Ngorr, the answer to your question is a resounding no. When I saw Yaya’s
‘unconditional amnesty’ for Jawara, I said to myself: ‘here we go again with
APRC gimmickry’. Even ten-year-olds can read through this gimmick. I was not
so much interested with what Yaya had to say as I was interested in the
Opposition’s reception of this news. We all know that Yaya’s words are empty
words. There is no ‘amnesty’, let alone an ‘unconditional amnesty’.

Jawara will be committing the worst mistake of his life if he ventures into
Gambia under the current circumstances. Don’t get me wrong. I do not think
that Jawara will be murdered by APRC thugs. That would be too easy for them.
What they would do is reduce the man to an impotent like SM Dibba and wipe
out what little respect he had reposed on him. The APRC had made it
blatantly clear for Jawara that they expect NO CRITICISM from him. The APRC
wants Jawara to ‘help them develop the country’. So, if he is foolish enough
to go home, he might as well leave his principles in Britain before boarding
the plane to Banjul. Even if OJ visits him, he (Jawara) can be hoist to jail
for ‘sabotaging’ the ‘development’ of the country. If Ousainou Darboe had a
funeral (God forbid) and Jawara sets foot there, he (Jawara) can be jailed.
In other words, the man will be a virtual prisoner at his residence at
Fajara (which I now understand is being renovated). But his fate will be
worse than that of ordinary people under house arrest. APRC will decide what
visitors Jawara is to receive. One false step from Jawara, he will suffer
more than Bharat Joshi (who was lucky because he was a high-ranking British
diplomat and could be deported to his own country). Jawara will not be
‘deported’ to Barra-jally. He will be an inmate at Mile II. We should not
forget that Yaya is on record branding Jawara as the first Gambian to commit
genocide in the country when he (Jawara) ‘invited’ the Senegalese in 1981 to
quell Kukoi’s coup attempt. Those charges and others are still held in
obeyance somewhere in AFPRC/APRC twisted logic. One false move, the hammer
will drop.

The man is clearly in between a rock and a hard place. If on the other hand
he wants to play ball with the people that STOLE power from him and spent
the last seven years lying about his record, he might as well kiss good-bye
to any semblance of respectability he might still possess in some people’s
eyes. Like SM Dibba, Jawara will just be seen as an impotent opportunist
that does not have what it takes to defend his principles (let alone fight
for the masses). This is analogous to a thief stealing your property and
then forcing you to buy the property from him. Jawara has already started
showing signs of his impending impotence. He started off by disowning the
Party he helped found and nurtured for the past four decades. He says he is
retiring from Party politics. The man did not even have the guts to comment
on an election boycott his OWN Party was participating in. Already behaving
like a hostage that has fallen in love with his captives.

Yaya and his cohorts stole power from a democratically elected government.
Jawara won the 1992 elections with a landslide victory. He held a mandate
lot bigger than the one Yaya is currently bragging about. And mind you, in
1992 there were NO complaints about the electoral malpractices that chanced
in the 2001 election. Did Yaya respect the ‘will of the Gambian people in
1992’? Instead, he ganged together with a band of bandits and stole power.
He did not form a Party in 1992 to contest elections. Matter of fact, he did
not even belong to a political party. I can even speculate that he did not
even vote in the elections. Gambians put Jawara in office. Yaya disrespected
that and used brute force with his friends to overthrow the government.
Jawara did not fight for the Gambian people. Now the same Yaya is asking
Jawara and the Gambian people to ‘pay’ for what Yaya stole from them in the
first place. Well, we are on the side-lines watching and waiting. The jury
is out on both Yaya and Jawara.

But what is perhaps more interesting is the reaction of some in the
Opposition to Yaya’s latest gimmick. When Jawara was supposed to come back
home and help the Opposition, people were all over the place saying that the
Opposition should not accept the man’s support. Just because Jawara’s name
was mentioned, some decided to bolt the Opposition coalition and ended up
strengthening the APRC. Now that Jawara’s come-back (if it happens) will
undoubtedly go to help the APRC, I do not hear the same people jumping all
over APRC. APRC wants Jawara to come home and help Yaya win more elections.
That is the bottom-line here. But that is OK to the ‘Opposition within the
Opposition’. But it is a taboo for Jawara to help Darboe win elections in
the country. This is just disgusting. Yaya is not just bringing Jawara back,
but there is talk of giving Jawara back his properties. The ‘amnesty’ will
also apparently cover top Jawara lieutenants that AFPRC said were the most
corrupt in the country and justified them (AFPRC) staging a coup. Now those
same people are being vindicated and given back what was taken from them.
What is this? This goes to show that there has never been a justification
for the illegal usurpation of power by a bunch of thugs in 1994. This is all
power hunger. Common criminals stealing power they cannot get through the
democratic process.

What I have learnt about certain Gambians is that they would rather be ruled
by mediocrity (where they can shine) than bring back sanity to the country.
If our children get massacred in broad daylight, that is OK so long as
morons are leading the country and some mediocre talent is shining. Sheer
selfishness. SM Dibba knows he cannot shine in an Alliance with luminaries
like Darboe, the man goes and support APRC. Same story for numerous other
individuals and political parties in the country.

Yaya and his friends (both in and outside the closet) might think that he
made a brilliant move by inviting Jawara back. To me this is just another
nail in Yaya’s coffin if Jawara comes home and decides to ally himself with
the people that stole power from him. The level of hopelessness that
engulfed Yaya and his friends in 1994 for them to disregard the ‘will of the
people’ as expressed in 1992, will one day visit another set of Gambians
that will also get rid of Yaya and all his friends (both in and outside the
closet).
KB


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