i have nothing to discuss with a twerp exhibiting a fatuous reasoning.
Reading through your piece yet again confirms to me your dishonest and distortionist portrayal of the situation in the Gambia. Instead of unambiguously telling things as they are, you try to rationalise them. You started by condescending and patronizing Mr Mbye. Here is man who has been brutally abused by the callous and bilious NIA agents, yet again you telling us that, 'if the allegations are true' ...blah, blah, blah.... What are insinuating here? Are you saying that Mr Mbye made up his story? We do not want to know your closeness to Mr Mbye. All we want is for the likes of you to accept that Yahya is averse to any form of criticism. The APRC are not interested in nothing else other perpetuating themselves in power regardless of how Gambians fare.
To me all these 'silly' projects you keep pounding on us means zilch if in the end Gambians are not faring any better. If all your narratives are indeed making any changes the lot of the Gambians, why did the Vice President say that poverty and sqalor is on the INCREASE.
Some of us want to see a much better and prosperous Gambia, where a conducive environment for development becomes the norm. You can't tell me that a country where fear prevails is a good recipe for its citizenry to develop themselves.
Your quotations of Baffour Ankomah of the NA shows how frivolous and inept your political punditry is? NA abhours all Yahya and his entourage stands. I subscribe to this magazine and do know their stance towards the likes of Yahya, so spare us your nonsensical analogy.
No amount of rationalizing and spinning shall change my position towards the APRC and their sick agenda.
Anyway, i'm out of here.
regards,
Mboge
>From: Jungle Sunrise <
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>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <
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>To:
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>Subject: Attn: Joe, Jabou and Mboge.
>Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 11:40:51 +0000
>
>Joe Sambou wrote:
>
>"Now that we have yet another live victim of the APRC, can you tell
>your
>fellow Gambians your honest opinion regarding the torture syndicate
>that
>operates in our country.? You seem to know everything that the APRC
>does
>and are good at trumpeting their causes. However, you always stay
>silent
>when Gambians are killed, tortured, kidnapped, or harassed. It
>seems to me
>that all you care to discuss on this list are the projects that Yaya
>is
>setting up. Do you have any concerns for
>the Human Being? What is your take on the narrative of Alhaji
>Mbye?"
>
>Joe, sorry for not commenting on Alhaji Mbye's case when you first
>mentioned
>it earlier. My reasons are three. First of all, I do not generally
>like to
>comment on specific cases where individuals are concerned. Secondly,
>I do
>not like to comment on cases that are pending in the courts. And
>thirdly, I
>have a very busy schedule these days.
>
>Coming back to Alhaji Mbye's case, I wish to inform you that Alhaji
>is a
>very fine young fellow whom I know personally and who has a lot of
>respect
>for me. Until a couple of years ago he was an employee of Gamtel,
>first as
>an accounts clerk and later as a secuirty guard. He is a very timid
>young
>man who wouldn't hurt a fly. I know very little about his case and
>certainly
>did not read the articles that allegedly brought him into
>confrontation with
>the N.I.A. The little I know about his case is what I have read so
>far on
>the L. Since you asked, I will repeat what I have said before and
>that is "I
>abhor any form of violence, torture or any degrading treatment of
>people".
>In other words if the naration I have read is true, I abhor and
>condemn it
>in the strongets possible terms. I would however like to remind you
>of a few
>portions of some posts that were on the L some months back.
>
>1.(Baffour Ankommah, G-L archives, June 22,2001 - Contrasting the
>African
>and Western media).
>
>"That a newspaper (or the media) is a "weapon, a flaming sword" that
>one
>must "know how to strike and when to strike". That, for the
>journalists
>"behind" this "flaming sword" to "become deadly", they must know
>"how to
>load [the weapon] and what to shoot at."
>
>This is a very important lesson we never teach in Africa. So we come
>out of
>school pumped full with ideas of this Western "free press", and so,
>we do
>our best to reproduce it in Africa often with catastrophic results.
>
>"Publish and be damned" then becomes a principle to die for. It
>makes us
>feel good if we are seen to "uphold" press freedom by being hostile
>to our
>governments. It makes you a "good journalist" whether what you write
>harms
>national interest or not. In fact, many times we are not even
>conscious that
>we are harming national interest".
>
>2.(Ebou Kolley, G-L archives, April 22,2001 - Coupe in the Gambia –
>part1).
>
>"Another critical factor often neglected but very important in
>command
>stability but was and is still lacking in The Gambia's security
>institutions
>is the personality and caliber of persons recruited and entrusted
>with the
>defense of the nation. The westerners that introduced modern
>military
>concepts in The Gambia built their own forces from men and women
>committed
>to the fundamental course of defending their national sovereignty
>because of
>the stake they have in the society. They are generally well
>cultured,
>properly educated and tested to meet the set standards; they have
>self-esteem and definitely understand that the country equally
>belong to
>them in the very way it belongs to any president. None of these
>virtues
>prevailed in the Field Force where the service men were literally
>social
>outcasts in terms of origin, education, social status, family
>background and
>self-esteem.. So instead of having fine warriors prepared to lay
>their lives
>for the defense of their nation, we ended up grooming angry jealous
>armed
>men full of hate and destructive tendencies ready to follow any
>deviant or
>criminal into a path of national destruction".
>
>3. (Kebba Dampha, G-L archives, 6 Nov 2001)
>
>"if you just consider the behavior of certain people, you will end
>up
>giving up on the Gambian people as a whole. So, I respectfully
>counsel
>you to ignore people that treat their enemies as friends and their
>friends as enemies. I have a learnt a long time ago NOT to pet a mad
>dog
>with rabies simply because he is a dog.
>
>
>I hope this gives you a better understanding of my stance concerning
>Alhaji's and other peoples' cases.
>
>Jabou Joh, you wrote:
>
>"“i had promised to respond to /gassa's email but have been
>extremely busy
>due to business related matters and Ramadan. however, i will get to
>it with
>a brief reply becuause it is apparent that we are not dealing with
>intelligent people here who are motivated by a sense of
>wanting to improve the lot of our people, but rather people who
>want power
>just for the sake of it, and will maim and kill to maintain it, and
>for any
>Gambian totell us to ignore that because of any so called material
>progress,
>even if this progres was impressive, which it is not, is beyoind
>belief.
>people who blindly support this regime must have a disdain for their
>cmpatriots that i will never understand and that i hope never to
>understand”.
>
>Jabou, in May 1, 2001 I wrote:
>
>“The objective of showing the good and the bad nature of this
>government is
>to, at the end of the day, show that my choice of supporting the
>APRC
>Government is neither due to ignorance nor intimidation. After that
>who
>knows. May be those of you who are determined to get rid of Jammeh
>and his
>government can convince the likes of me or those who are less
>determined
>than me in the support of the regime to change allegiance. I might
>convince
>some of you also. The debate is about our country and we must listen
>to each
>other's opinions. After all is said and done each will be guided by
>his/her
>conscience”. (Why I can still support the APRC despite…part4.)
>
>Later in June, in an answer to Sanusi Owens about my opinion of the
>1997
>constitution, this is what I had to say:
>
>"As to whether the 1997 constitution is the best for the country, I
>would
>say, over all, yes. However there are several sections of it that
>are
>outright dangerous and not to the best interest of our people.
>Amongst these
>are decree 45, the indemnity clause and the absence of any term
>limitation
>for the presidency. I hope to dwell on this more as I continue to
>justify
>why I can still support the APRC Government despite... June 2,
>2001".
>
>Earlier in April when the constitutional amendmends were being
>discussed in
>the National Assembly, this is what I had to say:
>
>"One of the amendments deals with the right of individuals to be
>charged and
>brought before a court of law within 72 hours of being arrested or
>be freed.
>The new amendment to this particular legislation allows the
>incarceration of
>any one for an indefinite period as long as that person has been
>charged
>within 72 hours. Unfortunately, this piece of legislation was rubber
>stamped
>by our NAMS as usual. This is indeed very sad".
>
>Jabou, I have absolutely no reason why I should lie about anything
>concerning our country. Fact of the matter is that our priorities
>and
>circumstances are not the same.
>
>Momodou Olley Mboge:
>
>I am sure you will find all the answers you want about my attitude
>to the
>government and country from my answers to Joe and Jabou. By the same
>token,
>can you confirm whether you really mean that government's projects
>such as
>the construction of schools, hospitals, skill centres, roads,
>fisheries
>plants, bridges, rural wells, boreholes, watering holes etc, etc are
>all
>silly projects? I await your response.
>
>Have a good day, Gassa.
>
>
>
>
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