Civil servants 'forced' to buy APRC membership cards Highly placed individuals in the government have strongly criticised the 'forcible' issuing of APRC membership cards to civil servants. The sources disclosed to The Independent that government departments have been 'invaded' with APRC stalwarts 'forcing' civil servants to buy the party's membership card. According to the sources the issuing of the cards began prior to the announcement made by the party that they are selling their membership cards, which costs D10. 'We all must buy these cards otherwise we may loose our positions,' the sources who are themselves civil servants lamented. They believed that it was wrong for the APRC party to 'exploit' civil servants to fund their activities, which is political. They also asserted it was unnecessary and wrong to force them to join the APRC bandwagon when some of them might not even be interested in politics. 'We would not hesitate to condemn these APRC slaves who ant to exploit us as a source of revenue' one of them charged. One source who is a senior civil servant at the North Bank Division claimed that 5,000 APRC membership cards were sent to the Commissioner's office for distribution to civil servants there. According to him up to D50, 000 might be realised from the 'forcible sale'. He cited that since they are appointed to serve any government civil servants should not be involved in politics nor was it right to be forced to join a party. One of them who works at the Quandrangle also claimed that civil servants have been willing to volunteer information to the media but because they have been instructed to 'shun' the press they had preferred to stay silent if 'we wanted to keep our jobs'. 'Although it is not our will not to talk, it is the bureaucratic system of the government that does not allow us to talk and the forcible issuing of these cards will make things worse' one of them further opined. 'It is impossible for all civil servants to support the ruling party. We are just there to work for our people but it is even not possible for us all to support the APRC government,' another civil servant pointed out. He noted that when he first heard about the 'forcible' issuing of APRC membership cards to civil servants, he as a civil servant felt insulted. 'One of my friends who is an APRC member told me that, buying the card doesn't mean I will vote for them. But he told me plainly that, acquiring the card is for the purpose of retaining my job,' he said. However all efforts to elicit a response from the head of the civil service proved unsuccessful. _________________________________________________________________________ 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 and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------