Musa Jeng, I am glad that after you totally digested my piece you realized
that it would be a waste of everybody’s time to dwell on my style of writing
or some perceived name-calling in my piece.  You realized that after all my
piece was NOT unduly harsh and people making such allegations were just
devoid of better things to say.

I am also glad that you revisited some of the things you said and are now
singing a somewhat different tune.  With all due respect to you, you were
NOT just simply narrating other people’s arguments as they stated it to you.
  Your initial piece contained a conclusion where you stated your OWN
opinions.  I need not repeat that to you.  As far as I am concerned, my
point has been proven.  The net effect of all the ‘development’ AFPRC/APRC
has been engaged in is to render our people poorer than they were before
AFPRC/APRC came to the scene.  If we agree on that, then it is only logical
to conclude that we do NOT need this callous regime that brutalizes our
people to render them even poorer.  We cannot agree that these people are
murdering Gambians, stealing from the poor and imprisoning Gambians in
‘abject poverty’, and then turn around and say that we can ‘live with them’.

No one forced you to describe the hospitals in Gambia as ‘first-class’.  You
cannot do that and then turn around and say that it is not your intention to
embellish Yaya’s record.  No matter how flexible one wants to interpret the
term ‘first-class’, the bottom-line is that it is a big exaggeration to say
that we have ‘first-class’ hospitals in the country.  Clearly, when people
talk about hospitals they are not just focusing on buildings.  If that was
the case, Yaya will just go and designate one of our five-star hotels as a
hospital and call it a first-class hospital.  This does not make sense.  If
one wants a first-class hospital one has to erect a solid building AND equip
it appropriately.  Otherwise, what we would perhaps have would be a
‘first-class’ building and NOT a first-class hospital.  Now, do we need a
callous regime like the AFPRC/APRC to implement projects that 10-year-olds
can implement?  Should we ‘live’ with this regime that massacred our
children because they are taking loans, stealing from the loans and building
ill-equipped hospitals?

About the energy sector.  You were there.  You know how many times there
were black-outs.  You know about the problems with water generation.
Instead of talking about that, you decided to tell us about ‘plans’ and
‘commitments’.  ‘Yaya is committed to solving our energy problem’.  This
problem should have been solved in 1995 when this illegal government got a
$45 million loan from Taiwan.  Should we ‘live’ with Yaya’s ‘commitments’?
I do not know about you, but it takes lot more to satisfy me.  I wish our
people more than some bogus ‘plans’ and ‘commitments’.  When you ignore the
reality (power black-outs and water shortage) and report on ‘plans’ and
‘commitments’ Yaya has, you confuse people.  People start mistaking you for
Gassama.

The roads.  Again, let us talk about actualities and NOT ‘plans’ and
‘commitments’.  Apart from the ‘Coastal Highway’ all I hear from you are
‘plans’.  I have heard AFPRC/APRC supporters (I am NOT saying you are one)
trumpet Yaya’s ‘road networks’, but no one ever took them to task.  See,
previously if you took them to task about their exaggerations, they would
just say that they are doing more than PPP did.  Now, they do NOT have that
argument anymore.  Now, they are hugging PPP.  Like I said here months ago,
AFPRC/APRC is merely a continuation (degradation) of PPP.  Now, AFPRC/APRC
has to stand by its record.  That record is that all this talk about road
construction is just ONE major road.  Meanwhile, they have taken huge loans
to finance the road.  Should we ‘live’ with the illegal incarceration of
people like Dumo because of this ONE major road and ‘plans’ and
‘commitments’ to take huge loans and build other roads?  Like I said months
ago, do we need these callous people for their ‘developments’ that render
our people poorer?

Musa Jeng, as a supporter of a Party that prides itself in ‘educating
people’, I think a more prudent approach from your end would have been to
convey to people that they deserve better than what they are having.  Forget
about human rights for a moment.  Our people even deserve better than the
‘development’ they got from AFPRC/APRC.  We do NOT need this ‘development’
with the callousness it comes with.

I am bit preoccupied and cannot touch on other issues I wanted to discuss.
I would later talk about the Hajj debacle.  I think I remember last year
Gassama being all over the place criticizing the Hajj operators.  Now, we do
NOT hear a whimper from the man.  He knows Baabaa (Blood-Diamond-Dealer)
Jobe is waiting to hear negativity from sycophants like him.  Again, Musa
Jeng, I thank you for focusing on the issues raised by both of us and NOT
unduly dwelling on irrelevant matters.
KB



>From: Musa Jeng <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Recent trip to Gambia
>Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 23:06:17 -0500
>
>Gambia-L
>
>I tried to paint a picture depicting certain aspect of the political
>reality on the ground. Like most of you, I was disappointed in the
>Presidential elections and was curious to know all the issues surrounding
>the Jammeh victory. Clearly, it is a given that the political playing field
>was not level and Jammeh had all the advantage, and had unfairly used it to
>win the election and will continue to use it to retain the status quo, but
>we already know that, and you don’t need me to tell you that. At no point
>was my intention to embellish President Jammeh’s contributions, waive a
>campaign of Jammeh’s project, or become a praise singer to President
>Jammeh. But, as a Saloum Saloum, I will always call it as I see it with
>truthfulness and honesty. There is definitely a Jammeh phenomenon, and it
>would be naive for us to believe that there is nothing to it.


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