The Gambia Police Force is still a troubled institution beset with morale, resource and management problems. Weakened by Yahya Jammehs intentional schemes of undermining it's basic functions of law enforcement by having his auxiliary security apparatus poaching and in some cases outrightly displacing them, the police just withered. Then came Mr Jasseh who had an initial stint as a consultant and was recently hired as the deputy chief. The preponderance of the evidence since he came in as D.I.G suggests that Mr Jasseh is a good man who is strongly inclined to reform the Police into a professional outfit that would dispense it's duty strictly according to law. His candor and can-do spirit first surfaced at least to us the general public when a couple of months ago he very publicly acknowledged the dismal state of the force emphasizing the public's justified lack of faith in the police and all the dangers that entail. That was a remarkable departure for a government that is led by an assortment of liars and sycophants who spend no time at fixing the myriad of problems facing their departments. Having told us what the problem is, Mr Jasseh must now be concentrating on crafting and instituting policies within the force to reach his desired aim of a well motivated Police on which all Gambians can count . The only way he can succeed in that endeavor is for him to have strong hand in formulating and promulgating his ideas for a worthy Police force. That is unlikely to come from a government that has systematically purged the department of trained officers and replaced them with hacks and cronies who now make up the entire mid management and station officers. Mr Jasseh's boss the I.G is himself unsuitable for his job because he has neither the experience nor the foresight to lead a professional police force. Infact the I.G and his allies can and will stymie any reform efforts that might interfere with the evil machinations of Yahya and his band of thugs. Unless Mr Jasseh is able control the mid-level cadre of officers who supervise the daily nitty gritty of police work at stations and substations throughout the country and would see through any and all reforms, his very laudable goals will fail. As things are now , surrogates of Yahya and the thugs associated with them control police stations and it is particularly eggregious in the provinces where Aprc youth groups have long ago assumed police powers and routinely'arrest' citizens for political reasons and take them to police stations who promptly validate their illegal behavior actually detaining the victims. We know Mr Jasseh is vehemently opposed to such vigilante activities as evidenced by press accounts quoting him as saying the police won't tolerate thugs marauding communities and visiting terror on innocent people. In this particular instance , the test of his success lies on whether he can establish once and for all that the police are the only ones authorised by law to effect an arrest by going after and prosecuting these thugs who have conferred on themselves police powers and abduct citizens . While I remain hopeful in the desires of Mr Jasseh to do the right thing and have tremendous regard for his efforts so far, I am not confident that he will get either political or institutional support to see his reforms through. The government to whom he is ultimately answerable to operates like a criminal syndicate and have no inclination to do the right thing. Are SOS Badjie and I.G Badjie seriously going to try their best to help Jasseh pull the police out of the mess it is mired in? NO. And the simple reason is because there is nothing in it for them. They owe their positions to one man and as long as the institution as it currently stands serves their purposes, you can bet your last dollar that they would pose every hindrance they can muster. As for Mr Jasseh I predict if he insists on going forward with his reforms, he would either be transferred to some other assignment within the government or be fired. The best thing that can happen to the Gambia Police is for the next government coming in 2001 to give Mr Jasseh a strong mandate to fix this troubled department. With no parallel security forces to contend with, the new government can give Mr Jasseh and like minded reformers additional resources to build a professional police force that can concentrate on drugs, community policing and other important services . Karamba ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------