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Justice Minister Edward Gomez: The Gambia’s Holocaust Denier
Wednesday, 12 January 2011 14:40
By Mathew K JallowNo, I don’t mean the horrendous Nazi atrocities of a half century ago. And it may not be in the grand scale of the tragedies of Auschwitz or Kampala either, but without mincing words, there are parallels to be drawn between what the monster in Hitler and the devil in Idi Amin Dada did so long ago, to what the Kanilai monster Yahya Jammeh is doing to our country now. What happened in Germany and Uganda
decades ago is a microcosm of the hapless ignominy that continues to consume and drag our country into the depths of unforgiving despair. At least, that is the universal contention of The Gambia’s vocal Diaspora media. And they are right. The facts are irrefutable. The evidence is there aplenty in the faces of children growing up never knowing their fathers; widowed wives struggling to put food on the table for their children; the weak, aging fathers whose sons will never come home again; and the mothers who mourn the beloved sons whose gravesites and burial grounds they may never see. In every corner of the country, in every community in the land, the same sad stories are told; heart-wrenching stories of friends, neighbors, relatives, schoolmates, and co-workers, forever vanished from the face of the earth. These victims of Yahya Jammeh’s brutality have become the endless story-lines behind closed doors; stories that will not go away as long there are people left to tell them and bring them to life; lest we forget. But don’t tell that to The Gambia’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Edward Gomez, a man who in his disdainful arrogance struggles to project a veneer of sanctimony in his ubiquitous denials of the murders, summary executions, forced disappearances, tortures, detention without trials and endemic corruption committed by Yahya Jammeh’s regime. Minister Gomez’s denial of the self-evident and his propensity for confrontational diatribes and hostility towards the media has become the hallmark of his tenure as the chief law-enforcement officer of the land. His frequent castigations and most recent threats of criminal prosecution of Gambia’s Diaspora media practioners, has reached a level of dissonance that is inimical to the promise of accommodation the minister was only recently espousing. But now, to say that the minister’s querulous tone has put the Gambian media on edge as evidenced by the outrage and indignation so clearly articulated in the media, is an understatement. There is some degree of concern about the irresponsible statements made by the minister, but the media remains unfazed and dismissive of threats by a political prostitute and economic leach such as Minister Gomez; whose claim to fame is his legendary financial scamming schemes and coercion of his legal practice clients. Minister Gomez may as well save his breath, because he will never succeed in is his effort to silence the media; instead, his unprofessionalism and thuggish threat will only have the effect of disturbing the hornet’s nest, and in the process put a target on his back. The minister’s continuing defense of Yahya Jammeh’s regime is counterproductive, as it will further aggravate the media practitioners and expose the extent and gravity of Jammeh’s reign of terror. In his denial of gross human rights violations in The Gambia, it is evident that Minister Gomez is lying through his teeth and does not believe what come out of his mouth, or he is living in a parallel universe. In a short space of time, we as a country, have degenerated from a vibrant, emerging democracy, to a country standing on the precipice of political anarchy and social conflagration, and if Minister Gomez cannot appreciate this political reality, then he needs to be awaken from power intoxication. Any defense of Yahya Jammeh’s human rights record, as Minister Gomez is attempting to do, is a manifestation of intellectual dishonest fueled by malignant fear. Minister Gomez’s frightening display of insensitivity towards families, whose loved ones have been murdered, is a stupefying act of unpardonable treachery to the memory of the dead. There is no doubt that Minister Gomez is blinded by intellectual inertia and the unscrupulous pursuit of little fame and fortune; a quisling, who like Jammeh’s office maid, Isatou Njie-Saidy, deserves what is coming to him. Minister Gomez must realize that his tenure as Justice Minister is only a passing cloud; as tentative as the seventy-five appointees who preceded him to that God-forsaken position of Attorney General. Moreover, his pulpit is deficient in stature to silence the media, and his bluster lacks the force of authority to be taken seriously by Gambians, on the contrary, the media is building a credible standing enough to drown out Minister Gomez’s voice in any international and regional venue in the world; from the United Nations, to the African Union and ECOWAS to name just a few. And now, human rights aside, Jammeh’s regime is today, by choice, entangled in a harrowing conundrum of mediocrity; an undesirable ordination that is stalling our country’s potentials for social and economic growth. The institutions of government are vanishing into oblivion, and now, even Yahya Jammeh’s pet agency, the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA), once feared and loathed by the public, is not spared Jammeh’s insanity. The agency appears to have quietly been consigned to the dustbin of history, its infinite power and authority unceremoniously delegated the drug agency. You just can’t make this up. But for now, Minister Gomez’s temperamental disposition to so ignominiously and stridently defend the indefensible will come home to roost sooner rather than later. As the saying goes Yahya Jammeh “has no permanent friends, only permanent interests”, but by the time Minister Gomez realizes his disposability, it will be too late. And when the demons of Yahya Jammeh come back to haunt him, as they must, he would have ruined his goodwill among the suffering people of our country, a future collateral damage in the eventual downfall of Yahya Jammeh. There is no way around this eventuality. As the Gambia Bar Association, according to Freedom newspaper and confirmed by newspapers at home, finally takes a proactive position in defense of civil liberty, Gambia’s media stands firmly in support of their actions, and we call on the political establishment to publicly verbalize their support of the Bar Association’s efforts, loudly, clearly and without ambiguity. The Bar Association has taken a small but critical step that has great potentials to develop into further efforts at collective political liberation. And what comes to mind is Pakistan five years ago. We can do it.
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Comments
This person dirty abusive language tells a lot about his background. He must be a mentally instable loner with a computer given to him by his King.
He is very sick and need help.SO to reason with a mentally instable person is just a waste of time and make him more mentally ill.
I don't have the power to dictate to jollof news. All I asked is that the editor/s should not allow people to use their paper to libel others.
Labelling someone a sex monster because they expressed views that you don't agree with,is wrong & very dangerous.
For everyone's interest,lets debate the issues and avoid insults & personal attacks/name calling.Such only portray us in a very negative way.
More over,those who use this approach (insults/attacks)are doing so to hide their inferior intellect and their inability to engage in a mature & fruitful debate.Because they have nothing convincing to say,they engage in this type of distractions. Lets not fall for it.
To hide behind the anonimity of your key board and make allegations against others,knowing that they can't sue you because they don't know who you are,is an act of cowardice.
If you dont have the interlect to debate dont be ashame to say so. Your sick comedian
Comment
There’s the very sign of ‘things fall apart’ within the Murderer-sheikh-bandit’s Kanilai fortress. Though NO room for complacency; every sign indicated encouraging sign in our collective efforts to regain Gambia from the jaws of a Predatory-idol-worship-sheikh. Then we can complete the cleanse of our decent society infiltrated through our habitual sympathy of ‘social inclusion’ by human-like ‘maggots’, with fire-like souls, striving to devour our social fabrics for selfish-aggrandisements at ALL cost, regardless of consequences.....???
You can do better than that and sure observer will like to hear that too. or it just for people like you? Who is a joker or devious here?
"since the war"
Listening to Hugo Chavez...he also makes similar comparrisons but refers to the bombings carried out by the allies.
The question remains...what do true democracies do when faced with alternative political ideologies?
Especially the ones that use unequal military force to impose there will on the defenceless?
I really do not have any answers.... to this?
But what I can say...is that in my 61 years...of living under Britains modern democracy...I have had every chance to live in peace and have always been encouraged to pay my taxes,achieve my dreams....and have few regrets.
I would die to defend this.
Can I imagine what Gambian journalists would do without the protection of free nations?
No...I can't
The issues he raised are a concern to many a Gambian and the Gambia Bar Association is right to go on strike.
For Jollof news editor: You are doing a wonderful job but could you please ensure that allegations, as the one above, are not printed.
No one should be permitted to hide behind the anonimity of a discussion forum to make serious allegations,esp ecially of a sexual nature,against other people.
Thanks
DO YOU NEED HELP? OR YOU MISSED BUSHED LIFE EMBEDED IN YOUR GENES?
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