Here comes the dictator! President-no, dictator Yahya Jammeh comes to the UN as a representative of a people and state; but if representation were Jammeh's forte, then his arrival in the US would have occasioned more cheers than jeers. Instead, Jammeh, a leader with a proclivity towards erratic violent outbursts, and flippant towards the sensibilities of his constituents, stands on the cusp of condemnation from a section of his own people, domiciled away from the treachery of of his autocratic leadership, yet troubled and rightly so, by the vagaries of realities - there. Gambians converging on New York Friday will lay siege to Jammeh and his lackeys. Upon sight, Jammeh could come under a swelter of jeers;he will be darn lucky not to have rotten eggs pelted at him. The good thing about it all is that the US-based Gambians will exercise, without any undue hindrance or repression, the fundamental right - a right that does not come with liberty these days for those in The Gambia - of all citizens, to vent anger and even lash out at their leaders. Jammeh could only look hopeless. And sulky. Sulkier still, when by a quirk of fate, he lifts his head up and read amidst the cacophonous noise, pejorative inscriptions on placards such as, "The butcher of Kanillai";"Jammeh is a brutal dictator!";"Justice for Koro and the rest";"Jammeh is worse than Jawara!" These sentiments speak to the truth about Jammeh's six-year presidential stint, chock-a-block with excesses any adjective will devalue description of. He comes to the UN with a scorecard, unimpressive and hollow. Consider: Under his watch, democracy has been supplanted with authoritarianism that is leaving our body politic irremediably malignant. Talk of return to democracy with elections in 1996 and installation of a civilian administration, is sheer hyperbole. Jammeh has wrecked a lot of havoc on democratic gains, however scanty, The Gambia had sustained in the past. The Gambia is still being saddled between leaders who are corrupt, unenlightened, unaccountable and a citizenry, left to remain ignorant and gullible. Part effect of the transition from military dictatorship to civilian rule was supposed to translate into a mother lode of civic consciousness for the Gambian people. But the civic education plank of Jammeh's timetable for the return to civilian rule has been in tatters. Jammeh puffs on the public consciousness an aura of despotism, which directly handicaps the functioning of a vibrant democracy. Things work when human beings belief in them. Jammeh, ever a soldier, never a democrat,does not,willingly cynically, galvanize national efforts at proper governance. Instead, he remains an impediment to it. He displays arrogance of power befitting only tyrants. He sacks judges at will; openly threatens to bury his opponents six-feet deep; thinks of hammering the opposition out of existence. His human rights record stinks of impunity! The political terrain is far from enlivening. Because kidnappings and killings are rampant these days, fear hangs on the public imagination. Politics of irresponsible leadership has let loose goons on the population. Security agents eavesdrop on dissent. Militant youths acting upon the whims of presidential incitements, unleash government-sanctioned thuggery. Worse still, they get away with it! In just six years, Jammeh has wrought irreparable damage to Gambian conscience for which there is no comparable equivalence in Jawara's 30 years. Scores of schoolchildren were massacred with impunity;no justice yet. A finance minister was scorched to death inside his own car; no justice, too. Many soldiers perished in extra-judicial killings; no trace, and no justice, again. Jammeh comes to the UN with blood on his hands. He is a dictator luxuriating in scant legitimacy bestowed on him by a largely unfair elections and enfeebled electoral process. Unrestrained in his presidential indignities and hell-bent on aggravating rather than lessening, the poisoning of the matters of governance, Jammeh will continue to push towards a political implosion. The Gambia will be lucky to survive him. In the long-run. Cherno Baba Jallow Detroit, MI _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------