When the despicable government we have back home knew that they can no longer defend Decree 89, they sought to ban politicians through other means. In some respects, Joseph Joof is lot more despicable than Pap Cheyassin Secka. This mad man will do anything to be in Yaya's good books. But his actions will catch up with him one day. I respectfully urge the affected politicians to fight this 'White' (toilet) Paper. This is as repugnant to natural justice and democracy as Decree 89 is. If some fundamental human rights were not involved here, I would have dismissed this garbage as another comic strip coming from someone that is impersonating a lawyer but cannot honestly say that he is a lawyer. Some of the reports on this 'White' Paper were hilarious. Fancy Hassan Jallow who is currently sitting as a judge in our highest court being painted with the same brush as other alleged 'corrupt' politicians. If this 'White' Paper is to be taken seriously, then Hassan Jallow has no business being a judge. But of course, nothing this illegal government does, makes sense. They conveniently exonerated nonentities like Buba Baldeh and Nafa Saho because APRC wants to field those vermin as candidates in coming elections. Now everything Jawara did for the country does not count. They can only see the ills of the man. Because of Jawara's rule, Joseph Joof is a lawyer. He cannot say that his father worked to educate him in Britain. It is ridiculous that the only corrupt activity the reports cite for Jawara, were his instructions to Standard Chartered to transfer his savings (of $15K) out of the country. I do not want to appear as defending Jawara, but come on. The man has been president for thirty years. All he could show for it at the end of the day, was a $15K. This might be a lot of money for most Gambians, but if one takes into consideration the rent from only one of Jawara's properties, one can easily account for these savings. Why did the reports not talk about Jawara's own 'Crude Oil' debacle, if you can call it a debacle? The reason is, the kangaroo courts found nothing there. All the transactions pertaining to that deal were filtered through the Central Bank of The Gambia. There were concrete documents accounting for those transactions. We cannot say the same thing for Yaya's 'Crude Oil' Scandal. The vermin used shady characters to loot our treasury in broad daylight and held a gun to the heads of his cohorts at the National Assembly and told them that he will blow the brains of anyone that dare raise the subject. What the report did not talk about was that at the same time Jawara was transferring his hard-earned cash, people like Sana Sabally were busy at the Meridien Bank paying off his father's D16,000.00 loan. This was barely ten days into the illegal regime's tenure. The report also did not mention all the unscrupulous characters from Sierra Leone that descended on an unsuspecting Gambian public to tutor our mental midgets on how to loot a treasury. If Yaya and his cohorts think that the whole society was so intimidated by them that they did not stop to assess the situation, they must be dreaming. We have documented proof of their corruption from day one. When we catch up with them, we will bring all of them before the regular courts of The Gambia and convict all of them of their crimes. When these fools were shouting at the top of their voice about accountability and transparency, they were at the same time engaging in corrupt activities the Jawara people never dreamt about. We should give them a dose of their own medicine and not allow them to pretend that they are clean and at the same time try to smear good people. This 'White' Paper should be challenged in the courts as well as in the streets. They might say that it has the force of a High Court order, but this will not withstand assault from real lawyers like Ousainou Darboe and Ousman Sillah. Through this undemocratic, unconstitutional and reprehensible Paper, the government is not only attempting to punish the ex-politicians, the government is also punishing the Gambian public. The government is still attempting to deprive the Gambian public the right to elect politicians of their choice. If you ban OJ, you deprive people from Serrekunda East the right to vote him to office if they so desire. This constitutional right of the people of Serrekunda should not be taken lightly by the government. If the government wants to deprive the people of Serrekunda of this right, the government has to do so on solid grounds. A government that does not have moral authority, should not be allowed to use these bogus charges to ban politicians. This is all politics and has nothing to do with fighting against corruption. How can the government explain their appointment of Hassan Jallow to the highest court in the land? Why was Buba Baldeh exonerated and OJ banned for five years? This is preposterous. A mental midget like Joseph Joof cannot defend this indefensible action. Our development partners that were lied to by this government about Decree 89, need to be informed about this latest underhand ploy our illegal government wants to use in order to BAN their opponents. This government is the worst enemy of the Gambian people. Every day, they are doing something that has the potential of attracting devastating sanctions to the country. Joseph Joof cannot succeed where six AGs have failed. He cannot defend the indefensible. I respectfully urge the Opposition to take the impotent on. Joof is an empty barrel. KB _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------