To add, I meant to write: you must have a source, and such a source must be credible. Just having a source, for the sake of it, will defeat the purpose of independent verification.
 
If any of you verify anything independently, please share with us always A.S.A.P. Also, it can be as simple as just sharing a contact person so we can reach out to them.
 
 
Have a good day all.
 
Thanks,
 
 
Yero.


There is no god but Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) is His messenger. Fear and Worship only Allah alone!




 
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [>-<] Your moral support for this regime???
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:17:21 -0600

Bro Wandifa,
 
I too bet to differ with Uncle Suntou's views, eventhough I agree with the reader's quest for two sides always. To that, the parable is like the one whose pocket is empty. If you want the person to dip his hands inside and produce for you anything, obviously nothing will come from that pocket.  I agree, "trust but always verify." Besides, it is still not late to hear from the other sides. I only wish they can cooperate with people. Be that we were to talk to the same people Suntou spoke with, there, we would have been again guilty of misinforming Gambians that Mai's dad passed away. It is without doubt that it is a paper's wish to always report the two sides. The source must be credible.
 
The debate is healthy, normal and very progressive, and let your opinions ring...and all points are well noted.
 
I rest my case on this...
 
Yero

There is no god but Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) is His messenger. Fear and Worship only Allah alone!




 
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [>-<] Your moral support for this regime???
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:37:37 +0000

Suntu;

I understand your perspective and I beg to differ. I have yet to read about your own condemnation. Is this a case of political rivalry (you and LJD both UDP leading personalities)? GMC was on the vanguard whenever UDP militants are threatened, and you can bear witness to this if you would be fair to Mr. Fatty and GMC. The issue is that those arrested were parents of Mai Fatty, and that is not disputed. I state here again that Alieu Saja Fatty is Mai Fatty愀 father. You are now trying to discredit Mr. Fatty and GMC instead of UDP UK issuing a solidarity message as GMC did when Femi Peters and others were being persecuted. GMC and Mr. Fatty were in direct coordination with Ousainou Darboe himself on joint actions and he will confirm this. Remember those persecuted were the persons who gave birth to Mai Fatty, and for no other reason other than flying a flag and pasting their sons picture. I am disgusted by the hypocrisy and the petty jealousy. Your uncle, former Wuli West MP, A.K Touray (PPP) was personally hosted and fed by the very people (Mai愀 parents) at Wuli whose credibility you now wrongly seek to impugn. I am sure he would not endorse your position. Can it be denied that Mai Fatty愀 PARENTS were arrested and detained for no lawful purpose? What is your beef Suntou? Against GMC and Mai Fatty or what?

From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [>-<] Your moral support for this regime???
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:35:20 -0600


Well said Mawdo Demba. I have witnessed countless situations where you instructed stories to be dropped because of their one side nature.
 
While our learned friend LJD made a solid observation regards to the one side nature of the situation here especially with its surface on the online media, it is clearly to be noted under a Jammeh regime, there is no free flow of information, though it is common to hear readers always asking a presentation of the two sides. That holds only under an ideal situation. Currently, we are dealing with a hypocritical Gov't, hell-bent on misinformation, distortion, misrepresentation, and terror on its citezenry. Matter of fact nothing coming from the Jammeh cronies should be trusted.  Infact, those close to power are unwilling to share details most of the time. Why and how would they expose their dirty skeletal cupboard nibs? Hardly will be seen! In this case, be that this is a press release from a registered party, we take theirs to be the true story. The onus will be on the Jammeh regime to defend themselves otherwise. I know LJD agrees that much. Further, no need to bring to the attention of LJD the limited resources and huddles that the online media encounters in getting information from home. Those that even called the Police Station in Basse can attest to that fact. The interesting part to this situation, the online media picked it up before the home-based.
 
On a note, reports on both the Point and Foroyaa confirmed the veracity of this matter.
 
Thanks always for your great sense of humor in your postings.
 
Yero.

There is no god but Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) is His messenger. Fear and Worship only Allah alone!




 
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:58:33 -0800
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [>-<] Your moral support for this regime???
To: [log in to unmask]

LJD,
 
The feeling is mutual and I believe do you understand that the press statement was issued by GMC and not Gainako.
 
I am a strong advocate of investigative journalism where possible and my colleagues would attest to that. I am always cautious of stories coming out of the Jammeh regime.
 
However, under a normal democratic open society it is expected that journalist and reporters take two sides of any story. But I think you can concur with me that if we were to rely on information coming from the government, then you and I might as well pack our bags and go look for information from else where. Off course this does not negate the need to investigate stories, but there is a difference between reporting what is allegedly happening and what has actually happened.
 
If you read the story again you will not fail to see the use of the word alleged if the use of words is that important here.
 
The fact is LJD and I know you know this more than anyone else is that we are dealing with a regime that does not need a reason to arrest a citizen or a group of citizens. It wouldn't matter if these people were arrested in a townhall meeting, their home or in any premise. What matters is that they were arrested and ultimately not charge for any crimes according tot he reports. This is the basis for the story and we don't have the luxury to mount an investigative report into a regime that has blatantly violated its citizens rights over and over again. This is a pattern that has proven beyond any doubt that peoples rights have constantly been violated. We will have the legal minds deal with the context of the words.
 
Your insightful comments are always must welcome...
 
Kind regards always

Demba
 


 
On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 4:46 AM, suntou touray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Wandifa
I belief the angle that Mr LJ took is important from the media point of view. GMC has every right to alert Gambians on injustices perpetuated against its members, family or no family.
LJ's request of Demba to independently verify the extant of the story is what we who are in the political landscape should be doing. The media must be sceptical of any press statement and do its homework on the larger aspect of all publications.
I did made calls to Wulli West, Sutukonding for that mater, on the very day i saw the press statement. However, the person I spoke to made it clear that, Barrister Mai Fatty's father passed away some years ago, hence naming his father in the press statement may have been an oversight. In that regard, we may take the larger extended family network as relevant, but the statement also mention Mai's step father, so their is no confusion on that part.
The question is not whether Barister Fatty's family members have been arrested or detain, but that some independent verification needed to be done by the Diaspora media (as per LJ's statement). The point newspaper story also mention two individual not the five put out by the press statement. I am sure, the press statements at the beginning may have taken into account all those who attended the meeting. Hence,we need the media to help us digest difficult matters like this. Even the mere arrest of one member of GMC is uncalled for, the Governor Omar Khan has no business to try to curtail the democratic rights of GMC members. Neither should the commissioner also get involve in this.
Suntou

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 12:02 PM, Wandifa Sanneh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
LJ;

The Press release was signed by me and am in a better position to respond to the issues you had raised, and addressed to Demba.

1. It is obvious that you had seen and read the Release much earlier or else you would not have referred to it in the piece below. It is very curious that you failed to condemn it then, and the after-thought condemnation is questionable. Speaking for myself, you can shelve your insincere condemnation.

 2. I had placed the telephone number of Basse Police publicly on the Forum and people like Abdoukarin Sanneh had called and spoke to Basse Police. They would have provided conflicting information if our own version was not accurate, but you did not bother to verify on your own. You can still go ahead and speak to Basse Police to contradict us, instead of vilifying Demba and the online press. Accordig Ebrima Cham, Police Commissioner quoted by Gambian Press, the reasons for the arrests were politically motivated. How can you now contract the authorities themselves with maligmant innuendo against the Fatty Family and GMC, to suit your own invented distorted version and subtle misrepresentation?

2. The Police showed up after the Town Hall meeting was concluded three days earlier, and since the meeting took place outside the Family compound where the GMC Flag was erected and hoisted, the Family Parents were those confronted. A Town Hall Meeting is a euphemism for community meeting conducted in the style of a conventional "Town Hall" meeting. As a Lawyer who makes a living out of the use of words, you would appreciate the context in which it is used, and that explains why there are different canons of interpretation. Wors are useless if not interpreted in context, not always literally, and you this better than me.

3. Political Parties had recently repoted the wholesale defection of APRC stalwarts (upto over eight hundred at one instance), and I read that too here on the Post. Why did you not demand the names of the eight hundred defectors. APRC had also reported the defection of a hundred UDP militants, did you require them to "name" or disclose those defectors. Fangkung placed the info on Mighty Post.

4. There were independent press investigations conducted into the veracity of our story by both Foroyaa and The Point who sent Reporters to Basse and both reported the accuracy of the true reasons in complete conformity with our Press Release. This are not online press, but paper press published inside The Gambia. Daily News did as well, and all of hese cannot be denied by any honest person.

5. Your insinuation that Mai Fatty愀 parents may have been arrested for other reasons bordering on violation of the law is offensive, dishonest and unacceptable.

6. GMC and Wandifa Sanneh support Fangkung愀 rights to air his views and will defend and protect that inalienable right of his, even if we disagree with those views. This applies to you Lamin Darboe.

Wandifa Sanneh

Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:00:27 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [>-<] Your moral support for this regime???
To: [log in to unmask]
CC: [log in to unmask]


Demba
 
I salute your unwavering commitment to the struggle for a Gambia anchored in democratic institutionalism under the rule of law, a Gambia where conscience and choice are the supreme arbiters of the direction of political affiliation.
 
In that Gambia, citizens of the Fankung inclination must exist for a fuller society.
 
On the extant issue of the GMC Leader's family, there appears to be no question that an arrest(s) occurred. If that arrest is rooted in political affiliation, it is, on its face, condemnable, and I condemn it.
 
However, it is disappointing that the Diaspora-based on-line media relied exclusively on the GMC's Wandifa for information it then treated as verified, without any apparent independent digging on a story that is of clear public significance. This devalues the currency of credible and  legitimate opposition to a clearly odious and detested political system.
 
What, you may retort, was there to investigate about 'undisputed' lawlessness by Basse police in arresting "member(s)" of Barrister Mai Fatty's family on account of political affiliation, a protected right under the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia!
 
For starters, the GMC Press Release mentioned a "Town Hall meeting" in "Wulli West". As understood by you, what is a "Town Hall" in the context of that part of rural Gambia? .As "Wulli West" is not a village/town, where exactly in "Wulli West" did this "Town Hall meeting" occurred?
 
Who were the "APRC (ruling Party) big wigs" who "attended", this meeting and "declared their allegiance  to GMC"? Considering this appears to be part of the driving motivation for the arrest of the GMC Leader's family, this particular aspect of the matter is by no means trivial.
 
And why only the GMC Leader's family? Why not the GMC officials who were part of this "symbolic representation of the take over of the Region by GMC"? Were all five members of the GMC Leader's family actually arrested, and what was meant by the phrase "the GMC Leader's father"?. In what context was the word "father" used?
 
I am sure you can appreciate we are not dealing with a private issue, and since the GMC placed the matter in the public domain, there is no question it is a legitimate transaction for proper ventilation, and especially in light of your story that "no conditions" were attached to the release of the GMC Leader's family . 
 
 
 
 
 
LJDarbo
 
 
 


--- On Thu, 10/3/11, Demba Baldeh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Demba Baldeh <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [>-<] Your moral support for this regime???
To: "Gambia Post3" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, 10 March, 2011, 0:08




Now Fankung has gone hiding again after Mai Fatty's parents were arrested. Anytime this regime act shamefully these supporters run into hiding in disbelief. Do you ever question your moral support for a regime willing to detain innocent parents exercising their god given rights...

How much did they gain arresting these people? Negative publicity???
Didn't you know being arrested and detain is now a pride in the Gambia for
only those who don't do anything wrong gets arrested and detained. Those who openly commit heinous crimes are loitering the streets of Banjul.

Read more for your dose of reality...
http://www.gainako.com/news/news/2011/03/09/detained-gmc-leaders-parents-release-without-conditions.html
.

Demba



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