a shy and humble character he was. I had a personal social
relationship with not only him but his family at Jeshwang. How will I be
happy with the senseless killing of such a young, innocent and exuberant
person. A wasted life!

You then went further to write a long and whining expose, all meant to
create the impression that you were the brain child and best tactician of
the army. I am, however, not impressed by it because, in practical terms,
you were right there among the top brass of the armed forces when less than
a dozen ill-armed bandits attacked and took over the Farafenni camp for some
hours. I will be very bold to hold you, and the entire state machinery,
responsible for the death of all those young soldiers, and you will one day
stand to answer these charges. Your inefficiency, your lack of a coordinated
master-plan, your lethargy and your ever growing conspicuous consumption
habits are what led to that brutal and surprise attack. Your whole objective
is to detach yourself from the responsibility; but history shall indict you.

It is only now that real military thoughts and tactics are dawning into your
hollow head again, but those days when you rode high and alone in an aura of
a "mansa", your only thoughts were how to increase your fill and your
privileges. You were comfortably chauffeur-driven in one of the most
expensive pajeros of the state, guided by some of the most experienced
guards, feared by the majority of people because of your arrogance and your
tendency to react to situations, even where it is unwarranted. The state
could not check you because you were part of the state, just like Baba Jobe
is behaving now. And yet you have the audacity and the insincerity to spell
doom on that very baby you helped to nurture. What a shame!! You are nothing
but a spineless opportunist, full stop.

Your opposition to Jammeh and Baboucarr Jatta, in particular, is not based
on any genuine and sincere grounds. You are opposed to these few
personalities not because of what they stand for but because of who they
are. Sam, I dare say it loud and clear that you are opposed to Jammeh and
Jatta because of tribal reasons. They are Jolas, and you cannot still
reconcile yourself to this fact. It is not only you. So many people are
still infected with this sickness. Your anti-Jola campaign is not only a
repeat of the old colonial tactic of weakening national unity by encouraging
ethnic divisions, but a deliberate and calculated tactic to plunge the
country into an unprecedented tribal rivalry and elimination.

In fact this is the very reason why you choose to use EBOU COLLEY as a
pseudonym in order to mask your tribal sentiments, not knowing that whilst
you may succeed in sneaking and hiding your face into the hole, your
buttocks is so nakedly exposed to the outside world that even toddlers can
see it.

Sam, you do not and cannot espouse any policies and programmes that are
fundamentally different from that of Jammeh. In fact, as far as I am
concerned, you and Jammeh have the same democratic credentials. Your talk of
freedom, justice, rule of law is all a sham, being used as a smokescreen
just to be able to get closer to the corridors of powers. The only
difference between the two of you is that Jammeh has become the biggest
criminal now enjoying the booty leaving you behind in limbo. I wonder why
you did not resign as army commander and speak out against the regime as a
manifestation of your belief in stern principles and decency, rather than
waiting for the "moron" to slam all the doors of mercy on you. I am sure
that had he given you the chance you will cringe and crawl before him like a
slave for forgiveness. Opportunists do not command any dignity. In their
search for wealth and status they lose sight of the truth and only follow
their selfish interests. You see how low one can be if you are only driven
by your selfish desires, and how angry and frustrated you become when the
chances slip away gradually from your hands?

Sam, our newly crowned Professor of Political Science, you then became very
generous to us with new proposition that you think will salvage the poor
masses of Africa. You wrote: "As far as I am concerned I strongly think that
the ultimate solution to the political turmoil of modern African countries
might never be realized without seriously committing electedngovernments to
such a regulation (two terms of five years). Apart from the fact that this
would condition our leaders to be mindful of the recklessness, waste and
maddening attributes reminiscent of the hopeless "Mannsa"-style presidency,
it would for the good of all decisively eliminate the pathetic culture of
sycophancy and "juju" or oracle dependent leadership."

How this will be done, our Professor never indicated. May be he is waiting
for the right moment to elaborate. I am dying to hear from you, Professor
Sam.

You then continued your political "masterpiece" by indicating that "It would
be the only political dynamics that would finally awaken the poor masses to
understand that presidents are servants to the people and that anyone of
them who would not perform his/her role according to expectation would be
changed for the right person." Jaajef, Sam, the Revolutionary.

Sam, you, however, betrayed your intelligence when you showed the little
confidence you have in the people by asserting that "With votes' cards still
purchasable for
mere D25.00, there is little hope of effectively educating the Gambian
masses on the importance of universal suffrage. We can't blame them much;
poverty should."

Phew!! Sam, what a fatalist attitude. How then do you expect change to take
place? You see how easily an opportunist can tie himself. What I expected to
hear from you is to make a renewed commitment to contribute whatever is
within your means, morally and/or financially so that the necessary and
required education can proceed among the people for them to understand the
essence of their vote. I had expected that you will encourage those doing
their best to continue and redouble their efforts, knowing fully well that
the fact that people are still willing to sell their voter's cards for a
mere D25 is a clear indication that more work of enlightenment needs to be
done. This type of work is not  rhetorics but practical political work which
requires courage, perseverance, sincerity and determination to conquer the
unfriendly social and geographical terrains of the country. This type of
work can only be done by those who have faith, trust and confidence in the
people, not frustrated  and spineless opportunists who consider the people
as sheep who need shepherds to guide them to the drinking pool. Such people,
like yourself, do not have the stamina to wage a clear, consistent,
systematic and protracted onslaught on the regime. Your projection begins
and ends with the spur of the moment, at the tip of your nose. You very soon
disappear into oblivion when hopes for the fulfilment of your aspirations
seem to be quickly fading away. All what you are interested in is to regain
your lost authority and glory, full stop.

Your problem is you want to sound as the "saviour" of the people, but still
you do not have an iota of respect for them. This is buttressed by your
misguided assertion "That is what we should be focusing our attention on Mr.
Chongan and not on meaningless remarks made by meaningless creatures from
meaningless streets of Half-Die, Soldier-Town, Latrikunda, Serrekunda,
Bundung, Farafenni or Koina."

Bravo, Professor Sheriff Sarr. Your arrogance and pomposity have been
evidently exposed and displayed here. This is beyond belief. That you
Samsudeen Sarr, who have been educated from the tax money of the people; you
who have enjoyed all privileges as army commander by virtue of the tax money
of the ordinary Gambian person can stand in this public forum and abuse the
ordinary Gambian person so ruthlessly is beyond comprehension. These are the
paternalistic tendencies that you have always displayed. You have no respect
for decency and humility. You are just what you are - a tyrant; and as
always with tyrants, they are  brave when they are victors, but cowards when
they are vanquished.  You are the type who, after being born poor, grew up
to hate poverty and anybody who is poor. You are the type of military
saddists who will not hesitate to order the army to raze to the ground the
slumps of the ghetto people in the name of development.

Need I go any further to show your total lack of humility? Read your
following naïve claim. It really baffles me. I thought you were more humble
than this. "We are pioneering a military tradition here that we must
continue by all means. This is the first time in the history of modern
African militarism for active service members to come forward and discuss
what they actually experienced in one of the several coups that had happened
in the continent. We are talking about a continental agenda here, not Gambia
alone." Objectivity dictates that you enquire before making assertions.

You went further to indicate that "We have also shattered that stereotype
concept that
soldiers are generally gun-toting-dumb fools who did not know what they were
doing or saying."

Sam, the most serious illness that inflicts your brain is intellectual
complex. Who has ever said that soldiers are dunce. This is just a figment
of your imagination. I have had close contact with many intelligent soldiers
even before they joined the service. They have always been very impressive.
People who readily come to mind are, Mamat Cham (I have been together with
Mamat in different study cells before he joined the army); Pa Johnson
(Acrobat). I met Pa Johnson when he studying to become a priest in Liberia.
I found him to be well read, especially in philosophy; Omar Faye; Beran
Saine; Madikey Gomez; Captain Sonko; Dennis Coker (a humble and friendly
person); Momodou Badjie (the present army commander); your very self,
Sheriif Samsudeen Sarr, and so many others. These are all highly intelligent
Gambians who can excel in anything that they resolve to do. How then can you
accuse me of considering soldiers to be only gun-toting-dumb fools? You see
how you can insult yourself and then turn round to accuse others of
insulting you. What an unintelligent way to argue your case.

Just listen to yourself here again, when you told Chongan: "All we could do
about "them folks" is to ignore them and leave them with another future
judgement of time. When Yaya is thrown out of office, I am sure that as
usual some of them would some day in the future be punished again by their
own conscience-if they have any at all."

Sheriff, I long for this day when we can all stand in the dock of history to
be judged by the Gambian people. When that day comes, the chaff and the
grains will be easily separated. History will then show those who have
always stood by the side of truth and justice, and have been firm through
thick and thin, in rain, thunder and lightening to safeguard the interests
of the Gambian people; and those who have always loathe truth and deride
justice. We need not waste much time on this. That day will surely come.

You also indicated that people have attempted to batter you into silence
since you surfaced in this forum and that you "still expect more from these
losers who are probably searching ferociously for more tarnishing lies that
could have maximum effect on my reputation."

My objective is not to silence anybody on the forum, but to help expand the
democratic space by truthfully engaging anybody who deserves to be taken to
task. It is only tyrants who prefer to padlock the mouths of their critics
or handcuff their hands in order to prevent them from putting forth their
opinion.

Before concluding, it is important to make a categorical statement that I,
for one, do not subscribe to the outmoded notion that my enemy's enemy is my
friend. I hold it to be the truth that my enemy's enemy can, as well, be my
enemy. As far as I am concerned, a black wolf and a white wolf are all
wolves. They only lay in wait for the right moment to grab and tear their
prey into pieces.

To conclude, allow me to say that I do not personally hold anything against
anybody. My only desire is to speak out not only against the philistine
behaviour of the Jammeh regime, but also against those who dined and wined
with him yesterday; and today, with the turn of events, want to reincarnate
into angels and saviours of our wretched people. The Gambian people have for
too long been the victims of deception. Enough is enough. There comes a time
when silence before the crimes of those in authority yesterday and today
amounts to marriage with social evil. Let those who witnessed the events of
the past and present speak out. Gambia belongs to us all. Our ultimate
objective should be to create a Gambia in which "one's cleanliness is not
dependent on another's dirt, one's health on another's ill-health, and one's
welfare on another's misery".

Thank you very much.

Batch.


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------