APRC's Decline Imminent Waa Juwara Posits

The Independent (Banjul)
NEWS
February 9, 2004
Posted to the web February 10, 2004

By Abdul-Wahab Hydara
Banjul

In an assertion that flies in the face of members of the ruling party, keen
to preserve their image as a political organisation, Lamin Waa Juwara has
posited that the APRC was on a predictable and imminent course of
disintegration and decline.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent the leader of the National
Democratic Action Movement (NDAM) said anybody with a grasp of the
country's political situation cannot avoid concluding that members of the
ruling APRC party were tearing themselves apart and that it was just a
matter of time before the inevitable happened. "They are disgracing
themselves and people are watching them laughing. They have indicted
themselves by this exercise and Gambians now know what we have been saying
about these people are all true" he emphasised.

He said far from bolstering the image of the APRC, Juwara argued that
Operation No Compromise has confirmed what he and others have always known
about the endemic corruption and lack of conviction of the country's
leadership towards national development.

According to Juwara, the president knew for a long time that the level of
corruption was so endemic that no institution was left untouched by the
practice, which he (Jammeh) did not make brave, conscientious efforts to
stamp out but allowed to continue unabated.

"Amazingly, the Central Bank is now the focus of corruption. If we probe
deeper into the matter, I tell you, nobody in the APRC would be left
untainted. The entire upper echelon of the administration is corrupt and we
have been saying this over and over again. Now the chicken is bringing
itself home to roost. The APRC has not been popular due to strangulating
economic realities and it is even more unpopular now that it is bringing
its own linen in public for all to see" he charged.

"Looking at the scenario when the military staged a coup in July 22 1994,
they set up a Kangaroo Commission of Enquiry. But it turned out that they
maliciously did so in order to gain political relevance in a country where
militocracy had no appeal. Juwara believes that if President Jammeh and his
APRC administration were pursuing Operation No Compromise in order to gain
political support to arrest their dwindling grassroots base they would be
disappointed "because Gambians now know who the real enemies of the people
are"

"The population is so disenchanted with this regime that the APRC is now
forced by the circumstances, which it does not find fanciful to make
scapegoats out of their own people. Theirs is a revolution that has failed
totally. They need scapegoats so that Jammeh can survive. Under these
circumstances, I don't think they will ever be successful" the NDAM leader
outlined.

He said after years gauging the feelings of Gambians, he can now
confidently conclude that the people are quite aware that all the problems
they are facing be they economic or political are due to the bad management
style of the ruling party.

"They are aware that the economic decline, the hardship everything are
attributable to this regime and even Jammeh knows that he must be seen to
be acting if he want to stay in office. But the use of scapegoats is wrong.
The whole problem is with the leadership of which Jammeh is the head"
Juwara argued.

Juwara believes that the creation of an anti-corruption commission that
would probe government officials including President Jammeh should be set
up.

"Otherwise Jammeh would be seen as going back to his words. President
Jammeh should first go before such commission to declare his assets. There
is no way corrupt practices should have been tolerated by the APRC regime"
he added.


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