Mr Kanteh, You called this paper a "RAG", For the sake of decency and political maturity on this list, please consider your choice of words so that we can all build a better Gambia. It seems you have a beef with these people but they are doing the talk and also walking the walk. Have a nice weekend >From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: What's the Story? Ethnic Myth-Makers, Peddlers and Pharisees >Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 10:15:46 EDT > >Kb, >An excellent and timely piece; cogently argued and lays barea fundamental >moral truth about Gambian society in the age of the madness and despotism >of >Jammeh, the AFPRC and its mutation, the APRC: the toe curling hypocrisy and >lack of faith [whatever we so choose to delineate it], that dominates our >public life. You were spot on about this aptly named “acute low >expectations >syndrome” or ALES - as you put the acronym. It is precisely because of >this >ALES, that our public discourse, especially as it relates to Jammeh’s >madness >and despotism, is infested with moral and political relativism galore. If >Jammeh plunders our State coffers, rest assured that there is a rag out >there >that will choose to ignore such facts and properly subject them to a >forensic >scrutiny as they used to do when the PPP was there. Instead they will >choose >to dwell on the past making silly conjectures, anecdotes, trivial >personalisation and plainly hypocritical relativisation of issues. When >children are butchered, rest assured that the smarmy hypocritical editors >of >the said rag would with their usual inebriated obsession with Jawara >relativise the murder of the children by dumbly pointing at Kukoi and 1981. > >Brother, such is the twerpish disposition of the said hypocritical rag that >every time they break from their tradition of inebriated obsession with >Jawara and try to critique Jammeh, they end up with moral idiocy and >conceit. >In effect, one has to date back to Jesus and the Pharisees to beable to >make >sense out of the toe curling hypocrisy of this rag. They have subtly >metamorphosed from the radical rearguard critics of the mishaps of the >ancien >regime to the resident rearguard refuters of the UDP and in extension >making >Jammeh sound logical or plausible. Reading the said rag mischieviously >reporting on UDP activities and or utterances, one would be forgiven for >assuming the the UDP is the gov't of the day and or the leadership were the >very ones who ordered the butchering of the children in April 2000. If >Jammeh and his madness make ridiculous and treacherous allegations like >incriminating the UDP with ethnic bigotry, rest assured that the said rag >will attempt to make it logical/factual by giving the allegations >intellectual muscle. For as long as one can actually recall, the APRC and >its >crowd of madness have always tried to tar the UDP with the past of PPP, NCP >and the GPP and the so-called “Mandingo” bigotry and or hegemony. In >their >“analysis” of the by-elections, the said rag was quick to >mischieviously >carry side remarks reportedly made by certain nonentities at a UDP rally in >Baddibu that went likethis: “Mandingos” should unite again certain >groups, >blah, blah………. I cannot ascertain the attributed assertions by the >nonentities who were reported asuttering them during the said UDP rally. >Indeed, such imprint could be gleaned from the said rag's "special >election" >published after the freakish 1996 presidential elections where they choose >to >highlight what they perceive to be the UDP's inflammatory ethnic remarks >and >deduced from it the treacherous allegation that the UDP harbours ethnic >hegemonists. Be that as it may, since UDP official policy is not geared >towards the ethnic hegemony of a particular ethnic group or to stretch the >argument, none of the UDP leadership have declared such an agenda, one >pauses >to question: Why is the said rag and its editors hell-bent on making this >treacherous charge against the UDP sound cogent and or holding water? But >as >sure as there is always a calm after a storm, such APRC bigwigs like Buba >Baldeh were openly peddling the ethnic card in Kiang to the “Fulas” of >that >area to join forces with other ethnic groups to offer Jammeh a credible >bulwark against the “Mandingo” hegemonists of the UDP. In fact Baldeh >was >the chief orchestrator of the move against the NRP Assembly Member of one >of >theKiang seats [Njadoe – I believe that’s his name] to force him to >cross-carpet to the APRC. The same treacherous shenanigans were employed >against the UDP in Njolfen where, albeit Hamat Bah’s decent efforts, the >APRC >was able to gainsome significant ground against the UDP - thanks to >Baldeh’s >treacherous peddling of the ethnic hegemony conspiracy of the >“Mandingos”. >Yet, the same rag that seemed to see theirs, as moral crusaders against >ethnic bigotry never highlighted these damaging developments. Instead they >choose to mischieviously highlight the fact that albeit Hamat’s >honourable >efforts to side with the UDP,the “coalition” failed to retain the seat; >enough to spuriously conclude that the united opposition most have been >calling for cannot defeat Jammeh at the polls. > >Now, during the 1996/7 elections, the same ploy was cynically used to >instill >ethnic fear amongst a certain section of the Gambian electorate that hated >Jammeh and wanted to vote UDP. This was very effective in a last minute >vote-swing against the UDP: Certain ethnic groups out of such fears voted >APRC and to this day mistrusts the ambitions of the UDP. Indeed,shortly >after >the elections, at a State House parading of so-called community eaders, >Yankuba Touray, in a rare public gaffe, painted this vignette of theAPRC >strategy: if the UDP lays claims to a large “Mandingo” >support/loyalty/following, they will simply tell the rest of the ethnic >groups to coalesce to the effect that no Gambian with a surname regarded as >“Mandingo” will ever win the presidency. Not exactly Touray’s words >but the >gist of his message that day. It is also interesting that since Jammeh took >over, his behind the scene efforts in ethnic associations proliferated to >the >point that a month passes without an ethnic association doesn’t have >anaudience with him at State House. And with good reason too; if you are >going to polarize the nation along such lines, better encourage such ethnic >associations – and even sponsor their activities with taxpayer money. Put >together such votes can very handy. These are the current bane of stuff >about >the ethnic agenda of Jammeh. Did the editors of the said rag highlight >these >amongst others? Did they bother to highlight the chauvinism of those who >call >themselves “Jolas” within the security services and its links with the >insurrectionists in Southern Senegal? Did they ever to highlight the >unlegislated affirmative action that Jammeh used to leap frog those he term >as “Jolas” to the higher echelons of the State, especially in those >positions like the security services that he uses to impose his will on the >Gambian people? > >This ethnic conspiracy hogwash of “Mandingo” arguments along the lines >of >divine and aristocratic claims to the Gambian presidency/leadership is, of >course, nothing but sentimental nonsense – sentimental nonsense, that >supposedly intelligent people want tomake look plausible by giving close >scrutiny to every utterances made at a UDP gathering that will give >intellectual muscle to their grand conspiracy theory legs to stand upon. >Any >objective observer of Gambian politics, familiar with whatever it was that >prevailed during a nominal “Mandingo” like Jawara’s reign would be >hard >pressed to back these treacherous claims with substantive evidence. The >inebriated and fanatically obsessed editors of that rag knew that before >anyone heard of them, there were places Baddibu, Kiang, Jarra, Bakau,etc, >etc, and such politicians like Dibba, Makalo and even Juwara who were >relentless in their opposition to Jawara. But then that is the whole point: >a >pea-brained twerp like Jammeh needs to propagate certain falsehoods and the >self-appointed mullahs of the said rag see it as their role to give >intellectual muscle to such barbarous and treacherous claims. That is what >there is to all these treacherous and cynically stupid conspiracy theories >of >ethnic hegemony fromthe “Mandingos”. Simply put: All these attempts at >caricaturing the opposition as ethnic bigots is just romantic hogwash being >subtly peddled by a despotic Dictatorship and its closet allies in a rag >whose editors have quietly metamorphosed - without the batting of an eyelid >by many – into hypocritical savants. In the very end, these idiotic, >conceited, ridiculous and persistent attempts to tar the UDP with habouring >ethnic hegemonists ambitions, reminds me of a story I read when I was kid: >Remember that story of the chicken that chanced upon a thunderbolt that >scared the living daylights of her and mistook it for the sky falling down >and went to get the whole animal family she could summon, to come see the >fallen sky? We know how that story that ended. Turned out to be a big hoax >largely the feverish imagination of the chicken and her unfounded fears >about >imaginary stuff. As that same stuff happens in 2001Gambia: These twerpish >claims that the UDP harbours ethnic hegemonist ambitions is not only >sentimental hogwash but the deluded and unfounded fears of Jammeh and his >allies – both open and closet – anchored on the periphery of figments >of >feverish imaginations. > >I can’t help but end this with a broadside I chanced upon last year when >I >visited the North. In one of those quirky Gambian gatherings, the editors >of >the said rag were the subject of one individual’s wrath. This gentleman >told >us an anecdote about the editors of that rag, which if substantiated, >should >explain some of their arrogance, condescension and hubris: At the height of >their lampoonery of the PPP establishment, the editors of the said rag used >to brag that Gambians can’t write and or engage in polemics; which is why >all >the challenges they threw at the PPP establishment’s intellectual heavies >for >debates have largely gone unanswered. Well, have we got news for them: >turns >out that Gambians after all can write and engage in polemics. And 1987 >Gambia >is not 2001 Gambia. Evidence? Well, the last time such challenges were >thrown >on this List, the brags and chortles have been replaced with exasperation >and >gasping-for-air fight backs. Welcome to the age ofdiminished returns in >polemics. And the sages were right: want to be reduced to an irrelevant >has-been? Try putting on the apparel of peacock vanity, hubris,and >undisguised hypocrisy. > >Hamjatta Kanteh > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >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. >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------