Koto Galleh, Thanks once again for putting this one its correct perspective. Like you, I admire the courage of the duo. I agree that they are neither criminals nor sturborn. You wonder what this Jammeh administration wants from us. Femi Peters of the UDP was jailed for a similar matter because he was without a permit. Here, someone is asking for a permit and no one will give the damn permit. This is like a naration to me...ehhhhhh! I am currently consulting friends on how to possibly raise money to help support their course. Best regards, Yero There is no god but Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) is His messenger. Fear and Worship only Allah alone! Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:51:51 -0500 Subject: [>-<] When Lawmakers are Lawbreakers From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask] When lawmakers are lawbreakers By Baba Galleh Jallow I write in full support of the piece by Baboucarr Ceesay entitled “We are not common criminals” published on Maafanta on Tuesday, September 25, 2012. It is a tragic fact of the current Gambian situation that those who are supposed to make and enforce the law are those that specialize in breaking the law. It is no surprise that Ceesay and Saidykhan repeatedly hear the word “order” from the police because all they do is obey orders from the only above in The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh. No, these two men are no common criminals. The common criminals are those that would arrest and punish them for attempting to express their God-given right as citizens of The Gambia, their constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression. A great thinker once said something to the effect that a right is not the right to enjoy a right. A right is the right to enjoy that which a right is a right to. If Gambians do not enjoy the right to freedom of expression, then that right might as well be physically expunged from our constitution. It is no wonder that under the Jammeh tyranny, law abiding citizens who attempt to do the right thing are victimized for their pains. Not very long ago, when Femi Peters and the UDP insisted on enjoying their constitutionally guaranteed right to assemble freely and express their legitimate opinions, Mr. Peters was grabbed by Jammeh’s criminal state and locked up on spurious charges. It was not important that Mr. Peters and the UDP had made several requests to the police for a permit to hold their rally and been repeatedly refused by the police simply because Jammeh said no. The number of times over the past eighteen years when innocent Gambians have been criminalized by the Jammeh despotism are too many to count. For merely saying how they feel about their government and the activities that affect their lives and the lives of their unborn children, innocent Gambians are grabbed on the orders of the head of state and thrown into mosquito infested cells, often killed, often made to disappear from the face of the earth, often deprived of their legitimate and hard-earned possessions and property. Yahya Jammeh has reduced the laws of our country into his personal toys. When a particular law in our books serves his purpose, he is quick to grab and shove it in our faces. But when a law stands counter to his supreme contempt for justice and the truth, that law is trampled upon with supreme contempt. Ours is now a country in which the wishes of the head of state – however evil, however unjust, however contrary to all norms of civilized behavior – are upheld simply because he is the head of state. The callousness of Jammeh’s political practice simply beats the imagination. He now stands shoulder to shoulder with – even taller in his political savagery than – Idi Amin Dada, that uncouth buffoon of legendary proportions, the last king of crocodiles! There seems to be some truth in the theory that in seeking the Gambian presidency Yahya Jammeh had sold his soul to the devil. There seems to be truth in the theory that having sold his soul to the devil and knowing that he is hell bound, Yahya Jammeh does not care what he does to enjoy his mortal power for as long as he possibly can. But the longest day will come to an end. And sometimes the end is much closer than we mere mortals imagine. Tyranny, says a wise philosopher, is a high place from which there is no easy descent. This saying is not merely the words of a wise mind thrown about as solace to the hapless victims of tyranny. It is a law of nature that nothing can ever break. A tyrant is a tyrant, is a tyrant, is a tyrant and must necessarily suffer the fate of all tyrants in the history of humankind – an ignoble and ugly end. Those who think that they can callously bully innocent creatures of whatever species simply because they hold the power to do so will one day learn that the power they hold has suddenly abandoned them and find themselves at the mercy of forces much larger and much stronger and much more severe in their retributive capacities than they ever dreamt possible. Obviously, by having these two innocent and law abiding citizens arrested and charged with such serious crimes as sedition and conspiracy to commit felony, Yahya Jammeh is saying to Gambians that the mere thought of staging a demonstration against anything he does will be brutally suppressed. A person engaged in a conspiracy to commit felony does not seek permission to do so from the police. How could a person be guilty of sedition if they have not yet uttered a single word of their intended expression? Just how could Ceesay and Saidykhan incite anyone to violence when they have not yet held their planned demonstration? Does the mere idea of holding a demonstration have the power to incite violence? Where is the violence that they have incited? Of course, Yahya Jammeh is too dim to realize that if you discourage people from doing things they want to do the right way, they will do the things they want to do anyway. Obviously, any Gambian who hears the story of these two innocent journalists and who plans on staging a demonstration in the future will not go seek permission from the police. They will just go ahead and do it. That is why more often than not, tyrants fall through the eruption of spontaneous demonstrations and protests that take them completely by surprise. In their severely jaundiced imaginations, tyrants think that every one could be taught a lesson, that everyone could be made an example of. Happily, this is not supported by the historical evidence. The day will come when too many people will want to express their opinions at one and the same time; and they will not seek permission from the police to do so. And when that day comes, it will be payback time for those who criminalize the innocent. It would have been be too late for regrets. To our dear brothers Ceesay and Saidykhan we say: stay strong and stay focused. For as Baboucarr reminds us all, “no one can exorcise the truth.” The truth knocked down will rise again and when it rises, it will shine so bright as to blind the very lives of those who would not see it shine. May the All Mighty God of Truth throw His Divine Weight behind all who are victims of tyranny and injustice in our dear country. Amen. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤