Gambia-Lers: In the name of freedom of expression and democracy, I forward this letter from Mr Matarr Njie FYI only. Please do not curse me, I am just a messenger forwarding something, that some of the managers may not want hear or read.If this is so, my APPOLOGIES Dawda. Sir: Please allow me space in your newspaper, to debunk some of the false assertions and claims by Katim Touray (Support Gambia-L: Gambian intellectual urges Jammeh, The Independent 22nd November) in which he misleadingly presents the Gambia-L, a discussion group that he helped to establish, as a forum meant to increase internet connectivity for Gambians among other things. To say that Katim's arguments are fundamentally and logically flawed is an understatement, because far from being the wonder drug that will provide solutions to some of the Gambia's problems, I believe that the internet in general, and the Gambia-L in particular, is a double-edged sword, which while presenting a wonderful opportunity to be exploited, remains a threat to the very survival of mankind, particularly if used for the wrong purposes, as is currently the case on Gambia-L. In any case, the Gambia-L is the most undemocratic forum that can be found on information super high way, because contrary to Katim's claims, this forum is in fact intended to provide a medium for the ardent critics of Preisdent Jammeh, because strong critics of the forum are censored, their freedom of expression muzzled and curbed. When Katim and other Gambia-L discussants with their questionable motives, claim that they are 'democrats', it makes me wonder what they are referring to. For example, I find it completely paradoxical for Katim Touray to claim that the Gambia-L is not moderated unlike other discussion fora, while at the same time he capriciously adds and deletes subscribers who are strong critics of his dubious motives. If being a strong critic of the mission of Gambia-L is considered an abominable act, so too is repressing dissenting voices on the L, which is contrary to the spirit of the freedom of expression that Katim believes in. It has also become a daily ritual on the L to denounce and downplay any positive news coming from the Gambia. For example President Jammeh's recent awarding of financial aid to needy students in the Gambia, was construed by cynics as a political ploy only. The level of capriciousness with regards to the application of the code of conduct on the L cannot be anything like genuine democracy. Although a self declared 'democrat' and a champion of 'freedom of expression', Katim Touray and other managers of Gambia-L have been adding and deleting subscribers to the forum according to their whims and caprices, and certainly without due process, in what can only be described as kangaroo justice, based on Mickey Mouse evidence. Katim's assertions that the L is discussion group aimed at the betterment of the Gambia is thus simply a veneer and a chicanery meant to bamboozle the naive into believing that they mean well for our country. For example, on the first day of subscribing on Gambia-L, Dr Saja Taal, a noted Gambian civil servant who unlike the so-called Gambian intellectuals in the diaspora, continues to serve his country with distinction, was heaped with the most unwelcoming remarks from certain unprogressive elements on the forum. To say that there was tepid reaction from Katim and other self-appointed managers is to put it strongly, and this further reinforces my belief that the forum was establish in the first place to demonize and castigate anybody seen as being sympathetic to Jammeh's Government. This being the case, I also believe that the current demagoguery on the L only reinforces my belief that it was established by a group of disgruntled Gambians to give the Gambia a bad press and in the process tarnish the image of the country, scare away potential investors and the tourist dollar. Who then will judge the judges I might want to ask. The attempts by Katim to draw parallels between the conditions that prevailed in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and other combustible regions in troubled parts of the world with what obtains in the Gambia, is nothing but a cheap scare mongering strategy that has now become a daily ritual on Gambia-L. Gambians are by and large sophisticated political animals, and any foolish attempts to manipulate them for selfish political point scoring reasons is bound to fail. A retraction of that laughable comparison is therefore in order, and the best place to begin, is for Katim Touray to issue a public apology to the Gambian people. He also needs to apologize to the Gambian people, for letting the Gambian-L to be used to plot the recent so-called demonstrations in Washington DC by a group of misguided Gambians, when President Jammeh was on a visit to the US. It is an open secret that most of these so-called demonstrators have dubious and questionable immigration status in the US, and wanted to justify their bogus refugee status, and bolster their chances of being recognized as refugees, hence their cartoon-like behaviour on US national TV. It is certainly not in order, to sit comfortably in Washington DC, Wisconsin, Paris, London, you name it, and engage in cyber diplomacy, which after all is an attempt to high jack the current positive transformation process that is taking place in the Gambia. This is nothing but intellectual escapism. In any case, Katim and group have lost the moral authority to preach alien concepts to the Gambians at home through their discussion forum. A soil scientist like Katim Touray cannot stay in the US and continue to offer his cyber lectures on the hows and whys of agriculture in the Gambia for example. Failed Gambian intellectuals living in fantasy worlds cannot thus continue to engage themselves in hot air rhetorics and expect the ordinary Gambian to understand or even care, because such intellectual gymnastics and dishonest tactics do not improve their material wellbeing in any significant way. Only desperate people with desperately bad judgement will continue to sing such old songs from an out of date hymn book. We need concrete action on the ground and the proof of the pudding is clearly in the eating. Clearly, whenever the emperor is naked it needs to be pointed out; however, Katim and certain disgruntled elements on their forum do lack the moral authority to offer what is after all mere textbook prescriptive lectures, which when analysed, represents nothing but a condescending and patronizing attitude from an elite group far removed from the realities on the ground, because they live in cloud-cuckoo-land. Their pronouncements is the kind of cheap shots we would expect from disgruntled political agitators, and with this kind of sensationalized reporting on the L, Katim and his team will have to work very hard if they are to be taken seriously by an increasingly sophisticated Gambian man and woman on the streets. Some dangers associated with internet usage have now become quite evident, but most are not being sufficiently recognized, let alone debated and addressed by third world countries. Most initiatives to manage the internet cannot be undertaken unilaterally without great cost. The prudent management of this new found tool is therefore called for so that mankind can maximize the potential benefits from it. Even the bigger countries in the western world are beginning to feel the need for such action. It is thus interesting to note that even in the United States of America, the so-called land for the free and the land of opportunity, the internet is being increasingly managed so as prevent it from falling into the hands of mischievous elements. Many books and other articles have already been written on the potential dangers of unfettered access to the Internet. For example, a recent book, "Ripoffs And Frauds, How to Avoid and How to Get Away", by Thomas Garman (1996) is highly critical of the Internet. It is a comprehensive, well-written source of ripoffs and frauds, covering investment swindles, telemarketing and mail scams, etc. Other writers are equally critical of unfettered access to the world-wide-web. For example, Cheryl J. Goldberg has written an article, "Safety Net: Does Using the Internet Put Your Business at Risk?" in which he advocates for the regulation of the Internet with various laws and regulations in the US. Furthermore, in 1996, the Internet Fraud Watch was created in the US enabling the National Fraud Information Center to offer consumers advice about promotions in cyberspace and route reports of suspected online and Internet fraud to the appropriate US government agencies. Since 1997, the Law Enforcement Internet Intelligence Report has provided law enforcement agents in the land of the free, and at all levels of government, a monthly digest of the latest relevant information on the Internet. Can't the Gambia also enact its own legislation and laws to protect its impressionable citizens from the pornography, hate messages, and other obnoxious and mischievous games on the world-wide-web? The enactment of a Telecommunication Act, if it does not already exist in the Gambia, to cover false transmission of news, hate messages on the Internet, done out of mischief, and which may be a threat to national security, is an attractive proposal. Surely, the Internet cannot be left as an untamed monster because this will ruin our lives in the long term. Some sort of legislation, as pointed out already, can for example be passed to control the exposure of certain sites that may be harmful and dangerous to children and persons of mischievous intentions. Unfettered access is certainly a recipe for disaster because we in the developing world have certain moral and ethical standards to preserve and pass onto posterity. We cannot allow the moral decadence that is prevalent in other societies to prevail in our midst nor be dictated to by a condescending outside force. While some of these countries recognize the potential danger of complete cyber-liberty in their own countries, they still want to see free access to this double-edged tool, in the developing world including the Gambia. The recent financial crisis in some parts of Asia have shown that simply jumping onto the bandwagon of economic liberalization without the needed institutional structures in place, is a definite recipe for disaster. The same analogy can be drawn here with hastily liberalizing access to the Internet. According to the Computers and Law web-site, Singapore has the strongest libel laws in the world. Service providers and publishers there must register themselves. They are liable to for contents placed on the Internet, where libel laws for print media apply. Singapore cyber-cafes are confounding the enforcers; and what is even more important is that the island-state also has an education programme to teach students how to use the Internet responsibly, in the national interest. A blanket attack on the use of the Internet will surely ignore the potential positive contributions to efficiency, productivity, and other welfare-enhancing attributes for Gambians in particular, on the liberalization of internet use in the country. It is also equally true that adhering religiously to the idea that unfettered access to the world wide web is an end in itself; this is simplistic and naïve view. What is more pragmatic, as shown in the examples of Singapore, is to manage internet access, which while can avail us with the potential benefits derived from such access, can shield us from the inherent dangers that mischief makers lurking behind the scenes and pretending to be champions of human rights and freedom of expression. It is also a fact that the potential for Gambian enterpreneurs to bring their sales activities online and get their products to customers more quickly for example are great. Sales >people now submit most of their orders directly on the Internet, and their requests are instantly processed by a back-office system. This has the obvious advantage of cutting the time it normally takes for customers to get their orders from five weeks say, to five days! The ability to deliver quickly is increasingly important in most businesses where the majority of dealers sell the same products from a handful of major manufacturers. Instead of emphasizing the above positive aspects of the Internet in promoting trade and investment, as well as the popularization of the beauty, elegance, and uniqueness of the diverse Gambian cultures, Gambia-L under the management of Katim Touray, has as its primary goal, political agitation and demagoguery. The available record speaks well for itself. To underscore this argument, I will cite the current debate on the Gambia-L calling for reconciliation among Gambians following the change of government in 1994. While every Gambian should see this as an opportunity for genuine reconciliation in the name of peace and stability, a closer look at the proposal reveals that there is more to this than it appears at first sight. Yes, we will like to see reconciliation and healing in the Gambian family, but to call for the un-banning of all political parties, and the to call for fresh elections, is indeed an insult to Gambians. It further questions our ability to take our destiny into our own hands in organizing elections; that any elections not supervised by the hegemonistic western powers-that-be, is not considered free and fair. A cursory look at the proposal will also show that it represents a deceptively fair dinkum offer. Obviously, the up lifting of the ban on political parties such as the PPP, would indeed be a retrogressive move. This call is being propagated by a certain interest group in the US and other western capitals, using the Gambia-L as their medium of communication for obvious reasons. Contrary to the impression being conveyed by Katim and certain members of the L discussion group that they are genuine and impartial in calling for a healing process, available evidence reveals that there is a hidden agenda in wanting to restore the ousted and now discredite former PPP Government. In any case, most Gambians now realize that the former PPP Government was a generation of politicians who by most measures who have failed miserably to deliver any meaningful development. They are therefore beyond redemption, reinvention, and recycling because the Gambian people have suffered enough under their stewardship. There is thus no place for such egomaniac and banned former PPP politicians in the Gambia's evolutionary political landscape. Former President Jawara and his acolytes on Gambia-L need to listen to the wise sayings of an old man who says, that when history repeats itself the first time, it is tragedy, the second time farce. And certainly the Gambians do not want to entertain such a ludicrousity of trying to give the Jawara a second or should I say a third chance because, as we head for the 21st century, we need to be more serious with the art of governing as we begin, in the first time in our history, to see meaningful development under President Yahya Jammeh. In any case, former President Jawara is currently crisscrossing western capitals to garner support for his discredited record, and he is being aided and abetted by certain elements on Gambia-L in calling for mob rule and demonstrations. This further shows Jawara's egomaniac attitude and the lack of interest in the future of our country. The recent calls on the forum for the lifting of the ban on the PPP and other former political parties and run so-called free and fair elections is further evidence that the Gambia-L was created to provide anti-progressive Gambians with a forum to mount an orchestrated campaign of disorder and chaos. Katim Touray and certain contributors to the on-going and twisted debate on the L need to realize that patriotic Gambians do not want to gamble their future but to ensure it, and by its current mission and vision, the Gambia-L forum poses the biggest threat to that dream. In the final analysis, what can Gambia-L with its current mission, help to bring for the people of the Gambia? The best answer that I can think of at the moment, is nothing absolutely. Matarr Njie Department of Banking and Finance Faculty of Business Administration University of Malaya 50603 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------