OPINION
TIME WILL TELL
There Is No Escape For Violators

By Sundiata, Our Contributor



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November 30, 2005
The ball is the court of each and every Gambian. The task is to either
save or break the Gambia. The objective of the leadership under Yaya
Jammeh is to break the Gambia because in their irrational analysis, a
conflict-ridden Gambia will serve their purpose of clinging onto power for
a longer time. This is the rationale for the arrest of the NADD leaders
and others.

Yaya Jammeh has already lost credibility both nationally and
internationally. At the local level he has proven to be incompetent to
manage the affairs of the country. He has not only been corrupt, but has
also further created a conducive environment for corruption to flourish.

Otherwise how does one explain the setting up of a corruption inquiry
under Justice Paul, and then turn around to re-appoint the clownish
Yankuba Touray and the unenviable Sheikh Tijan Hydara who have been
confirmed by Justice Paul to be corrupt and subsequently sacked by Yaya
himself? How does one explain how this same unashamable ‘Justice’ Paul,
who has been found wanting in the management of affairs of the AMRC with
the misappropriation of over 200 thousand dalasi on his head, and under
parliamentary investigation be asked to still hear any case in the courts?
If people fail to tell him about the immorality of such an action (which
in fact was done), Justice Paul’s own sense of justice (and if he is a
judge who is worth his name) should advise himself that it is immoral,
unethical and uncivilized to judge a person who has doubts over your
impartiality? Again how does one comprehend the jailing of Baba Jobe for
nine years for embezzling about 20 million dalasi, but imprison Lang
Conteh for less than one year for stealing over 200 million dalasi of
public funds? All of this is against the background that in just 10 years,
the bunch of impoverished army lieutenants who seized power in 1994 has
emerged as multi millionaires and still accumulating! Considering the
forgoing, is it not therefore fair to scientifically conclude that Yaya
Jammeh is the leading purveyor and protector of corruption and its
perpetrators in the Gambia?

That aside, in the recent imbroglio with Senegal, President Jammeh
approached the issue with a false nationalist rhetoric that the Gambia has
sovereign rights to increase ferry tariffs which became the trumpet call
of his stooges such as the pitiful SOS Bala Gaye and others. However
within a short space of time the same Yaya Jammeh led a government
delegation to Senegal only to come back to heap blame on his own
government for violating the agreements made with Senegal since last year
on the issue of ferry tariffs. While Gambians are trying hard to
understand such a rude contradiction and about-turn, the same spice-less
president went ahead to declare before religious leaders that it was the
Opposition who fed President Wade with false information about the Gambia
with the intention of bringing the two countries to a collision.

As is natural, NADD calls for proof, or charge with impeachment if Yaya
cannot back his unintelligible fuming. Political decency based on
democratic principles and justice should have first advised Yaya that his
ways are not the ways of wisdom and progress that will ensure the freedom,
peace and prosperity of his motherland and compatriots. If not, common
sense and a mere observation of the times should have advised him that no
leader in these times can engage in atrocities and other criminal
activities and still escape law and justice. Hissen Habre, Augusto
Pinochet, Charles Taylor and many others to come are living examples.
Faggots like Mobutu, Abacha, Bokassa and Samuel Doe have always served as
good examples for bad behaviour and its consequences. And the good souls
and encouragements are all over – Nyerere, Mandela, Ketumile Masire and
Abdou Joof among others are living dignified and secure lives. Why cannot
Yaya endeavour to be like Mandela or Abdou Joof? Once, Nyerere said if one
honours power more than your person then you will not want to leave office
honorably, which means you will be forced to leave dishonorably.

The question of how and when to leave office is left with Yaya. The task
with us the citizens is that we should not allow to be the sacrificial
lambs in his project, now or later. The arrest of the NADD leaders and
others is all intended to provoke a situation such as a demonstration
whereby the government will use agents-provocateurs to create mayhem
including looting and then turn around to blame the opposition and
innocent citizens for the crimes. The scenario is like the unplanned April
2000 student demonstrations in which the Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy
unashamedly declared on national television that shooting emanated from
the children leading to the clamp down on GAMSU! One wonders what she
would have said or done if one of the dead children were one of her kids?
Wonders never end in the Tragedy of a Revolution of ours…

The people of the Gambia must not allow any provocation from Yaya and his
cohorts, but to remain steadfast and committed to peace and security of
the Gambia, and to maintain a sustained concern and interest in national
affairs until the evil wears themselves out. Yaya will answer to how the
Gambia has been run since 1994 and all that have happened in this country.
He will answer to these today or tomorrow, in the Gambia or outside, but
the day shall come. Members of his government and cabinet, and his party
especially those in positions of decision and policy such as in the
Departments of State, National Assembly, Security Agencies, Party Bureau,
Divisions and Districts and indeed in the wider society will all have
their day one day. No crime will go unpunished as the demands of the time
are glaringly indicating. In Rwanda even the equivalent of Alkalolu and
Seyfolu, priests and business leaders are answering to crimes against
humanity in Kigali, Arusha and The Hague. This list also includes
mercenary intellectuals who are ready to save their salary and fringe
benefits at the detriment at the human rights and development of fellow
citizens? Why will the Gambia be different therefore?

Yaya will not go down alone. He will go down with all those religious
leaders, business leaders, community leaders, youth and women leaders,
political leaders, military, police and NIA leaders, and indeed all
collaborators who have closed their eyes and ears against the oppression
and exploitation of their own fellow Gambian families, and instead join a
project in which the only beneficiary so far is Yaya Jammeh. As they say
no condition is permanent and no one’s idea of being powerful should make
one feel that one is invincible or untouchable. After all where is the
‘almighty’ Baba Jobe, or Abdoulie Kujabi or Sana Sabally? As it happened
to them so shall it happen to all these people one by one until the last
one who is Yaya Jammeh? This is the verdict of history.

Having said this, I borrow a note of wisdom from Madam Sallah in her
letter to the president. She writes, “To end this letter your Excellency,
it is not a weakness or a shame for the perpetrators of the illegal
practice to repent, rather it is an act of patriotism, love and respect
that they hold for their people who believe in forgiveness for peace,
tranquility and stability to be the eternal wealth of our dear motherland,
The Gambia.”

Yes, there is room for change and correction, and as Malcolm X says, with
good conduct and sincerity we can have a non-violent revolution in which
no one will be hurt. Yaya and all his collaborators can seek forgiveness
now, not later and surely Gambians will grant them peace and safety. By so
doing they will not only be saving their own skin, but also the entire
country and Africa.

Yaya Jammeh, and his government have no power. The Gambia Armed Forces,
the Police and the NIA have no power. Abuse of power is no power. Power
that is abused and misused without conscience does not only kill the
victim but also ends up consuming the perpetrator in the most dramatic
way. People who just execute the orders of any person, especially blindly
are not powerful. People who give unjust orders that violate the rights of
human beings by abusing the authority entrusted to them are not powerful.
Power that is not used in the public good but used to brutalize the people
is tyranny. Tyranny by nature is an act of cowardice. It indicates that
one is not only dishonest and unjust but also incompetent and weak. A
study of all dictators since the beginning of history has proven that all
of them are incompetent, dishonest, corrupt with a high inclination
towards vanity and deception. Thus in order to cover-up their weaknesses
and calumny and fear of being exposed they abuse authority by employing
treacherous means to silence everyone even if that means killing, jailing,
exiling and suppression in all forms. By their nature, Yaya Jammeh and his
colleagues have shown Gambians what they are made of.

Our 1997 Constitution states clearly that the Government and all its
organs derive their authority and legitimacy from the people whom they
must serve. Power therefore lies with people both in principle and
practice. All throughout history the people have shown out to be the only
almighty power in the world, which no force on earth can and has ever
defeated. People are stronger when they are enlightened and organized. In
these present circumstances, Gambians need to make themselves aware of
what is happening in their country and organize so that no force can
defeat us. It is a person, who dies, but the people always live, and
people have always outlived dictators and wars all throughout history. The
people of South Africa have outlived Apartheid. The Jews have outlived
Hitler. The Liberians have outlived Doe, and surely the Gambians will
outlive Yaya. Time will tell…







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