WHERE MAD YAHYA DEVIATED THURSDAY 17/8/ 1997 JAMMEH'S AGRICULTURE WAS PRAISED-UPFRONT(STATE HOUSE PAPER) ISSN 0796-1006. MONDAY 23/O2/2004 GAMBIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES PREDICTS HARD TIMES AND TELLS GAMBIANS TO TILL THE LAND?! OPTV reproduces verbatim an article that was published by the state house news paper(then) UPFRONT serial number:ISSN 0796-1006 of the 17th August 1997.In that article it was said that mad Yahya allocated huge budgets to the departments of state for agriculture and health compared to what was allocated to his office and the branches linked to it.That article was amidst a controversy over certain allegations that were made by some opposition members.These were the days when mad Yahya's vision 2020 was more of a dogma than a text that many could dispute.A text that was derived from Malaysian text books and South East Asian research documents that were not even meant for us! OPTV stands to be corrected but Gambian intellectuals can revisit that so-called vision 2020.It was certainly a photocopied theory and not an outcome of serious that matched the realities of our country.This is a vision was instead supposed to be a study program for the so-called doctor in philosopher.The ! mission statement was obviously shining below a mad face that signs things without even knowing what the texts embed. OPTV has a heap of archives on mad Yahya and it can take decades to analyse all these startified layers of madness and garbage. Verbatim Upfront's article(august 8th 1997) is printed below... Beginning........ SUBJECT:Health,Agriculture Budgets More Than Budget for President's office. For the period of the mini-budget,1st July to 31st december,1997 the sum allocated to the office of the President,going by the approved Estimates of Recurrent Revenue and Expenditures for the six-months period,shows the office of The President got D16,621,620; Centralised services received D2,010,000;and D13,082,380 was allocated for the Personnel Management Office,giving a total of D31,714,000. The allocation of The Office of The President includes provisions for the Cabinet Office,the Policy Analyst Unit,the Secretariat of the National Population Commission,Accounts Section,and the Rcords Office,The President's house hold division,The Protocol Division. Presidential Lounge Airport,the Official Residence of the vice President,the maintenance unit as well as the offices of all five commissioners involved in provincial administration. The Centralised Services is a Special allocation traditionally controlled by the President's office,meant for use for the purchase of furniture,equipment and vehicles for government ministries and departments.This vote is for the accomodation and entertainment of Official guests. Health Sector... The budget for the State Department for Health,Social Welfare and Women's Affairs for the period is as follows:D689,040 for Social Welfare,D595,710 is the total allocation for the health sector-not D1.5 Million. Agriculture... D17,242,650 is the allocation for Agriculture and Natural Resources,not D6 Million. For Youth and Sports,D3,726,170 is the allocation in the budget. The Estimates is a gazetted document.The mini-budget was approved by the national Assembly on June 27 1997.GAMNA. Ending............... OPTV'S Version:From the above date ie; June 27 1997 to date we have been witnessing blames upon blames from the same source that used this very article to fight back when opponents started smelling the rat, that funds were being diverted for other purposes! No other purpose was clearer than the purchase of arms and amunitions! This budget came out two years after Koro died (may his soul rest in perfect peace!). It was around that time when we heard and saw Babanding Sisoho being dragged to the courts in Miami.What did we hear? He was buying a demilitarised helicopter that was going to be used to spray insecticides?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't Gambians still see the connection here? Certainly they are smarter than that and most of the silent majority know that the hard facts are yet to be out. These are the facts that killed Koro,Sadibou Haidara and these very facts are the reason why Waa Juwara will be languishing in jail for 6 months without any tangible reason. These are the hidden facts that made the very upfront go to the extent of sending articles in the wilderness insulting some people's parents.We saw this very paper drag personal attacks into the noble ethics of journalism. AHA! but when a paper entitled JAMFA OF THE CENTURY came out scape goats were created forthwith.That story was attacking Yahya and his cronies during the early days of his madness. That was when the poor lady Faal was threatened and seriously harassed.So for mad Yahya and cronies it ok for them to fabricate stories attack people and insult their parents and then get away with it?Right? That piece ie; THE JAMFA stuff was banned and someone(name with held) who was working at the department of water resources lost a job just because he held papers that the AFRPC termed seditious?! The poor guy was being helped by Halifa Sallah,morally,financially.Halifa certainly knows who the victim was/is. What noble roots has Mad Yahya behind him that are better than the rest of us to warrant his cronies start do so? OPTV invites such behaviour from them once again,certainly Mad Yahya will read and see things about him that he never thought OPTV knows. In the above speech we saw the offices of commissioners being linked to the budget of the President's office? Were these people drunk or what? How about the State Dept of Local Government and Lands? Look at the part that talks about furniture etc etc.No wonder we have in our archives a bill that was retrieved from mad Yahya's office which states that D3000.00 Three Thousand Dalasis was spent on a bottle of pepper?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This is certainly true because the receipt is with us live and direct. The word Miscellaneous helps votes ,justified as "accomodation and entertainment of official guests" stay so murky and dubious! How about special allocations traditionally CONTROLLED!!!!!!!!!!!!by the President? What has the word traditionally got to do with a soldier with difference who came to wipe out corruption? Jawara was gone for three years and here comes a mad man who insulted the old man publicly using traditions he left behind? If the tradition was not inherited from Jawara then was it iherited from the colonialists? That will certainly make it even worse! Matching revolutionary methods with archaic traditions that were being rebuked for three years! is beyond my comprehension anyway. Today after ten years the same department that was used as a scape goat to cover why Koro lost his life is still dying gradually.This very department has now been added to mad Yahya's portfolio and then GCCI-Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industries says Gambians should still go and till the land because world market prices are high? Hear! Hear! daily observer wrote that Burma's regime is about to be toppled because they can no longer control the situation? I had to rub my eyes and see if this piece was written from Banjul? Mad Yahya seeing flaws in other people's regimes?! Anyway Burma was feeding him and all the bags that are stored at Kanilai and Depot were shipped from Burma.Now when shall he ship something to Burma? If the Agriculture budget was that good compared to what was allocated to the state house back in 1997 then why do we have to grow rice in 2004? As far as mad Yahya's cronies are concerned anything bad is not from him and anything good is in his suit case. The fabrications that were being masked by UPFRONT then are what the IMF are grilling mad Yahya with now. Binneh S Minteh NewYork University. OPTV now presents the case before our Gambian intellectuals especially those yearning for objective and balanced analyses and asks all and sundry to see through and send in their perspectives. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~