Thanx Owens for sharing. I find Juwara to be intelligent and sober. It was unfortunate that he would join anything Yahya but I must forgive him for his suspicions of those who were "anti-Yahya" at that time. When I process all information about Juwara and figure in his hallmark intellect and reasoned judgement prior, I am willing to excuse his alliance with Yahya now, particularly after the man who organized his torturing; Baba Jobe, was eliminated himself. Poetic Justice I call it.
So Thanx Owens for sharing this interview of Juwara because I had not seen or read it before. I therefore was not sure of Juwara's general mental health. Having read and studied it however, I believe Juwara is of sound mind and body, notwithstanding he was severely beaten and tortured by Baba Jobe and his July 22 men. I would hazard a guess that Yahya was not aware of that beating and torture although he did not do anything about it when he learned of it afterward.
Juwara does have some soul-searching to do and a discernment of values.
I forgive him for joining with Yahya now even though I think its a bad idea for Juwara and Yahya both.
Haruna.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sanusi Owens <[log in to unmask]>
To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Mon, Feb 13, 2012 7:16 pm
Subject: [G_L] LETS TAKE WAA JUWARA TO MEMORY LANE -PART 1
Congrats Uwaa Juwara- Lets us take you down to memory lane and ask what has changed since you had this maiden interview with Sherriff Bojang jr
To his critics, he is everything from amaverick to a tribalist. But Lamin Waa Juwara believes he is involved in a holycrusade against the not-so-holy forces of President Yahya Jammeh and hisgovernment. Whether they loath his mercurial elan or are attracted by hischarisma, all Gambians accept that Lamin Waa Juwara has earned for himself themoniker of ‘Most Controversial Politician’. In another marathon interview thisweek, Lamin Waa Juwara, the propaganda secretary of the main opposition UnitedDemocratic Party, a political science graduate of University of Sophia,Bulgaria, discusses with Sheriff Bojang why branding him a ‘tribalist’ is incorrectand ‘won’t work’:
Q.Opponents on the other side of thepolitical divide accuse you of tribalism. Do you see The Gambia first as asupra Mandinka nation?
Lamin: Ourdetractors are so scared that they see everything in a tribal context. Going byhistory since independence, there has been nothing tribalist as far as theMandinkas are concerned. The longest serving opposition party in The Gambia hasbeen the National Convention Party led by Sheriff Dibba, who is a Mandinka andof course Sir Dawda Jawara, who is also a Mandinka, has headed the governmentsince independence. So I do not see any tribalist politics in The Gambia’spolitical history up to July 22, 1994. The introduction of tribalist politicsstarted in The Gambia during the last elections when the five Jolaconstituencies in the Fonis, the home area of President Jammeh went unopposedbecause our party could not get anybody to sponsor in the area as a candidate.The only member of the party, Momodou Lamin Nyassi, who contested one of theFoni seats, is being harassed by the Jola community for supporting the UDP,which they see as a Mandinka party. If that is not tribalism, I wonder whatelse would be? Mandinkas form the majority while Jolas form only six percent ofthe population. If Mandinkas are tribalist, then the question arises, how didYahya Jammeh won the election landslide? It is either that the Mandinkas arenot tribalist or the elections were rigged outright. Because they are scared ofthe Mandinka majority’s backlash, they are pointing a finger at us and sayingwe are tribalist.
Unless some of the Jolas change theirattitude, Yahya Jammeh will soon become a tribal leader, not a national leader,because we know that they have formed an umbrella organisation for Jolas in TheGambia and Senegal called Sindola.
Speaking from a personal point of view,I was district commissioner for all the administrative areas in The Gambia foralmost 20 years. In 1992, I contested the parliamentary seat for Niamina, anarea that has an ethnic balance second to none in The Gambia, and I won on anindependent ticket. If I had been a tribalist this would not have beenpossible.
Q.You were in detention for the wholeperiod of the National Assembly and presidential elections. Why do you thinkyou were detained?
Lamin: Iwas detained primarily for being opposed to the coup and to get me out of therace for the presidency. As you could see, the entire election process wasstage-managed because the junta was planning a self-succession, which could nothave been possible, if the elections were not rigged. That was why they bannedall the first republican political parties and personalities, except PDOIS,which has negligible support countrywide and poses no threat. Keeping me injail and refusing to release me during the time of the elections was anotherform of ban which they could not justify if I had been free and that was whythey made Decree 57, empowering the Minister of Interior to detain anybodywithout cause for 90 days. When the 90 days elapsed (in my case), theypromulgated Decree 66 to indefinitely detain anybody. So basically, nobody inhis right mind would call the last elections free and fair, when even theopposition party that has been opposing the government you topple, was banned.As at present, the regime has become a victim of its propaganda and the mannerthey manipulated the elections, and that is why we are demanding LocalGovernment elections, which are long overdue.
Q.The Constitution requires LocalGovernment elections to be held 120 days after the coming into force of theConstitution. It’s almost three years since and the elections are yet to becalled. Why do you think the APRC government is not keen on holding theelections?
Lamin: Theyare sure to lose the elections. We are taking all precautions to make sure thatthe elections are free and fair. This election will expose what transpiredduring the transitional elections and also be a pointer to the elections in2001. Then, it will be impossible for them to govern, since their sycophants willstart to desert them.
Q.What makes you so sure that the APRCwill lose the elections?
Lamin: Thereasons they gave for toppling the democratically elected government of SirDawda are corruption, lack of accountability and transparency. In short, bad governance.Today, the entire Gambian population is stunned that this regime is morecorrupt, much less accountable and totally, totally non-transparent. They havemismanaged the economy to such an extent that hardship is felt in every home.They failed to purchase peanut cash crop of the Gambian farmers in the pasttrade season. Tourism is on the decline and their treatment of the GambiaGroundnut Council and the dissolution of the Co-operative Union was adisincentive through investment from outside.
The massive human rights violations;arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture, has traumatised the population andstrengthened its resolve to restore democracy to The Gambia. So, there is noway they could win in these elections.
Q.Do you still harbour presidentialambitions?
Lamin: Notreally. At present, I think we have in the person of Ousainou Darboe, a verycredible candidate whom I give all my support. I think, in my assessment of TheGambian situation, he will make it in the next presidential elections. He hasall the credentials, I believe, that make a good leader.
Q.You accused President Jammeh ofcorruption. Can you prove it?
Lamin: Withinthe last four years, the president has conspicuously amassed so much wealththat nobody could believe that his wealth is genuinely acquired. We know of theSwiss Bank saga leading to a big rupture in the AFPRC junta when one ofJammeh’s closest associates defected and disclosed the corruption surroundingthe 35 million dollar loan from Taiwan.
It defies common sense that when thejunta continues to ask people to account for every butut they earned; seizinghouses and gardens from the former members of the PPP regime, that Jammeh hasbuilt himself a mansion in Kanilai, his home village which Gambians now dubbedYamoussoukro of The Gambia. He has a garden in Dobong with 500 workers, severalboreholes, electricity, over a dozen tractors and a newly constructed lateriteaccess road to the garden. He has another farm at Kanilai, and today, he is thebiggest rancher in The Gambia owning camels, cattle, sheep, goat and evenimported dogs.
It is incredible that the man whoseized Sir Dawda’s garden has built himself two within a space of two years. Itis also common knowledge that Jammeh has been giving vehicles to the security forces.At one time he gave out 21 vehicles. Quite recently, during the last Hajj hecredited himself with sending over 40 pilgrims to Mecca. Each pilgrim was given1,000 dollars and the total Hajj package per pilgrim cost D26,000.
Recently, when he married a new bridefrom Morocco, he took a special flight and two planeloads of Gambians just toperform the marriage ceremony in Morocco. This must have cost millions ofdalasis. This rates him as one of the richest men in The Gambia. I do not seeall the accountability in such a dispensation, which is very reminiscent ofMobutu vis-à-vis Zaire, where the state was so impoverished that it ceased toexist while Mobutu amassed colossal wealth.
Q.The Secretary of State for ExternalAffairs, ML Sedat Jobe has condemned as irresponsible, your comments that TheGambia’s foreign policy is one of diplomatic prostitution. Do you stillmaintain your view?
Lamin: Ifyou analyse and compare our foreign policy then and now, obviously Gambia wasalmost mortgaged to Taiwan because the loan contracted was never disclosed toGambians at the very time when the junta was talking about accountability,setting up commissions of inquiry to look into every aspect of the formerregime’s stewardship. Now, The Gambia is nothing more than a colony of Libya.These are all based on the handouts from both Libya and Taiwan. It is not aquestion of self-reliance. It is a question of who gives what. If one’s foreignpolicy is dictated simply by the amount of handouts one gets from a given country,then that is diplomatic prostitution.
Q.Is it because Jammeh overthrew youruncle, Sir Dawda Jawara, that you bitterly oppose him so?
Lamin: Ican’t deny Jawara is my uncle, but that is not the issue. The issue is farbeyond that. After all, I was not responsible for electing the president. Iwould be bitter when democracy is derailed through the barrel of the gun. So inactual fact, I am not defending Jawara per se. I am defending the system Ibelieve in which was hailed by even his (Jawara’s) bitterest critics. Iremember quite clearly after the 1992 general elections (during Jawara’s time),PDOIS was the first party to declare the elections free and fair. So, anycredible politician who believes in democracy would be bitter.
Q.Yes, you accuse PDOIS, particularlyHalifa Sallah, of collaborating with anti-democratic forces during thetransition, what are the bases of your accusation?
Lamin: Theseare questions that come to mind when you analyse the role that PDOIS playedduring the transition and continues to play. In the first instance, after thecoup d’etat, they were offered ministerial positions by the junta which theydeclined to accept and the fact that during the transition, they were the onlypolitical party free to indulge in politics with the tacit endorsement of thejunta, tantamount to aiding and abetting the coup. Political ban was not liftedwhen the Constitution was put to a referendum and they were the only peopleallowed to campaign. They distributed cassettes and travelled across the countrycanvassing for the Constitution, which most Gambians felt, were tailor-made tosuit Yahya Jammeh. Our suspicions became confirmed when the three mainpolitical parties, both in government and opposition, where banned and they(PDOIS) were left out.
Q.Accusations and counter-accusationshave been traded between the UDP and APRC for long. Now, Halifa Sallah haschallenged you and the UDP leadership to a public debate, I think for thesecond time, will you accept the challenge?
Lamin: Certainly,we will take up the challenge if it is going to be over the radio andtelevision.
Q.Why are you insistent on broadcast overradio and television?
Lamin: Becausethat will give it national coverage and Gambian people will judge forthemselves the role they have played or failed to play during the transition.You see, PDOIS is a very small party. They only polled 2.8 percent of the votesduring the last elections. Under the best of systems, any party those pollsless than 5 percent of the votes cast will not be allowed to register as apolitical party.
From the look of things, PDOIS lookslike a club lacking in mass following. If they can deny that their ownsponsored-candidates in the last general elections were not members of theirparty, then they deserved to be called a club.
They continue to deny that they are avanguard party trying to operate within a mass party system and that theysubscribe to a bankrupt ideology, which has been, discredited worldwide.
Q.What is that ‘bankrupt ideology’?
Lamin: Theirown brand of socialism. That is why they have been rejected by the Gambianpeople time and time again. That level of frustration can be seen in the wayHalifa Sallah , whose bid for parliament for the third time has beenunsuccessful despite the fact that he claims to be The Gambia’s foremostpolitical intellectual (talks).
Q.Nowadays, UDP does not cry foul becausethey are denied permit to meet and police do not attempt to disrupt yourrallies. Is that not an indication that the authorities are tolerant of dissent,the opposition, now?
Lamin: Ifyou go into the history of what transpired, this government takes no credit forwhatever freedom we enjoyed so far. We had to take them to court before theyaccept the unconstitutionality of denying us permission to hold meetings.
Q.Are recent reports of defections fromyour party not a sign of UDP’s slumping popularity?
Lamin: Theparty’s fortunes are at their highest. The only thing is that GRTS is notnational. It is the propaganda organ of the APRC that is why they can misinformthe Gambian people about defections that never took place. But they haveoverdone the propaganda to such an extent that everybody knows that there isnot an iota of truth in their assertions. If they want to know about thesituation on the ground, they should cover our rallies to see that we’ve beenattracting tens of thousands of supporters while it is almost impossible forthem to hold rallies because the little appeal they have in the country is notmotivated.
Q.Would you not accept that the APRC hasdone any good?
Lamin: Theonly good the APRC has done is to vindicate the regime they have overthrown andits leader, Alhaji Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara. What Gambians have taken forgranted; democracy, multi-partyism, protection of human rights and of coursethe management of the economy are things Gambians are yearning for. So the onlygood thing the APRC government has done is to make Gambians appreciate theachievements since independence of the PPP regime.
Q.You sound like an apologetic for the PPP?
Lamin: Notquite, but going by the track record, Gambians have enjoyed more freedom andpolitical choice than any country in Africa. When most of the countries weregoing one-party state, abandoning multi-party democracy, the PPP governmentinsisted on political pluralism and protection of human rights which has earnedThe Gambia headquarters of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights.
Q.Are you impressed with the debate inthe National Assembly?
Lamin: AsI have said earlier, the electoral process was stage-managed to enable thejunta succeed itself seemingly under a democratic umbrella and this alsoreflected in the National Assembly elections were, for instance, the Fonis witha total registered voters of 20,000 had five seats and the Kombos with a totalregistered voters of over 100,000 had only four. There was no criterion onwhich the delineation of constituency boundaries was based. This also reflectedin the quality of the Members in the Assembly for the ruling party, because itis my candid belief that if there were primaries in all constituencies, most ofthose in parliament would not even have the chance to contest. That is why thesacrifice quality to have people who would dance to their tune, sing his(Jammeh’s) praises, and accept whatever policies the party may hand out.
Q.Why do you exhort politicians in thefirst republic to defy the ban place on them?
Lamin: Therewas no constitutional or moral justification for the first republicanpoliticians to be banned.
Q.On the night of May 17, 1998 you werearrested and you claimed you were tortured. What exactly happened that night?
Lamin: Iwas arrested not knowing exactly the reason behind my arrest and I was taken toCentral Prisons, Mile Two. On the way, political thugs of the ruling party ledby the national chairman of the 22 July Movement, Baba Jobe, who is apparentlythe most powerful man in the country today, led a team of men with cables andwires. They met us at Denton Bridge in the presence of the securityparamilitary police who arrested me. I was tortured and assaulted and sustainedmany injuries including a broken middle finger before I was put in confinementat the maximum security wing where the former vice chairman of the militaryjunta, Sana Sabally and other security detainees were kept including thealleged attackers of the Farafenni and Kartong military barracks. As you know,earlier on I had taken the government to court for my several arbitrary arrestsand detentions during the transition and that judgement was delivered againstme on the basis that the Constitution indemnifies whatever actions the juntaand its agents have done or omitted to do during the transition. But inrelation to the torture and detention, they will not be able to hide under anyconstitutional indemnity because it has happened after the constitution cameinto force. Legal action is to follow.
Q.Currently, there is a constitutionalreview exercise. What sections in the current Constitution would the UDP liketo see amended?
Lamin: Inthe first place, I think the way and manner in which they are talking aboutreviewing the Constitution is wrong. The matter should have been thrown to thepublic in the first place on the basis of which they would be able to know thefeeling of the public about the current Constitution. Personally, I think anyConstitution that indemnifies any person or group of people is a bad law andtries to protect some criminality somewhere. A government that came to power onthe platform of accountability should be open enough and accountable to thepeople. I believe the indemnity clause should go. Second, over 80 percent ofGambians consulted had wanted a limit on the terms of the presidency. Mostpeople have settled for two five year terms maximum. This was also removed fromthe Constitution. I think there are many more areas that need to be lookedinto.
Q.Finally, what is the UDP’s stance onthe recent coup d’etat in Guinea Bissau?
Lamin: Wethink it is unfortunate that the conflict started in Bissau, but in actualfact, the root cause of all the conflicts in Africa is bad governance. The daysare gone when people can be dictated because all dictatorships arecounter-productive. The basics of our politics in Africa should be the totalacceptance of democracy.
For all your comments on this column contact Who's On?, on: [log in to unmask]
From: C. Omar Kebbeh <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, 13 February 2012, 19:23
Subject: Re: [>-<] Waa Juwara, others join cabinet as Sheriff Gomez takes up Interior ministry - NICE!
Rewmi, call me Mr. Kebbeh... thanks
On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 1:40 PM, REWMI <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
By the way, how should we address you. Fankung
or C. Omar Kebba? Please advise
Best Regards,
On Feb 13, 2012, at 1:31 PM, "C. Omar Kebbeh" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
George, why do u say that.... If the opposition cannot get their act together, what else do we have?
On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 1:24 PM, George Sarr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Jajeffeti Waa! Congrats on your new promotion . Bilai Wolai The Gambia under Yaya is something else.
Chei!
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 13, 2012, at 7:24 AM, "C. Omar Kebbeh" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Waa Juwara, others join cabinet as Sheriff Gomez takes up Interior ministry
Africa » Gambia
Monday, February 13, 2012
President Yahya Jammeh named more ministers in his new cabinet Friday, appointing former youth and sports minister as the new minister of the Interior and long-time critic Lamin Waa Juwara as the new minister for Local Government and Lands.
Sworn-in for a fourth term of office as President of the Republic of The Gambia on 19th January 2012, Jammeh who still holds on to the defence ministry, also appointed former High Court judge Justice Lamin Jobarteh as the new attorney general and minister of Justice.
A news release from the presidency read over GRTS, said Alieu Jammeh, permanent secretary at the ministry of youth and sports, was appointed as the new minister of Youth and Sports.
Mr. Jammeh replaces Sheriff Gomez, who has also replaced Ousman Sonko at the Interior ministry. Sonko is now Gambia’s ambassador to Spain.
Lamin Waa Juwara, who until his appointment was Governor of the Lower River Region (LRR) has replaced Pierre Tamba former minister for Local Government and Lands in the old cabinet, and Justice Jobarteh has replaced Edward Gomez as minister of Justice.
Francis Mboge, a construction engineering consultant, who worked with Gleeds International Management and Construction Consultants as regional manager for West Africa, will be the new deputy minister of Works, Construction and Infrastructure, while Solomon Owens will take up as the new deputy minister of Agriculture, the statement announced.
As in the previous Cabinet, both posts are under the Office of the President, with President Yahya Jammeh still being the minister of Works, and of Agriculture.
A key ministry yet to be filled in the new Cabinet is the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure, held by Alagie Cham in the former Cabinet.
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