Folks, below was culled from AllAfrica website. A parliament in one of the wealthiest countries in Africa, said no to their President's request to purchase a $51 million Presidential jet, and the parliament rejected the request. Another parliament in the same neighborhood as the first, also rejected a similar request, this time from their King for a Royal jet. However, the third Assembly, has an attitude of "see no evil, hear no evil, and know no evil". This third Assembly has a Philosopher/King - Dictatorship. He did not request as the first two above, as state funds are his funds and how can he seek permission to use his own funds. Naaah! This parliament also happens to be one of Africa's poorest. The first two Assemblies had a process and went through the established protocols and let the DEMOCRATIC process run its course. The third Assembly has a similar process, but has no need for it. Ladies and gentlemen, this third Assembly is none other than our very own. Please read on. "Power Tends to Corrupt And Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" - Lord Acton Power to the People True Or False? Email This Page Print This Page The Independent (Banjul) October 28, 2002 Posted to the web October 28, 2002 Banjul Recently, we heard in the about the decision of the Swazi Parliament not to approve the purchase of an executive jet for King Mswati II. That was followed a few days later by loud criticisms of the plan by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa to purchase a 51 million Dollar presidential jet. It was indeed quite amazing that the parliament of an absolute monarchy like Swaziland would dare to prevent the King from purchasing an aircraft while in a so-called democracy like The Gambia, President Yahya Jammeh seems to have acquired a 'presidential jet' from the blue without the National Assembly or anyone else being aware of it. That is indeed another indictment of the democratic credentials of this regime, which seems to be doing everything above the heads of the people. President Jammeh appears to be behaving like an absolute monarch who says and does whatever he likes and there is hardly anyone who dares to call him to order. One is therefore tempted to wonder what has become of transparency, accountability and probity, which this regime has made so much noise about. Of course it would be foolhardy for anyone to expect that the National Assembly as it is constituted at present to ever have the courage to question anything done by President Jammeh and his regime. It is because a majority of its members seem to owe more allegiance to President Jammeh and the executive than they owe to those people who they supposedly represent. As an ordinary lieutenant in The Gambia National Army before the coup in 1994, President Jammeh was never known to be a rich man. Therefore, if within eight years of coming to power he can afford a personal aircraft and so much apparent display of wealth and affluence, then he owes an explanation to the people of this country as to how he acquired all that wealth. It is certainly not enough to tell us that it is from the Almighty Allah's world bank because we all know that does not exist. Since the appearance of his 'personal' jet about three years ago as Central African, several attempts seems to have been made to disguise its real ownership, including of course its renaming as Gambia New millennium Air. However, all indications point to President Jammeh as its real owner. To crown all that unnecessary extravagance the regime went ahead to acquire a jet fighter again from the blue. It is indeed hard to imagine how anyone can justify any butut spent on the acquisition or even the maintenance of a jet fighter when the economy of this country is in tatters. We certainly do not need it and I do not think we ever will. To fight who? Certainly not with Senegal, our only possible adversaries, considering our geographical location. Even President Kumba Yalla, despite all his 'open calls' could not have been able to 'crush' The Gambia without Senegalese acquiescence. However, neither the purchase of The Gambia New Millennium Air nor that of the jet fighter were ever discussed in the National Assembly, let alone it be done with the consent of the Gambian people. _________________________________________________________________ Unlimited Internet access -- and 2 months free! Try MSN. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/2monthsfree.asp ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~