Almost a month after emerging from a flawed and tainted election , the list of nations that have congratulated Yahya Jammeh remains limited and unimpressive. From the government's own account it has been Senegal, Bissau , Libya and Taiwan. In a bid to get around this remarkably embarassing circumstance, they have foolishly tried to pad the list of congratulations with people like the preisdent of the Gambia college students, an NGO head and the Gambian ambassador to Seirra Leone! This for a government who sent every nation a presidential congratulation for everything short of a bake sale.From Grenada to to New Zealand Yahya has effusively issued a statement of congratulation almost weekly trying to cultivate legitimacy . The only reason he does it is the fervent hope for reciprocation . Well it is not forthcoming and it is unlikely to because most self respecting nations know and scrupulously adhere to the notion that true legitimacy comes from the governed and must be honestly earned through an unsullied mandate. That is why the EU, US, UK , UN or regional groupings such as ECOWAS or the governements of Nigeria , Ghana and many more have withheld congratulations. For the US, the section 504 sanctions Yahyas regime is under is unlikely to change under the circumstances because it partly requires the State department to certify that Gambia's government was legally elected in a free and fair manner .The United Kingdom has a similar approach. Even if there is an eventual statement , I do not expect it to be a declaratory policy shift. Yahya Jammeh's government would remain in the diplomatic leper colony it deservedly finds itself in today. These important governments are not about to do business with a brutal tyranical regime that is formenting civil strife and embarking on destroying the fabric of our society. You can expect the Jammeh regime to employ all the amateurish diplomacy they can muster to wiggle their way out of a tight diplomatic box because they are sitting on an empty treasury, a collapsing economy with liitle or no prospect for further grants or aid flows. The financial spigot from Taiwan has dried up and Momarr Ghadaffi can't do a darn thing either. They will try to cook the books a bit and print some more increasingly worthless Dalasis. That would not do them any good because it would just drive the nation closer to destitution . As the Mandinka saying goes" presitent seizures are not an antidote to death". They are also facing a potential tinderbox of tens of thousands of young people that the economy cannot provide for who face and will continue to experience extreme difficulty. Even the misguided ones who ran high on the cash injected in the campaign season and voted for these criminals will quickly settle into the grim reality of a bad and isolated government who has destroyed the nation's livelihood. Lies and empty promises have a way to catch up to both perpetrators and the gullible. Yahya and his people simply will not be able to solve the very grave problems the nation faces. Karamba <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>