Keep up the sensitization program, MRDGUK! If the same passion had been used
to denounce the corrupt practices of the former PPP government, perhaps, The
Gambia would have been saved the current situation. The majority of us
partook in the revelry and consciously danced our way into a coup d'etat led
by some irresponsible young men.

I don't want to dwell on the past.  However, if former President Jawara were
serious about the democracy he is preaching today his government would have
instituted a limited mandate for the presidency, prosecuted and punished
corrupt officials, accorded equal access to education and health care
facilities, allowed the full exercise of the right to freedom of
association, etc., etc.

He may have confused the African Center for Democracy and Human Rights
Studies (an NGO) with the OAU African Commission on Human and Peoples'
Rights (cf. the MRDGUK report), if I may digress.

In my opinion, the APRC government has just perfected the PPP system of
corruption and graft. President Jammeh has gone further by turning his guns
against dissenting men, women, and children. He has perfected the tools of
intimidation and murder, of icon worshipping and personality cult, and
religious falsehood.  Again some of us are cheering him up: "Jammeh
Jilangka!", just as we sang "Kairaba Jawara!". Among his cronies today are
Jawara's victims of yesteryear; a full cycle of victimization and
retribution. Justice and equality before the law are the yardstick of
measuring democracy not personalities.  President Jammeh is the creation of
our own people: those who sit in the national assembly and sing his praises
and turn a blind eye to his corrupt practices and murder. If the APRC
national assembly members were concerned about the fate of their country
they would have paralyzed Mr. Jammeh's government by now.

I do share Momodou Sanneh's concern about the purported restoration of
democracy. What we need is a clean slate. Jawara and Jammeh are just two
sides of the same 50 bututs.

Hamadi



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