My Fellow Gambians! Clearly, The Gambia is at a crossroads: it is in a decisive period of its history and, depending on the people, will either head further into chaos, or be rescued for a brighter future. Gambians are now confronted with the immediate task of saving their country – of taking it back from the hands of its hijackers, before it heads for further mayhem. Gambians are now challenged to be more proactive, to take the powers-that-be to task, to take their own destiny into their own hands. The country has reached a point where the damage is almost irreparable. Under Yahya Jammeh, our nation has been brought to the verge of ruin. Every sector of Gambian life has been destroyed by Jammeh and his thugs. The economy, the education sector, agriculture, health services, telecommunications, foreign relations, the judiciary – all are on the point of devastation. It will be a Herculean task to repair the damage. Who in his or her right mind, can deny the fact that Jammeh’s rule is characterised by repression, corruption, nepotism, tribalism, tyranny, incompetence and illegalities of every sort? People are no longer appointed to their jobs because of their good qualifications and relevant experience. Their ethnicity and sycophancy are the key factors in their appointments to post. Eight years ago, Jammeh seized power promising accountability, transparency and probity. Today these slogans are empty words, and have been dumped on the garbage piles by the regime. Secrecy in government, lack of accountability, lack of probity: all have reached an unprecedented high. Jammeh, Baba Jobe, Lang Conteh, Amadou Samba, Tarik Musa, Yankuba Touray, Abdoulai Kujabi and their ilk, control The Gambia as if it is their own personal property. Each of these miscreants has stolen, and continues to steal, public money to the point that their greed is such that it could persuade them to sell the country itself to the highest bidder in order to fill their own pockets. These people are criminals, and let them be quite sure that one day soon, they will be held to account for their crimes against The Gambia and Gambian citizens. Jammeh is a liar of the worst kind: he makes empty promises. Where is the electrification of 95% of our country promised for Year 2000 ? Where are the wage increases for public servants ? Where is the payment for our farmers’ groundnuts ? Where is prosperity ? Where is peace and justice within our country ? Today our agricultural sector is facing severe problems, and what does Jammeh do ? Well, he scapegoats the former Minister of Agriculture Hassan Sallah and blames the chaos on him ! Who is kidding whom ???!! The deterioration in our agricultural sector can be laid fairly and squarely at Jammeh’s own feet. It is time for Gambians to wake up to the reality of life under Jammeh. This man does not have what it takes to lead us in the twenty-first century. This is a man who cannot run his own house, never mind a country ! Under Jammeh, prices have sky-rocketed: a bag of cement is more than 100 Dalasis; a bag of rice over 250 Dalasis; a bag of sugar (if you can get it) over 400 Dalasis: a small can of Peak milk 7 Dalasis: taxi fares up again: a journey from Talinding-Kujang to Banjul via Westfield Clinic for 7 Dalasis one way. Every week, the amount our thrifty housewives need for fish money increases. The majority of Gambians cannot honestly say that they and their families eat well and live well in these terrible days ? Only cronies of Jammeh and his criminals have a comfortable life, and they are paying for it with their decency and with their souls. The unemployment rate continues to rise, and our vast numbers of young unemployed folk in particular are suffering. Even those enterprising youngsters who try to support their families by frequenting the tourist areas and earning a few Dalasis there, are now branded as "bumsters" and are being harassed, beaten, arrested and illegally forced out of public areas by the government. Shame on Jammeh and his henchmen ! They have let down a whole generation of young Gambians and condemned them to poverty or even worse, to crime. The crime rate continues to spiral upwards, and we can no longer blame crimes on "foreigners". We need only to read the Court reports to know that many Gambians are now being found guilty of a range of misdemeanours. Nothing is working in The Gambia: except of course, for those decent and honest citizens who struggle to keep themselves and their extended families fed, clothed, sheltered, educated and well. Without the vast sums remitted weekly and monthly to the country from Gambians and friends of The Gambia throughout the world, many more families would face disaster. But let us not forget those Gambian families who do not have a breadwinner in the Diaspora: how do they manage to survive ? The Gambian economy has been so badly mismanaged that Jammeh has just yesterday, banned the Finance Minister Famara Jatta and members of his team, from travelling outside The Gambia, until the Ministry can get its act together. Every day, the economy is deteriorating. People like Baba Jobe, Lang Conteh and Tarik Musa bring in goods worth millions of Dalasis, without paying one single butut in tax or customs duty. Baba Jobe alone owes Customs more than 30 million Dalasis, according to government records ! People who know Baba Jobe can likewise avoid paying customs duties. This source of Customs revenue, once so lucrative to our country, has dried up in the avalanche of "free" imports for friends of the regime. Lang Conteh is running the Central Bank of The Gambia as his own: he controls all foreign currency, and takes the money to his and Baba Jobe’s Money Shop on Kairaba Avenue. What do they care about the rapidly devaluing Dalasis ?? They are the ones who are making thousands of Dalasis worth of profit from ordinary Gambians’ economic misery. The land scams which have taken place recently, especially in the Tourist Development Area, have netted Jammeh and his cronies millions. What do Jammeh and his kind care about the true owners of the land ? They sell it to the highest bidder. Shame on them. With regard to the Civil Service, standards have dropped to an all time low. The incompetence is unbelievable. Abdulai Kujabi and Yahya Jammeh appoint people based on their ethnicity and unquestioning support of their regime, and now never take into account the skills, qualifications, experience and dedication of their appointees. Jammeh continues to play the Islamic card, but his insincerity is well known to all of us. The Gambia is constitutionally a secular state, but recent Western intelligence reports which I have seen personally, now categorise The Gambia as an Islamic state. Jammeh is using Islam as a cover for lining his own pockets, and he is aligning our supposedly secular nation with fundamentalist states. Clearly, Jammeh has damaged our country, and if he remains at the helm, then there will be worse to come. It is vital that Gambians become proactive in defence of their country. I agree with Kebba Dampha’s point that UDP supporters should converge on the police station where Darboe is illegally held and demand the release of this Opposition leader. There has to be a direct challenge against Jammeh’s illegal acts. If the government is allowed to get away with Darboe’s arrest, then everyone is vulnerable. As for the APRC members of parliament: well, shame on them for having passed a law which allows the state to remand anyone charged with murder to be denied bail if the trial is unreasonably delayed. This is the law which means that Darboe is held on the trumped up murder charge. These MPs serve as rubber stampers for Jammeh’s rule. Let them be quite sure that one day soon they will be held to account for their actions, and brought to justice themselves. Today they bury their heads in the sands of sycophancy: tomorrow Gambian citizens will demand restitution from them. We are all aware that Jammeh himself is a coward: his fear brings about his massive overreactions in every sphere of life. If Gambians were to challenge him openly and without fear, Jammeh would step backwards. Of course, I urge Gambians to remain law abiding, but if their rights and liberties are constantly eroded and infringed, then Gambians should make their grievances known by means of peaceful demonstration and public challenge. The Gambian people can do a lot to change the situation in The Gambia, but to be truly effective, they need to be guided and organised in order to take their destiny fully into their own hands. This is where the role played by an effective Opposition is so crucial. There are challenges to be taken up both by the Opposition leaders and their parties, and by the citizens of The Gambia. The levels of injustice in our country have reached new heights: people are arrested without due cause: they are held incommunicado and without charge. Pause for a minute and reflect on the plight of people like Dumo Saho, Momodou Marenah, Ebrima Yarbo, Lt Omar Darbo, Lt Lalo Jaiteh. For how long have these men being wrongly detained ? For how long have they been kept from their wives and families ? For how long have they languished in appalling conditions in our prisons ? For how long is this terrible state of affairs going to be allowed to prevail ?? I challenge every Gambian to send a protest letter to Jammeh, copied to international organisations such as Amnesty International, the UN, the European Union, the African Union, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the US State Department. I urge you to demand the release of all those wrongly imprisoned detainees. I urge you to call for a restoration of full human rights for our citizens. We Gambians should be mounting a public relations campaign against Jammeh and his regime. Let us enlighten our citizens as well as the international community about the realities of Yahya Jammeh. I recently attended a seminar where one of the speakers spoke of his amazement in encountering so many talented and skilled Gambians working in highly placed posts throughout the world. Wherever he went, he met with competent and hardworking Gambians working for many well-known institutions. When he went on a field trip to The Gambia however, he was horrified at the lack of skilled Gambians on the home work front. He met with incompetents, mismanagers, and lack-lustre leaders. Our best citizens are getting out of the country and making a new life overseas. The speaker cited the case of Dr Lamin Sise, the chief Legal Adviser to the UN Secretary General. A man of Lamin Sise’s calibre, skills and character is desperately needed at home in The Gambia, but there is nothing to draw this man home. In The Gambia of today, Ministries are understaffed or filled with feather weights. I urge my Fellow Gambians to act on behalf of our beloved nation. I urge you all to challenge this dreadful regime and its leader. I urge you to work for peaceful change in The Gambia. I urge our opposition parties to lead the people in the challenges which face them. Unless we act together, and act now, then our nation will slip even further into despair and degradation. Let us unite against our common enemy, Yahya Jammeh, and let us lead the country into a brighter future for us all. God Save The Gambia. Ebrima Ceesay Birmingham, UK _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~