In today's quote, Brother Sanusi Owens wrote: <<"Contrary to the intentions of the military, every detention against me strengthens my resolve. Every act of persecution through police cell or criminal charges advances the cause I fight for. Anytime I am arrested and taken to the police cell or to the prisons, I am not sad and I don't feel inconvenienced simply because I am not there because of myself fighting my own cause." Chief Gani Fawehini. Nigeria's Human Rights Crusader. This quote is dedicated to all political activists who were unlawfully detained in The Gambia during the First and Second Republic.>> Brother Sanusi, with your kind permission, can i be more specific and single out the brave, heroic and patriotic stance of a Brother, who not only selflessly defended constitutionality on July 22nd. 1994 but, most importantly, defiantly defended his actions on that fateful day, and paid the price of being illegally detained for said stance? The Brother in question is Ebrima Ismaila - formerly of the Gambia Police Force. But before i proceed to say why i think Chongan is worthy of my deepest amiration and respect, let me cull yestesday's quote, which you provided, and the appropriateness of this exercise would have a better context: <<"It is not the duty of the army to rule or govern because it has no political mandate...... If the national interest compels the armed forces to intervene, then immediately after the intervention the army must hand over to a new civilian government elected by the people and enjoying the people's mandate under a constitution accepted by them. If the army failed to do this , then it has betrayed the people and the national interest. " Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's First President and Founding member of the Pan Africanist Movement>> When i read this quote yesterday, the mouse that ran in the attic of my memory was how this quote aptly described the stance Chongan and his men took against the mutineering soldiers, who by quirk twist of fates ended up with an unintended "coup d'etat" in their hands. Imbued by the admirable ideals of constitutionality, Rule of Law and a grand sense duty, Chongan and his men valiantly defended first Denton Bridge from the onslaught of the mutineers, and when the tide went against him and his small band of loyal patriots, they took the fight all the way to Radio Syd. It was only upon the realisation of the futility of further exchanges with the mutineers, and the young Gambian lives that could invariably have gone that Chongan -- with dignity and his integrity intact -- asked his men to lay their arms downs and negotiated a compromise. For this stance, Chongan and every right thinking individual amongst his small band of patriots were illegally detained for months; they tortured, harrassed and intimidated relentlessly by such sadists like Sanna Sabally et al. During those emotionally trying and perplexing times, Chongan stoically persisted with the ideals that imbued him to take his heroic stance against the banditry of Yaya et al. He never wavered in his belief that the position he staked on July 22nd. 1994 was the right one, and wholly defensible. Much froth and nonsense has been written -- especially on Gambia-L last year -- about Chongan's motives on that fateful day, to the effect it had been erroneously and nastily insinuated that the reason why he defended constitutionality on that fateful day was because he (Chongan) was a mere PPP operative. This is nonsense on stilts: not only has Chongan taken an astringently liberal slant in the course of executing his duties, especially the executing of the conditionalities of granting permits for political rallies in the First Republic, but, most importantly, he had granted such then radical groupings like PDOIS permits as and when they applied for one. These liberal interpretations and executions of conditionalities for permits didn't go down well with the PPP establishment; but Chongan was a conscientious PUBLIC SERVANT, serving the STATE and NOT any other political grouping -- be it the PPP, NCP or PDOIS. It was his understanding of his duties as an employee of the State which proplled him to interpret and execute his duties as he had sworn to do so when he joined the Services decades ago. Much to the AFPRC/APRC's chagrin, the case they tried to build against Chongan failed; and they were forced to release him. As it happened, Chongan's resolve, principles, integrity and conscience was further tested by the APRC when he was released: he was offered a job by Yaya, and Chongan turned down the offer. Chongan knew then, as now, that men of conscience, principles and impregnable integrity are incapable of a worthy relationship with Yaya's. But unbeknownst to him, by refusing this job offer on grounds of incompatible principles with the APRC, this stance was to be used against him when he left the Gambia for the UK, and sought political asylum there. Indeed, the job offer was used as anecdotal evidence to the effect that if his life were under threaten by the APRC, he would not have been offered a job the APRC. Luckily for him, his one-time boss in the police and former Mile Two detainee, Pa Sallah Jagne, who did accept jobs from Yaya with disastrous consequences, defected from the APRC and bolted before the stable doors were locked on him. Signally, Jagne's fall from grace in the scheme of APRC politics, and subsequent defection to the US rendered obsolete any such claims that Chongan will ever be safe in a Gambia under the tyranny of Yaya Even in the UK, life was never as easy as he may have anticipated. With much brio and principles, Chongan literally went through countless setbacks, seemingly never-ending trials and tribulations that invariably comes with migrations, especially migrants migrating with a young family. An instance of Chongan's self discipline, hard work and sheer knack for sticking to principles under considerable strain was how he got his first degree. The Brother paid his first year through university from his own pockets, whilst weathering the emotional and financial storms of bringing up a young family on his own in an alien country by working full time at night and studying full time during the day for his degree. As with stories of perseverance and dignified struggle against the odds, Chongan's trials and tribulations paid off handsomely: he's now got his LLB Honours Degree under his belt; a new career in the British Civil Service; and a family integrating with him in their host society -- a society that has shown time and again that it is relatively tolerant, fair-minded and rewards hard work and self-discipline. I hope that by going this far to commemorate the dignified trials and tribulations of such an admirable and inestimable fellow like Chongan, others who know of specific individuals -- who stood against the tide of tyranny in the Gambia -- will name names and deeds. Finally, i wish Chongan and his young family all the best in the new Odyssey they've embarked upon in the UK. I have no doubt in my mind at all that his life from July 22nd. 1994 to date is a vindication of the admirable principles he defended valiantly on that regrettable and fateful day. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.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 To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~