Mr. Kah:

I want to thank you on your sincere message on Mrs. Awa Sabally.  It shows
her bravery and determination in interpreting legal doctrines at a time
when needed most.

Naphiyo,
ML Jassey-Conteh

-----Original Message-----
From: malik kah <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Apr 25, 2004 2:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Awa Sabally the Iron Lady

The adage that history creates it's own heroes and heroines is self evident
in the increaseing political posturing assumed by Awa Sabally.

Regard it as personal or not, Awa Sabally should be commended for having the
audacity to stand up and make commentry on the most important judicial
issues that affects the Gambian people. The autocratic modus operandi of the
judicial sysytem is not beyond reproach as a many assume, a failing judicial
sysstem is the clearest indication of a break down of democratic governance
and recently we are wittnessing the erosion of the Gambian judicial sysytem
and many people are losing faith in it. A fair judicial sysytem is a basic
prerequisite to the evoultion or enhancement of democratic values. People
must be ale to rely on the impartiality of the judicial system so as to use
it to reress fundamental violations of enshrined rights. But if such an
institution is seen not impartial and people cannot trust it's delivery then
one of the most important institutions that ensures stability and continuity
will falter. What we have seen happening recently in Gambia is many cases of
ultra vires where authorities exceed their constitutional mandate to impose
on the people illegal demands that have no legal basis.  The manifestation
of this could be catalogued as if one were writing an epitaph epitaph. To
avoid a situation whereby whatever the authorities want the authorities get,
Gambia must evolve it's own law reports or a special constitutional court
that would be able to adjudicate complex constitutional disagreements, being
a young democracy with a new constitution if such a body of law enforcement
is not evolved a lot of important constitutional matters will not be
resolved hence the arguements and counter arguements regarding the lawyers
and the Attorney General, it is incumbent on the legislature to come up with
such a proposal, because many of the legal rancours are centred around
interpretaion of the constitutional provisions and this have allowed some
high powered people to use this weakness in the system to the detriment of
the people. Recent announcements to deatin journalist and Jammeh's Nawetaan
band as well as the set-setal  semi state of emmegency directives are clear
cases of issues of national concern that have not been properly dealt with.

The fact issues of constitutional provisions are now being oppenly contested
by and between the citizens and the Attorney warrants a universal discourse,
after all the constitutions embodies and defines how we co-exisit between
each other as well as with state institutions hence unless a body of legal
authority legal authority is accumulated there will always be some form of
legal semantics that the lay man may not understand and that will not
assisted legal practitioners to resolve fundamental disagreements.

I  hope llegally minded people will assiated to create a law center that
will assist in creating data base of legal arguements that will serve as the
point of refrence for our learnded colleaguesr. Citations without relivance
will just complicate legal matters.

_________________________________________________________________
It's fast, it's easy and it's free. Get MSN Messenger today!
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~