Gassama, it is refreshing to hear that you do NOT hate Jawara and in your
own words, “to say that Jawara did a lot for the country would be an
understatement”. The things some will say to be taken seriously. I do NOT
even think I have been this glowing with my remarks about Jawara. I guess
after you realized that you were NOT dealing with someone that was in the
Diaspora the past 20 years, you decided to change your tact from saying that
Jawara tried to ‘subjugate’ a whole nation by ‘deliberately’ denying them
education, to now saying that “he (Jawara) has done his best for the country
and it would be
dishonest of [you] not to acknowledge that”. Emphasis mine.

See, Gassama, if you are interested in a real postmortem of the Jawara era,
I suggest you engage people like OJ or other PPP stalwarts that worked in
the system. I have told you on numerous occasions that I am NOT interested
in defending the indefensible aspects of the PPP record. What I set out to
do is set the record straight when people like you attempt to distort the
PPP record IN ORDER TO MAKE YAYA LOOK GOOD. I sincerely hope you get that
this time. That way, you will save me from dwelling on frivolous issues
about a government that is NO MORE and will NEVER happen again. I think most
of you conveniently forgot my stance about PPP and their participation in
the Alliance.

I understand that for some of you life would be easier if you can go with
Jassey-Conteh’s LIES and argue that I oppose Yaya because of vested interest
I had in the Jawara regime. See, that helps you to feel that people only
oppose Yaya because of narrow self-interest, and therefore it is justified
for you also to support the man because of narrow self-interests. Well, you
can convince yourselves about my motives for opposing Yaya. Contrary to what
you think, I CANNOT DICTATE how you decipher information. I only have
control of what I write. How you receive that information is up to you.

Yes, there are a lot of people that oppose Yaya based on purely principled
grounds. I happen to believe that anybody that orders the massacre of
children as young as three, in cold blood, does NOT deserve to lead us. That
person belongs in jail. That is my beef with Yaya. Go check the archives.
Everything else came after that.

If you want, you can still support Yaya DESPITE these atrocities. I will
NEVER support him, especially when I know that he does NOT have anything
extraordinary to offer us in terms of uplifting poor Gambians. Your
government’s own records have shown that Gambians have grown POORER under
Yaya’s watch. Why on earth seemingly intelligent people will unashamedly
support a callous leader that has rendered our people poorer, is honestly
beyond me. You can shout all you can about Yaya’s ‘developments’. What you
CANNOT run away from is the fact that the net effect of those ‘developments’
rendered the people POORER and they are going to suffer for generations to
come because of the debts this illegal government has saddled us with.

So do NOT give me crap about Yaya having a vision for the country. The
vision he has could be exhibited by any High School graduate in the country.
We do NOT need that ‘development’ and the callousness it comes with. Who
needs a government that does NOT even have the wherewithal to ensure that
farmers (the bulk of the people in the society) earn a decent living from
their sweat and toil? Gassama, that is where we differ. I do NOT tolerate
mediocrity in any shape or form; let alone mediocrity accompanied by the
callousness and the corruption of the AFPRC/APRC.

You on the other hand, are prepared to IGNORE Yaya’s abuses so long as the
mediocrity in the society continues. Even if people like Emanuel Joof (whom
you claimed to be friends with) is abused, you still prefer to keep quiet
about it and continue to support Yaya’s diabolical regime. With friends like
you, Joof does NOT need enemies. I wonder where you were when Emmanuel was
being railroaded by Joseph Joof asking Police Officers to fabricate evidence
against the man?

I hope you understand my stance better now. Right after the election an APRC
supporter I know called me to gloat. The first thing he told me was to ask
me why I opposed PPP and I am also unhappy with APRC. See, people like me do
NOT just support a government because they are in power. When PPP was in
power, I criticized them for their wrongs. Now that APRC is in power, I will
also criticize them for their wrongs. NOT to have PPP back, BUT to have a
Gambia that is better than anything we have seen before. I do NOT LIE for
any government in power in order to make ends meet.
KB


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