Principles Out, Hypocrisy in (part Two) The Independent (Banjul) EDITORIAL May 7, 2004 Posted to the web May 12, 2004 Banjul It is worrisome - deeply frustrating - that amoral tendencies continue to gnaw away at the moral layers of our social fabric with such mindless, reckless and relentless vigour and intent that we are in a country where emphasis on fine principles, revolving around virtues such as modesty, morality, truth, honesty, reliability and steadfastness is a dead thing belonging to the sweet but now distant past, to which we can only nostalgically cling onto. More than ever before the nation's conscience is dead to anything unseemly as Gambians exhaust themselves scheming, plotting and aligning themselves to one group or another in the fierce jockey for strategic positions of power and prestige, with money as the underlining factor. Hypocrisy, the game of flattery, and the deft art of waxing convenient lies to please one set of influential people is the mind-boggling name of the game. Thus in the Gambia today the most successful in the eyes of this system already overrun with contradictions are those who through stealth, craft and subterfuge have stole their way to the top with all its moneyed promises in power, prestige and influence. They receive the praises, the respect and the pomp and gaiety attending to the flattering and panegyric scenes around them. Other craftier individuals have been quite adept at pretending to run with the hares, when their ultimate aim is to hunt with the hounds. Amadou Scattred Janneh may be singled out for specific mention because his attitude draws attention to the latest case of blowing hot and cold at the same time. However, we cannot pretend not to have noticed that it is intimidation, liberally sprinkled with hypocrisy that is deployed and used to run this our small and feeble country of chequered fortunes. Hypocrisy has so liberally characterised all rungs of society that, people no longer think of it as they used to - leprously demeaning, shameful, and reprehensible. Public functionaries and ministers, past and present have been nurtured in them and the "success of tenure" was measured and determined by their longevity of service, wastefully spent pandering to the whims and caprices of one man. But should we also forget that there was once upon a time when people who today serve this government as its obsequious ministers were yesterday its most inveterate and incorrigible critics. Should we forget all what they have said and written virulently critical about the self-same regime they identify with today. Should we not ask what had happened to principles, since of course the basis of their active opposition to the regime was based on their ethical judgment of the country's political leadership? Should we also refrain from inquiring what had happened to their "honest feelings" for the dregs and underlings of society whose groan under the weight of a social gridlock and an economic abyss seemingly without bottom was the greatest indictment for the people who took over the reins of power almost ten years ago to supposedly reverse our fortunes from the helpless and hopeless to the panoramic glamour and glitz of national prosperity. Should we also forget that these feelings had condemned and crucified Jammeh's policies at every turn and written-off the regime as untenable to maintain itself from a moral perspective. These cyber warriors had forgotten that the permanence of history always ensures that we will go back to yesterday's details to compare elements of the past and the present. The verdict supplied by our knowledge of the past and the reality of the present does not arouse any inspirational feelings for our dear country's future - at least from the moral and intellectual perspective. Ordinarily what drives the engine of life is a fine mixture of thinking and feeling, which we generally prefer to call awareness. Thinking and feeling were very much integral parts of Amadou Scattred Janneh and his ilk before they accepted to join the government. Now what seems fashionable is to go through the window of U-turns, where principles fly out and hypocrisy coasts in - a time for them to be detached, insensate, unthinking and unfeeling. Suffice it to add that all those anti-Jammeh rhetoric from these cyber warriors have been transformed overnight into impotent, pseudo- intellectual claptraps, against the backdrop of much the same or even worsening circumstances of governance presided over by President Jammeh. The uncaring laxity of this regime towards recurrent question marks around our ailing economy, which continues to hold us all to ransom, the seedy value of our local currency, which epitomizes the morbid social misfortune of more than three quarter of the Gambian population, and the iniquities of a system, unfavourable to the professional dispensation of journalists present some of the most morally unsettling tests for the leadership and those toeing its line. But those with conscience will have realised that to be perfectly happy about this government and the situation in which it presides, one has to be utterly lacking in feeling over the heart-rending mass scramble for survival. It is an ugly world where we never stop being selfish and stupid as if the sheer anguish visited on our pauperised masses was not already enough burden for the leadership to shoulder. But should we really expect anything different when people readily dump principles on the sidelines for a chance to partake in the ungodly spoils? The answer is so thick in the air that it can be sliced with a knife. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2004 The Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~