Folks, Bambalaye Jallow has asked me to forward the below message to the L as he has been somehow unsubscribed. The maintenance of civil order and social democracy cum tranquility is in the hands of the masses. The people of Gambia. It has been there for so long. It was never anywhere else. We, as a people, are becoming naïve and lazy to believe that anything important can safely be entrusted to criminals and thugs through elections, or any other process that resembles democracy. Self-defense against individual criminals – or criminals sanctioned by the APRC – can no more be delegated to some body else like the judges in those courts than eating can, or sleeping, or any other natural function. These stories of abductions and torture warn us that delegated responsibility becomes power and that power becomes inevitably abused. If civil order and social democracy are to be restored in the Gambia, the emphasis must be on finding a definite way towards enforcing the basic human rights as entrenched in the constitution – on the constitutional enforcement. We must take that power out of the hands that are abusing it and break it down. We must break the power down into units so small it cannot be called power, but simply “responsibility” – as it rightly should be, which unlike power, comes not from the barrel of a gun, but from the mind and heart of the human behind that gun. A refusal to see the obvious, a failure to question the doubtful, if sufficiently gross may provide evidence leading to an inference of collaboration and gross abuse of power so as to impose responsibility for abuse suffered by those who rely on the laws. In other words, heedlessness and reckless disregard of consequences may take the place of deliberate intentions. We must not fall for it. Let us do the best we can to avert a human tragedy that is taking its toll in bits and pieces, here and there, today and tomorrow. Abdoulie A. Jallow (BambaLaye) _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> 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] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>