I totally concur with this editorial.  It seem as Yaya can rub us blind and
the majority of our citizens just treat it as business as usual.  In the
midst of our misery, Yaya has the gull to rub us $350 million, which
according to our misery index is equivalent to a conservative estimate of $1
billion.  And our people still maintain an abnormal but disturbing calm.
The same calmness we exhibited in Crude Oil I, when the kids were murdered,
when Koro Ceesay was burnt to ashes, and when the July 22 Thugs/NIA tortured
us to death, among many other equally repulsive crimes committed by Yaya and
the APRC.  Our gaze is as unreadable as a death gaze.  I thought we'd
snapped by now, but I guess I underestimated our capacity to suffer
peacefully.  Talk about staying power.  Please read on.


The Independent (Banjul)

EDITORIAL
May 5, 2003
Posted to the web May 5, 2003

Banjul

Contentions are usually over cash, seldom about humility, or the general
good but rather over greed and irreprehensible performance, especially if it
is bad. And so it was when Ousainou Darboe of the UDP "uncovered" another
fraud from the highest office of the land involving the highest personality
on the land too.

There is nothing new in the crime, and to prove it as so, very few people
quipped over the lifting of some two hundred and thirteen million liters of
oil in the name of the country, amounting to 350 million Dollars without our
knowledge. The revelation is not only disturbing, but also very dangerous,
especially at a time when the nation is gravely afflicted by economic morass
that plagues every household's food basket, and empty tables, which they are
challenged to fill to see their hungry families.

Worse still is the fact that Gambians seem unmoved by the revelation, and
instead chose to suppress the thought that we are being robbed blind by
those that have the audacity to preach transparency and morals to us all,
while putting their hands on the loot.

We have been asking one question and we will ask it today. What happened to
the "new orders of the day?" Remember them? Let's go back to that first
speech in 1994, by the then Chairman of the AFPRC, now the President, turned
the accused: "The Rampant corruption of the PPP, caused us to perform this
supreme sacrifice from now on, transparency, accountability and probity will
be the order of the day " Nine short years have shown how this was quickly
forgotten once the comfort of the Presidency and the security of power were
realized. How is this so? Simply.

In 1994, Jammeh was, it seemed, an honorable youth, full of ideals, and
exuberance, to do and die for the nation he loved, but a nation that did not
care for him. He was filled with the indignation of rectifying wrongs that a
generation before him unleashed on us in all their capricious cruelty and
insensitivity. He had the support, the firepower, and the moral high ground
to salvage Gambians from the grips of voracity, and pillage.

Then in 1996, like the leopard who was hiding its spots he showed he was no
better than those he ousted. He became captive of the Presidential and
political asylum-lucid protectionism, petty political brokering, and the
"need" to maintain his grip on what he had fought for, and eventually
won-ascendancy to legitimacy. Yet still, losing the focus of what had
brought him admiration: to do what is wrong for the right reasons. Then came
2001, a close call, and a signal that no situation is permanent, and that
even Caesar fell, fortunately for Jammeh, he stumbled, and regained his
balance and stayed on. But a difficult election does equal a difficult
presidency. Any fool can tell you that.

But what any fool can't tell you, is that nothing is more admirable in
politics as a short memory. In 1997 the nation heard about the 'Crude Oil
Saga', and the National Assembly debated on it, the majority in the House
voted to throw it out, and the minority warned against such a move, it was
moved anyway, and no-one raised issue with it, except for the president in a
TV interview: "What Saga? he retorted to a question on the issue; "That was
just a few dollars. I am not extravagant. I am generous, even things that
belong to me I give to the State." If this is not a blatant admission of
misappropriation, and utter disregard of public office, then only God knows
what is. Yet no one quipped. Six years later we are confronted with another
Saga, this time worse than the one before. At a time when we are being
swindled! Robbed of our rights, our opportunities, and now our money.








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