Herewith my third posting to you in our series of “debates”.
Firstly, whether you are or are not Sarjo Jallow is absolutely immaterial to me. Certainly, one of my reliable sources in The Gambian Government assure me that “Kebba Jobe” is no other than SOS Sarjo Jallow. Your true identity does not really impact on this series of debates: I am putting forward one point of view, and you whoever you are, are free to agree or disagree with me (citing the sources and data for your disagreement, as we jointly agreed at the outset).I am glad that you have to date not found anything substantive to refute, and that you “feel my account of events is factual”.
When you spoke about your anxieties relating to the current Indemnity Bill., I was uncertain of your position on this.Let me come out straight away and condemn any Bill which will impact on the judicial process. From what we read so far, the Bill will offer full protection to anyone involved in the massacre of our young people on April 10/11th last year. It also offers impunity for anyone in the future to act violently against the people in the name of “Gambian law”.
Every right-thinking and conscientious person on the Gambia-L will understand this very clearly, and it gives us all a truthful and dreadful picture of the aims and intents of this criminal regime.I do not disagree with you that this obnoxious Indemnity Bill comes directly from Jammeh and the entire Cabinet. As such, they are ALL CULPABLE. But please, “Kebba Jobe”, do not in any way seek to lesson Jammeh’s own personal burden of guilt in this matter. You had a point when you maintained that the Cabinet is also responsible, but you also seemed to insinuate that this in some way absolved Jammeh of a large part of guilt in the matter. A wrong is a wrong, no matter how many people may be involved in it, and each person involved shoulders a joint responsibility. However, as the leader, Jammeh is and remains the focus of our contempt and derision.
I refute your contention that “the government is not Yahya Jammeh alone”, if this means in any way that you wish to lessen the guilt burden on Jammeh himself. This man from Kanilai is the titular and demonstrable head of his regime, and he has been since 1994. That other Gambians are willing to serve under him is a matter for their conscience and our scorn. As the Head of government, and someone who has taken an oath to formulate policies which will safeguard Gambians and their interests, and The Gambia, he is CULPABLE, and CULPABLY THE LEADER of this group of miscreants.As for National Assembly members, they have not only the power to make laws, but they also have immunity from any act said or done in the rightful exercise of their duties. But the National Assembly in today’s Gambia, apart from the few opposition Members, are rubber stamps for Yahya’s wishes and whims. Really they do not deserve our respect, and I shall be addressing an Open Letter to members of our parliament in the near future, setting out precisely their brief and responsibilities to The Gambian people.
In the wake of this current Indemnity Bill, which is likely to be endorsed by the APRC majority members of the National Assembly, this Open Letter assumes an even greater significance, and I trust that those who read it, will weigh their position and examine their consciences, before they give the rubber stamp to Jammeh’s disgraceful and self-protective schemes. Shame on them if they do not, and let them answer and explain their actions to the parents and families of the murdered children.This is why it is so crucial that the Gambian people must exercise good judgement in terms of who they elect as their representatives. Inducement of any sort HAS to be disregarded.
In your question relating to the April 10/11th massacres, yes of course I hold “Yahya and Yahya alone responsible for this dastardly act”. Yahya is the commander in chief of all our Security Forces in The Gambia legally speaking, and even the Director of the NIA is answerable to him and reports directly to him.We all know how forces operate: orders come from above and are carried out (except by those few brave souls whose consciences forbid them to engage in murderous activity against innocents). The Commission of Enquiry, no matter how bogus it actually was in fact, having looked at all the evidence, laid the blame at the feet of the Security Forces. As commander in chief of these, Yahya has to be the person to shoulder the actual responsibility. More importantly, there are sound indications that Yahya actually gave the direct orders to open fire with live bullets himself, from Cuba.
I disagree with you, and contend that Yahya Jammeh IS the “alpha and omega of the ills in our country”. As head of state, Jammeh sets the tone for the rest of us: we cannot preach “discipline, decorum and tolerance in our society” without modelling these characteristics in our public and private lives ourselves. A leader of Jammeh’s ilk, who goes on TV and radio to insult and abuse his fellow countrymen, who makes direct threats to “bury opponents six feet under the ground”, who orders the massacre of innocents, who overtly fills his own private pockets from the public purse, and who engages in all sorts of corrupt and illegal acts, is a model of the very worst sort for all of us.We ARE all to blame in that we allow a man of this dreadful calibre to lead our nation. But, in no way should we try to exonerate Jammeh in one tiny iota, as you seem to infer that we should in your last piece addressed to me.
Yahya is “Captain of the ship”, and the ship’s name is “DISGRACEFUL SHAME”.As for the famous British/American poet you quoted, T.S.Eliot, he also wrote in “The Hollow Men”
“Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion And the act
Falls the Shadow”.God save us from the Shadow that is Yahya Jammeh.
My heart truly bleeds for my country and my fellow countrymen. It seems in your answers to my two postings that you do not have so many issues to refute or debate with me. You appear overall, to be agreeing with what I am writing and with the referencing and data I am citing.So, “Kebba Jobe”, where do we go from here ? It is rather difficult to maintain a meaningful debate with someone who is in agreement in the main. As you know, I am not afraid of open debate, and I have the referenced detail to support all my claims and statements.
It seems to me that my time could be equally well utilised in continuing my Messages to All Gambians, and other related postings. I am particularly keen to focus on electoral issues, in order that Gambians have the fullest information before the presidential and national assembly elections: the political education of Gambians at home, is as I am sure you will agree, crucial to the best future of our homeland, and I do believe I should be concentrating my efforts on that.Ebrima Ceesay,
Birmingham, UK.