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PK’s Beef: At Jammeh’s mercy
Thursday, 05 August 2010 23:38
By PK Jarju, Worcestershire, UKWhenever I take a serious look at the Gambia, the more worried I get concerning the political situation of the country. The country is fast sinking and nothing is being done to save it. It is sinking not because the general population is unaware, but because they feel they cannot do anything to stop it.
The Gambia looks like a hijacked ship being flown to an unknown destination. For the past 15 years, a man who many Gambians don't want as their head of state is holding a gun to the captain's head and the passengers and the rest of the crew are all too terrified to say a word or stop him.
The principles that were supposed to make you and me safe in our own land of birth and protect us from such political madness have been badly tampered with to favour Yahya Jammeh. He is given full control of our land of birth and is empowered to do whatever he wants, anytime, anyhow and to anyone.
Mr Jammeh is applauded for anything he does or says whether good or bad. He is said to love our country so much so that anything he does or says is seen as in our best interest. He is seen as a messiah, puritan and reformer handpicked by Almighty God Himself to make the Gambia a prosperous country and a giant of the sub-region.
As a country of true believers, we believe in anything we are told by Yahya Jammeh even when he told us without any prove that he have discovered a cure for HIV/Aids. Despite him being the richest Gambian, we contributed millions of our hard earned taxes towards his HIV treatment programme.
Patriotism to Yahya Jammeh is defined by how much you love and support him. He comes first and the country second. You cannot claim to love the country without loving him. Be the most qualified Gambian but there is no job for you in any government department if you don't worship Mr Jammeh.
Yahya Jammeh is the heart of all government organs. Just as the earth rotates round the sun, everything in the Gambia centres on Jammeh and him alone. The executive dance to his tune and the National Assembly smoothens his path. Every bill he drafted is quickly enacted into law. The judiciary feared him and follows every order he barks.
Anything which is against Yahya Jammeh is seen as an enemy. An enemy that should be destroyed in the national interest. Criticisms are never welcome. Try telling Mr Jammeh how to govern the people and life will be made difficult for you. So difficult that you wish you were never born.
Outspoken journalists like Deyda Hydara get bullets put through their heads, their houses and printing machines set on fire, arrested, tortured and media houses closed down on bogus charges. Political opponents are always hunted down, arrested, tortured, jailed or buried six feet deep.
Gambians don't trust each other anymore. We cannot talk freely to each other without looking at our backs. Political discussions are out of the way. Talk about Yahya Jammeh and you risk spending months in a secret detention centre, where you will be tortured and subjected to all sort of inhumane treatment.
Once you are arrested, forget about getting a lawyer. Many of the top lawyers will simply say no to your request for representation as they don't want to upset Yahya Jammeh. Our legal practitioners according to the London based International Bar Association are "operating under challenging conditions due to the existence of ongoing incidents of harassment and intimidation, which have created a climate of fear in the profession.
We may claim that we have rights, but our rights and freedoms are defined by Mr Jammeh. He decides what rights and freedoms we should enjoy in the country.
Mr Jammeh and his government exhibits hostility and suspicion in their dealings with the legal profession which they perceive as an oppositional force thus creating an atmosphere of fear amongst lawyers.
Yahya Jammeh’s name is sacred. He got the longest name in the Gambia and is worshipped like Lord Voldermort in the Harry Potter series and disobedience is regarded as the worst crime.
In the Gambia today, an accused person is presumed guilty even before being tried in court. Get arrested by our security officers and you risk losing all your friends. You become stigmatised and people become even too scared to get close to you. No one will want to be seen together in public with you. Fall out with Yahya Jammeh and no company will dream of even employing you as a cleaner. You will be treated worst than somebody suffering from leprosy.
It may be easy to convince yourself that because you have good personal relations with senior people in the Gambian government you will be protected in some way if things go wrong. Maybe if you are a close family member of Yahya Jammeh. If you are an ordinary Gambian like me, then you are on your own.
Your highly placed friends will deny ever knowing you for they have their own lives, careers and families to protect.
The Gambia today is not a democratic country but a private estate of Mr Jammeh to do with as he pleases. We are all at his mercy.
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Comments
Is that all you can come up with! No, you people are not in the majority, infact Jammeh does not need any majority to stay in power. In case you just woke up from a 16 year deep sleep, he took power by force and has been forcibly imposing his rule on us for the past 16 years. Forget about Jawareh and co, they are history. Look forward to a Gambia that should be a peace heaven for the future generation, a democratic Gambia, free from mutiny and where there is real freedom. Oh yes! you do have freedom of choice, but let it be known that your choice is one that kills, tortures and has no respect for the rule of law.
U know africans, they like to say one thing n do another. I bet if we put Joe as pres. in Gambia, his first play card may be to have me arrested. We Africans are sweet talkers. The can do all, yet we have done nothing. The richest continent, yet we have nothing to show 4 it. The peaceful n smiling people, yet we have weapons littering every corner of Africa.
We are known 4 what we are n u know it Joe. The least developed, conflict ridden, unproductive, unforgiving. Let us own our problems n stop blaming others.
PA-PIERRE
That is why people prefer to be governed by leaders who respond in calm and dignified ways,not clowns who react like they got ants in their pants whenever someone says something that is not to their liking.
You think Jammeh could have handled the kind of pressure from the media that Bill Clinton faced at the height of his sex scandal? I bet cruise missiles would have rained down on their heads if it was our Professor!
You see, people can live with corrupt leaders to some extent but Jammeh,but it is hard to cope with a callous brute who has learnt to perfect brutality in combination with blatant corruption.And thanks to people like you there is no shortage of apologists to go around.Strong leaders who can crack a few heads? Come on old pappy, my generation do not want a return to the dark era of the Idi Amins and the Bokassas of post independent Africa!
I assume u are not a democrat! U acknowledge that Jammeh stayed in power 4 16years cus of people like me! It means we are in the majority. Shame on u if u challenge the wisdom of my choice cus in a democracy, that choice is paramount!
The real hypocrites are your kinds. U refused to acknowledge that Jawara never built any schools, Gov't property was a free loot 4 all. NTC n the Mbodges, Coops union n Sabally. U refused to acknowledge that Jawara closed down Awa magazine n also forced Touch paper to close. U also refused to accept that Kairaba depot was a gandame torture chamber under chongan. To u, all these bad things began with Jammeh. U are wrong. N it is a shame.
The ferocity of attacks on Jammeh is what is shaping his response. Jawara would have responded the same way if we had attacked him 4 closing Awa magazine.
You tell us, If you cannot see Jammeh's iron fist, What do you see? You asked us "if Jammeh is so evil, how could he hang on 4 16 years?" The simple answer is "it's because of people like YOU". It is a shame when grown men refuse to put their brain cells to use. You see red and yet you insist that you see white. The wickedness and hypocrisy of you jammeh followers is the real travisty in Gambia.
In 1987 student demonstration, students were not confronting the gamdame, they were fleeing away from them. In 2000, they were armed with rocks n other projectiles to harm the men in uniform.
My very own cousin/brother, set the first car ablaze at westfield. This was confirmed by another one of our stubborn kid from the block. He lost his schoolmate on that day. That mate was not even a student at the time, cus he had graduated already. We still call them students.
The uprising was violent n distructive. I don't know what anyone of u would have done if u are surrounded by grown men who want to disarm u and kill u. Not me. I don't go down that way! Students wanted to attack me in Basse on April 11th, cus i knew some of them n was attempting to calm them. I had to leave quickly. They were armed n i wasn't.
I think BAJAW has said it all.....
Besides,there something called disproportionat e use of force.All it takes to disperse rowdy and unruly school kids is teargas and maybe baton charges,not assault rifles capable of cutting a human being in half.
I bet if you ever came home and found your teenage son had burnt down you multi-million dollar mansion,blastin g his head off with a shotgun would never even cross your mind,no matter how deliberate his action might have been.
Pierre, I don’t believe your above statement;s accurate. I just disembarked from a public transport from Banjul on April 10, 2000 at Kanifing somewhere by GTTI & heard gun fires from about Julbrew end towards KMC grounds & saw some of the dead students’ bodies being thrown about in police vehicles like carcasses of meat as I draw nearer with a colleague. Truth’s, NO amount of materials/properties destroyed worth ANY of those lives destroyed/maimed. As far as I knew, NOBODY was ever arrested before the demonstration for the grievances of the students which was a policy by the bandits in power especially if it has something to do with yaya’s thugs in uniforms/civil clothes. Students demonstrated in the last regime before & destroyed properties but were never gunned down like in April 2000; never in history of Gambia. Sarjo Jallow, yaya’s emissary by then, acknowledged on GRTS what we all knew, that “it wasn’t illegal for student to demonstrate”.
...cont...
Don't go there, u know where i stand! My stand has always been, if u choose to solve ur problems with rocks, sticks, batons, stones, machetes, etc, i will elect that the same or greater force be applied to subdue u.
The rational behind April 2000 was very suspect. It was to demand justice 4 the alledged killer n rapist of students. Well the alledged killers were in custody at the time. So justice was moving at a great paste at the time.
However, disgruntled people used this as an opportunity to bring chaos. My own very cusin, set the first car ablaze at Westfield apparently 4 fun, cus he did not even know what the strike was 4. All he knows was that he was thrill to set the first car of fire. U know i don't have a warm heart 4 those kind of people!
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