Folks, sorry that my previous forward did not come through. Foroyaa News Paper Issue No. 78 (13-15 October, 2003) EDITORIAL PRESIDENT JAMMEH MUST RESPECT THE PEOPLE AND THE CONSTITUTION "OPERATION EMPOWERMENT OF THE PEOPLE" A government, which is a lawbreaker, has no moral authority to accuse anyone of breaking the law. A head of state who romanticizes unconstitutional role and promise to relapse to such a mode of governance also his government of the integrity to lead a sovereign people. A legitimate government must derive its authority from the consent of the people and must exercise such authority to safeguard the interest of the people. A government, which truly respects the people and the constitution, would not send security forces to pressurize vendors to sell at prices determined by arbitrary means. The President said that the prices of vegetables have nothing to do with the depreciation of the Dalasi. He simply accused vampires of raising prices. What is interesting companies like Youth Development Enterprise, which Members of Jammeh’s cabinet present as example of a patriotic business enterprise is selling rice in Soma at 380 Dalasis per bag an increase from 335 Dalasis. In Serrekunda, Brikama and environ the Youth Development Enterprise rice has increased to 395 Dalasis per bag. If a company erected by the Majority Leader of the APRC can sell at such high prices, what does government have to accuse other businesspersons of being vampires. Readers would recall that the AFPRC Government tried to transform the Cooperative Union into an importer of essential commodities so as to regularize then prices. Eventually, the union was driven to bankruptcy and ended up with a deficit of 183 Million Dalasis. Ebou Jallow was accused of going with 3 Million Dalasis meant to buy essential commodities for sale. Government should stop blaming others for an economic crisis, which is a product of their failed policies. They have simply succeeded in enriching a few tycoons at national expense. What should be done is to have a consumer price index desk officer at Department of State for Trade who will be able to give regular information of the cost of importing goods. Association of Importers, retailers and consumers should be formed to keep track of the different prices and agree on retail prices of commodities. This type of democratic dialogue is a better alternative to iron fist measures, which drive moneychangers underground and the hoarding of goods, which can cause artificial scarcity. Dialogue is the way to manage the crisis even though the APRC regime has not put the productive base in place to solve the crisis. On the other hand, a government, which respects the constitution, would not arrest and detain a person beyond 72 Hours without taking the person before a Court. The constitution sets limit to detention by the executive because of the aim to prevent indefinite detention without trial. The executive has no arresting and detention powers. This should be carried out by the law enforcement agents on the basis of law and the judiciary should intervene after 72 Hours to determine the lawfulness of any detention. A leader who orders the detention of his/her opponents with impunity to teach them a lesson is grossly mislead. We repeat, President Jammeh has not personal or divine power to rule, otherwise he would not have bodyguards to ensure his personal safety. What he has control over is the power of the state, which belongs to the people. He should not be allowed to abuse this power if we want peace and stability in the country. There is therefore need for a broad and all inclusive nationwide consultation among opinion leaders in the political, cultural, religious, social and economic sphere so that we can set up a non partisan council of wise men and women who would ensure civil society control of political authority. Such persons of integrity would be mandated by the people to intervene whenever necessary to counsel government in those who wish to provide alternative governments to respect the people and the constitution. The consultation could lead to Mass National Conference or Rally for Democratic Governance, which could be addressed by opinion leaders of diverse backgrounds on a non-partisan platform. If such a conference attract tens of thousands of concerned Gambians the council of wise men and women would have the authority to be a free of sanity that ensure peaceful coexistence of parties and people until the people decide who will manage their affairs in 2006. The road to peace is civil society control of political authority. This is inconceivable until civil society becomes conscious, organized and active. Complacency and apathy can only pave the way to a social disorder and social disintegration. BABANDING SISOKO AND THE 5 MILLION DALASIS DEBT TO CONTINENT BANK Babanding Sisoko was given a Hero’s welcome by President Jammeh when he was Chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council. Foroyaa followed his transfer from the hotels to the State House Number Two in Fajara and was treated like a visiting Head of State. Poor people used to queue as he threw money into their midst and watch them to scramble for it. Babanding was later said to have bought Amie’s Beach Hotel, which was originally owned by Saihou Ceesay. Babanding eventually changed the name to Mariatou’s Beach Hotel. Eventually, Babanding’s financial kingdom collapsed. Today he left a debt of Five Million Dalasis with the Continent Bank. It is amazing that this money has still not been paid. We strongly urge the government to show a good example by using the funds derived from the sale of Mariatou’s Beach to Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation at a price of 45 Million Dalasis. Infact the Social Security is spending 164 Million to rehabilitate the hotel. This is more than thrice the amount owed to Continent Bank. Poor depositors are languishing in hardship when people like Babanding and the politicians he patronized to win elections are yet to accept responsibility for payment of the debt to the Continent Bank. What has happened to the 45 Million Dalasis paid by Social Security for the purchase of Mariatou’s Beach. EXCHANGE RATES AFTER OPERATION NO COMPROMISE Long queues can be found at the Standard Chartered Bank as people find it difficult to see the mobile money changers in the street. The President promised that Operation No Compromise will bring down the depreciation of the Dalasi. By October 6th the buying rate for the Pound Sterling was D53 per Pound at Trust Bank, D53 at the Standard Bank, D48 at IBC, D54 at AGIB, D50 at Guaranty Trust, D50 at FIB. One can see that the rates are different as one moves from one bank to the others. Now on the 10th October, the buying rate of the Pound stood as follows:- D52 at Trust Bank, D52 at Standard Bank, D48 at IBC, D52 at AGIB, D51 at Guaranty Trust, D50 at FIB. Apparently, the buying rate remained the same at Standard Bank, IBC and FIB. Infact Guaranty Trust Bank increased the rate from D50 to D51. AGIB reduced its rate from D54 to D52. Trust Bank also reduced the rate from D53 to D52 per Pound. An analysis of the figures shows that the changes are very slight. On the Selling Rate Trust Bank sold the Pound at a rate of D56.60 on the 6th October, while the rate fall to D54.50 on 10th October; Standard Chartered Bank sold at D54 on the 6th and retained the same rate on the 10th October; IBC sold at D50 per Pound on the 6th and increased the rate to D54 by the 10th October, AGIB sold at D57.10 on the 6th and reduced the rate at D53 by the 10th; Guaranty Trust Bank sold at D53 by the 6th; FIB sold at D52.80 and both maintained the rates on the 10th. Clearly, Operation No Compromise is yet to have any remarkable impact on the reversal of the depreciation of the Dalasi. Foroyaa will continue to monitor the rates for two months before making a scientific analysis of the data. THE TRUE STATE OF THE GAMBIAN ECONOMY PART III In the last issue we emphasized that government should take a fresh look at the economy before adopting a policy that will not put the Gambian people against each other. The first point to not is that the Gambia government needs to keep enough foreign exchange in its external reserves as required by the IMF and World Bank amounting to Five Months of import cover. In 2002 the net foreign reserves amounted to D1.7 Billion or D1700 Million for 5.2 months of import cover. If the reserves drop below five months the Gambia will not get the type of donor support that it requires. This will prevent foreign exchange from coming into the country from the donor community. Secondly, the government ought to realize that as long as its debts continue to increase it will require to scramble for foreign exchange to maintain an external reserve to repay the loans. This will drain the commercial banks of foreign exchange and create scarcity for the business community. This can lead to difficulty in importing goods and the type of scarcity that can result in inflation flight of business from the Gambia. It means that government must either contain its growing indebtedness or increase the export earnings of the country. In order to enhance growth of the productive sector government must reduce its borrowing from the commercial banks through the issuing of Treasury Bills and leave them to give loans to producers of what could be sold internally to prevent increase in imports or what could be sold externally to earn foreign exchange total loans of the banking system amounting to just 27.5% total assets and the large portion of the assets of the bank comprises Treasury and Central Bank Bills. The banks are therefore not linked to the productive sector of the economy, which should generate foreign exchange or reduce imports. At the end of 2002 the volume of foreign exchange transaction is the inter bank market rise to 9.2 Billion. This shows the amount of trading that is taking place at the money market without impacting on the productive base in the positive manner. The economy must therefore enhance its agricultural and processing base through huge investments to ensure food self-sufficiency and the production of value added products. In the short term the government must recognize that the Gambian economy is linked to subregional economy through cross boarder trading both at the formal level through re-export trade and an informal level through smuggling. Those engaged in this trade have been using the CFA as a subregional currency. This has been supportive of the Gambian economy by guarantee access to goods even when our foreign exchange earning capacity from tourism, on groundnuts went down. For example in 1994 the tourist industry was ground to be a stop but this did not affect the availability of goods. Hence the objective is not to stop earning from CFA. What government should do is to enhance foreign exchange earnings so that the abundance of foreign exchange would lead to the lower of demand and the depreciation of the value of foreign currencies. _________________________________________________________________ Send instant messages to anyone on your contact list with MSN Messenger 6.0. Try it now FREE! http://msnmessenger-download.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~