I'm in Demba. A great idea from Dr. Ceesay. Haruna. -----Original Message----- From: dbaldeh <[log in to unmask]> To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sun, Oct 13, 2013 10:54 pm Subject: Re: Alagie Yorro Jallow publishes a book on the Gambian media Excellent idea Dr. Ceesay. We just jump on this one... what say you guys? Demba From my Android phone on T-Mobile. The first nationwide 4G network. -------- Original message -------- From: Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]> Date: 10/13/2013 12:32 PM (GMT-08:00) To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [G_L] Alagie Yorro Jallow publishes a book on the Gambian media Greetings Yero, Eidgreetings to you in advance. Wishing you and the family a blessed day of Eid-ulAdha - filled with peace, spirituality and forgiveness. I have got some ideas -in terms of the way forward and practical/workable solutions to the Gambiancrisis. I will share these ideas with you - in due course - whenever timepermits. For example, I do believe that the seat (to be) vacated by Yahya Jammehat the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, to be held in SriLanka, should be occupied or given to the Diaspora Gambian opposition. We (Gambians)should lobby to have someone of high standing from the Diasporan opposition (or Civil Society) representthe Gambia at the next commonwealth summit to be held in Colombo from 15 to 17November 2013. It should be someone with high reputation in thecommunity who would be expected to speak at the summit on behalf of the Gambia.This would be an important symbolic victory for the (Diasporan) opposition and adevastating blow to Jammeh’s prestige/bluff. Regards, Ebrima Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 10:33:20 -0500 From: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [G_L] [>-<] Alagie Yorro Jallow publishes a book on the Gambian media To: [log in to unmask] Thanks again Dr. Ceesay. I wanted to acknowledge your beautiful write-up and thank you for the effort you put into it. I enjoyed going through your reasoning, ala model of democracy. I would have loved to write more, and time permitting, I will reference more of your work. Thanks for the eye-opener points. I wish you and all the Muslim umma a happy eid-ul adha in advance! Best regards, Yero From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask] Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2013 16:50:59 +0000 Subject: Re: [>-<] Alagie Yorro Jallow publishes a book on the Gambian media Greetings Yero, I am a democratand believe in democracy but not in the context of The Gambia under PresidentYahya Jammeh. The Gambian situation is very complex and deeply troubling. InThe Gambia’s case, it is my view that elections will never unseat PresidentJammeh. In fact, presidential elections in The Gambia are so predictable becausethe playing field clearly, is not level. The outcome of Presidential Electionsin the Gambian under Jammeh is always a foregone conclusion, in my view. When Ilisten to Presidential election result in the Gambia, I do so, not because I amexpecting an opposition upset, but just to hear how big Jammeh’s winning marginwould be as opposed to the preceding elections. The sad thing isthat we are dealing with a person (Jammeh) who is ritualistic and believes inthe superstitious practice of ritual killings. For instance, a western diplomatin Banjul said, off the record, just the other day, that he had seen enoughevidence to convince him that the execution of nine prisoners in the Gambia inAugust 2012 was for ritual purposes. In July 2012, a Senegalese (female) ‘sorceress’predicted Jammeh’s overthrow within 100 days, unless he sacrificed human bloodand organs. To prolong his stay in power, Jammeh was told to kill an odd numberof people (nine), including a woman, and then to retrieve some of their organsfor ritual purposes. This explains why Jammeh has, to date, refused to handover (or return) the corpses to family members and loved ones. It is an opensecret that Jammeh, since 1994, has been practising the ritualslaughter/sacrifice of animals. Mutilated bodies of animals have been found inthe gardens of State House in Banjul several times. A Malian (male) ‘sorcerer’warned Jammeh to be wary of a woman in his Cabinet who was wearing a Muslim hijab. The next day, the Presidentsacked his Higher Education Minister, Dr Mariama Sarr-Ceesay - she was the onlyone in the Cabinet who wore a Muslim hijabon a daily basis. Dictator Jammehgives the appearance of subscribing to the democratic process to The Gambianpeople and to the international community. For him, as I explained in great detailin my book, the elections have served the very useful purpose of giving him a‘legitimacy card’ to play on the political scene in The Gambia. Jammeh has beencareful to use elections to set the stage in his favour. However, the outcomeof these elections has never been in doubt to the ruling regime in The Gambia.Defeat at the ballot box is not an issue since the regime rigs the elections tosuit itself. The elections serve to give some credence to the existence of afunctioning democratic state whilst masking the reality of an absolutedictatorship. The Presidential elections have over the years served the purposeof legitimising the Jammeh/APRC regime. In fact, sincethe July 1994 coup, elections and electioneering processes in the Gambia haveincreasingly edged towards the consolidation of incumbency. Patterns ofelections in The Gambia suggest a move towards a de facto one-party system and the status quo has not been caused bythe lack of an opposition, nor is the opposition to blame for the fact that theGambia is today for, all intents and purposes, a one party dictatorship. What hashappened is that Jammeh has, over the years, used the politics of fear, force, terrorand coercion quite effectively. He made sure that he has institutionalised,militarised and polarised the entire political and social spaces in the country.He has effectively used terror, force, fear and coercion as a driving and motivatingfactor, in order to get the Gambian people to vote for him. In other words, bysuccessfully employing the politics of fear, force, brutality, terror, andcoercion, the civil service and public enterprises (institutionalisation), thesecurity forces and party militants (militarisation) and society (polarisation)have all openly and actively supported and campaigned for the ruling APRC. And sadly,this has meant that the opposition has been squeezed out. In theDemocratisation (academic) literature, the phrase “fear-induced landslide electionvictories” has been used in relation to cases like the Gambia and Zimbabwe(under Mugabe). To understand the Gambian/African situation better, I suggestyou read this excellent book, Africa Works: Disorder as PoliticalInstrument African Issues, by Patrick Chabal, Jean-Pascal Daloz. Comparing/contrastingelections in the pre-1994 period and the post-1994 era is quite instructive. Underformer president Jawara, there was a sense of independence between government,state institutions and the rest of society. In short, there was autonomybetween the State and other social powers, such as the military, the Mosque, Church,Public Enterprises and the social movements. But under Jammeh, their identitieshave been blurred - through the politics of fear, force, brutality, terror andcoercion. Through fear, repression, tyranny, terror and coercion, Jammeh has hada total control of the political and social spaces, and this has meant thatopposition voices cannot be heard and that the majority of the Gambian peoplecannot express their hopes and aspirations outside the structures of the rulingAPRC. Therefore, elections,in my view, will not unseat Jammeh, nor do I expect a successful coup or apeople’s uprising. A coup attempt is possible, but a successful coup isunlikely, given the composition of the Gambia National Army, whose key positionsare today, occupied/manned by Jammeh loyalists - mainly from his Jola tribe. Infact, it has since been confirmed that Jammeh’s personal security protection isprovided by MFDC rebels from Casamance who belong to his Jola tribe. Uprisingin The Gambia is also unlikely, as long as Gambians in the Diaspora are sendingremittances to the country (which now amount to $150 Million Dollars per annum).Although there is severe economic hardship in the country, the remittances fromDiaporan Gambians have meant that the real nature of the economic hardship grippingaverage Gambians today is not as evident/observable, as it should be. In otherwords, the true economic crisis in the country is not biting the average Gambian,as it should be, because of the endless financial support that local Gambiansare getting from family members and loved ones in the Diaspora. But given thesizeable youthful population of the Gambia, one can speculate here, that aninternally-driven uprising in the country would have been likely/possible ifthe remittances were to stop today. Although this is moot point (orunrealistic) given the fact that Diaporan Gambians will never stop sendingmoney to family members and loved ones. In my view, fornow, only two things can only lead to the ousting of Yahya Jammeh. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interfaceat: 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-lTo 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://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] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤