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Editorial: Minister Edu Gomez’s call
Sunday, 09 May 2010 20:53
Like almost every Yahya Jammeh appointees, Edward Gomez got his fair share of the media scrutiny – (well, scrutiny may not be quite the word;
probably public wrath would fit) – when it was unveiled that he was succeeding the embattled Marie Saine-Firdau as Attorney General. Quite a fiddly position in itself!Nonetheless, like all appointees before him who never saw the wisdom to say ‘no, thanks’ to the daunting challenge of cabinet membership in Yahya Jammeh’s government, Gomez assumed his duties.
For many of us, it was just business as usual; he would serve his day, and ‘Jammeh-the-no-nonsense-man’ would soon figure out a quick exit for just another man who was in fact already being indicted, judged and sentenced for crimes he was yet to commit.
Probably it is not only the people who commented on the media that shared this view; countless others probably did, too.
As unfairly judgmental as it might sound, these expressed perceptions may not be farfetched, only that some of them flawed reasoning by failing to give just another man, as fallible as any of us, a chance to give a short at what many before him had been given an equal chance to do.
Today, about two months after his appointment, Edu has made a statement that is worth highlighting, if not for his near sincerity, but his display of rare bravery in hitting head-on what every other government official in Yahya Jammeh’s Gambia would rather avoid.
“… while there has been marked progress in terms of improving democracy and the human rights situation in some areas on the continent, a lot more remained to be done in other parts of it,” the Gambian Minister of Justice told delegates to the regional human rights confab currently underway in Banjul…“Human rights violations continue on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
Even though he fell short of mentioning names of countries that would have made any appeal to the ears (instead of pointing out the obvious), the minister deserve a thumb-up for his courage.
The state of rights situations on the continent has been goaded mainly thanks to the inability of governments to accept the existence of the problem on the continent. And now if a Gambian minister can point a finger at a country like, say, Niger for human rights violations, it won’t be surprising to see a reciprocal approach by the latter, whose present human rights situation may not be anymore worse than what you can find in Gambia.
Gomez couldn’t have put it in any more subtle way than this: “Some countries in the spotlight are Niger, Somalia, Guinea Conakry, and to name but a few…” carefully avoiding Gambia. If he had gone a little further he was bound to mention Gambia… After all we do not need him to say it; we all know Gambia, too, is on the spotlight. No minister anywhere in the world would have done that, anyway.
Even as Uncle Sam pounded suburbs of Bagdad during the last Gulf war, General Collin Powell did his work, albeit reluctantly, as we would later learn, cleansing America’s image…
Justice Minister Gomez’s call for a closer collaboration between NGOs and governments in Africa underlines what seems like a new approach by the government in Gambia… If there are any countries at odds with the NGOs, Gambia is certainly one of them. Memories of a well mobilized campaign against the country’s leadership, last year, are still fresh, after ruinous statement associated to President Yahya Jammeh appeared to offend every human rights organization and individuals across the globe. Such is what a sour relation between a government and its inevitable partners entails; it doesn’t only damping progress in the process, but to some extent it halts it altogether. Yahya Jammeh hardly stepped out of Gambia… some say for fear of what awaited him…
Hopefully, all that is now history.
However, words never make any meaning if they are not matched by deeds; so we await Mr. Gomez to see if he would back his clearly revealing statements with deeds.
Conditions in Gambian prisons and those of detainees could be a good point to start at. That is in fact a subject in the ongoing discussion being hosted by Banjul. We understood that Gambian prisons haven’t been independently inspected in a long time; detentions without charge beyond the stipulated time is rife; and also there are the unsettled cases of the disappeared journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh and politician Kanyiba Kanyi, among a host of other human rights issues.
Just an independent investigation panel, Mr. Justice Minister, would do. That is your call.
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Comments
Those nasty Cullies,I will advise them to revisit their classrooms as they cannot even write rather than to be able to read and understand.For the MARINE BOOT AND TOI LICKER LET HIM GO TO HELL.
I Alagie Lalo is always and ever ready for any challenges. No one should be here trying to condition others to say or not to, So if anyone thinks in such a ways, you must be sick in the Head !
In the service of The Gambia I remain
I Alagie Lalo is always and ever ready for any challenges. No one should be here trying to condition others to say or not to, So if anyone thinks in such a ways, you must be sick in the Head !
In the service of The Gambia I remain
WHAT GOES AROUND WILL ALWAYS COME AROUND.
Quote:
Bajaw, Don't waste your words on these imbeciles, who have no proper jobs and no proper function in life, and so spend most of their days on this forum. You are worth 10 of them mate, trust me.
I repeat again, the same complex and jealousy syndrome, thus the bitterness.
The saying goes: saabu du foht bohpaam / soap does not wash itself. Only those who are self-insecure will brag of their so-called jobs or wages - the complex factor. Who gives a f*ck?
If you think rotten gabage is only at your disposal in this cyber space, you must be dumbest embeciles.
It seems the only language you understand is you own. What makes you think that you can make spewing fuilty language at The President your daily language on this forum is ok, while no-bodies like you are sacred to your same kind of language? You definately must be retarded by your hatred.
I am done & am with myself as have always been here. Thing is one should know everyone's got good & bad side as have said earlier. One’s ability to suppress the bad makes a decent person. But it takes one in sound soul & sense to know this whilst it's not bad to teach one who don't. And for the other names like Joe & Hakilo attributed to me, am sure are decent independent individuals who exercise their God given rights here. Our only crime is we are critics of the silly murderer who is bent on driving our country to civil strife for selfish gains. No such comments from me again until another imbecility when I will open my 'street encyclopedia' again. My apologies to all for this once more. I salute you all.
ThanX
Don't waste your words on these imbeciles, who have no proper jobs and no proper function in life, and so spend most of their days on this forum. You are worth 10 of them mate, trust me. If you saw the state some of them were in, holed up in their despicable cesspits, typing verbal diarrhoea, you wouldn't waste a second breath on them. Don't allow yourself to sink to their level. Just forget about this forum, because you can't reason with half-baked morons on a good day.
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