Ousman, This is where I beg to differ with you. I believe that Gambian people's right to know about who Jammeh fires or hires and why must supersede any right Jammeh has vested in him. Also as far as the service of the Government and the people of the Gambia is concern, there is no place for personal reasons when it comes to hire and fire. It should be for reasons of national interest plain and simple. Even where there is no specific requirement for him to consult with the public he should go out of his way and do so. It can only strengthen the people's confidence in him and his government. Afterall, a principled CEO must have and present compelling reasons before the shareholders (in this case the citizens) before hiring or firing executives. This is in accordance with common sense good practice. As regards the civil servants, I hope we recognize each time a senior civil servant with a degree or two and a decade or more experience is fired, the Gambia lose millions of Dalasi both in terms of money spent on training and loss of productivity. Furthermore the colleagues they leave behind would be even more reluctant to give all they have for one simple reason: "eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you may ....". A Ramadan Kareem. Malanding -----Original Message----- From: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 12:30 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: new heads roll in the Gambia Civil Service? Gassama, Once again, thanks a lot for your clarifications. I hope we as Gambians understand that changes are not always bad. For one reason or another, our intellectuals are so much afraid of change, or should I say fear of challenges at times. What is wrong in changing ministers some of whom have served for atleast 4-5 years? Most well educated people are so proud to leave after serving at such capacities to be able to go on and add that to their resumes. I have witnessed family members and friends mourning after a relative/friedn has been removed from ministerial positions, but I ceratinly cannot understand that. Can't such people do other trhings like teaching or even work for NGO's and international compabies? Come on now, no condition is permanent we are alwys thought. I do not subcribe to removing ministers for reasons which could be criminal without explaining to the nation. None the less, I think the president have the right to hire/fire any misiters he thinks fits him. He does not have to explain if it is his personal reason. They could just be asked ro resign. On the civil servants, i think a different measuring stick need to be used. No civil servant should be fired for jsut persoanl reasons being political or not. I think such affected folks should be able to challenege such actions unless if they thought or knew that they did something really bad. And for some reason, I am very skeptical when such people do not even come forward in public to talk. Then I think there mihgt be soemthing wrong, and I may be wrong. The Gambia-L is well known for making so much noise when any changes in ministerial levels are made. Again, knowing the compostion of the subcribers I am not surprised. I think if any of us here were the leader of that nation, we would also fire anyone whom we do not think is ready to work and promote our program of national development with us. And this goes to any nation or leader on the face of the earth. Ousman Jallow Bojang. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~