HI Ebrima,
Your review of the editorial of the Independent Newspaper is very clear and
correct. All the points stated in your piece are recorded in the turbulent
history of our beloveth country. I don't understand why the Independent
wrote such an editorial which looks like it is praising the Jammeh regime.
Is it because of the recent encounter its editors had with the brutes? Maybe
your source can provide us with some information.
Keep up the beefs! Be steadfast. I've been impressed with your work since
the Babu Ceesay affair. What happen to the libel case(and the D5 million
damages he was dreaming of getting from the case).
Greetings
Mboge
>From: Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: A rejoinder to the Independent editorial!
>Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 21:58:42 GMT
>
>Gambia-L:
>
>I read the Independent Newspaper's editorial on the Internet this
>afternoon,
>entitled "Time for a Re-think", and in all honesty, I was disappointed by
>it, to say the least. The writer of the editorial clearly sat on the fence,
>and after reading the editorial twice, it was still not clear to me whether
>or not Yahya Jammeh and his regime were good for the Gambia, in the view of
>the Independent editorial writer.
>
>The editorial writer cannot have it both ways: he/she either has to support
>and approve or condemn and disapprove. You cannot praise at one moment, and
>in the next, vilify. Editorials, I was taught, should not be ambiguous:
>they
>should be clear, direct, frank, honest and unambiguous. They are either
>against or in favour.
>
>The editorial is the view/opinion of the newspaper on a particular issue,
>and in it, the paper describes exactly how that particular issue affects
>the
>reader, and why it is important. Good editorials seek to explain/clarify or
>comment on complex issues by not only providing the facts, but interpreting
>them as well, so that people can make the right choices.
>
>It is very important that editorial writers have the courage and conviction
>to take a standpoint that might not be popular with those in power, but
>which is in the public interest. It seems to me that this particular
>Independent editorial writer was seeking to serve both the Government and
>the main stream of public opinion, which at the moment is clearly
>anti-Government.
>
>For the sake of a healthy debate, I want to take issue with the Independent
>editorial, and point out some differences of opinion and facts to the
>Gambia-L readers (and hopefully a wider audience, especially in The Gambia)
>so that the record can be set straight.
>
>Firstly, the AFPRC was never "put in place" in July 1994 as indicated by
>the
>editorial: Putting in place implies that other people were proactive in
>their rise to power. Rather, the regime itself seized power at the point of
>guns: no one put them there except themselves; they were never elected to
>take power. There was a military takeover - that is the plain simple fact
>of
>the matter.
>
>Secondly, it is a farce to say that the APRC set up "a purely civilian
>government" after the elections. The truth is that many of these people are
>just soldiers with increasing numbers of guns and other weapons at their
>disposal: the only difference between now and September 1996, really, is
>that they do not wear uniforms. They still lead and manipulate the military
>force in our country. They think in a military fashion; act in a military
>fashion and rule in a military fashion.
>
>The fact is that they are still running the country with the same, or even
>more, heavy-handedness than before and, of course, with no regard to the
>letter and spirit of the Constitution. Do we need to remind ourselves about
>the fact that Decrees 45, 57, 70, 71 & 89 are still in place even though
>these Decrees are clearly inconsistent with the new Constitution?
>
>Even as I write this rejoinder, the International Community and Amnesty
>International are calling on the Jammeh regime to repeal these draconian
>Decrees since they contravene the provisions of the New Constitution.
>However, the regime, being a repressive government, shows no intention of
>changing the status quo.
>
>Thirdly, there is some doubt that "the APRC government has registered
>tremendous successes, particularly when it comes to infrastructural
>development" as the Independent editorial is insinuating. This is a highly
>controversial statement. Today, we see new school buildings without
>teachers
>to staff them or equipment to put in them: we see increasing numbers of
>parents who are unable to send their children (particularly girls) to
>school
>because they live below the poverty line.
>
>We see teachers who are struggling to receive their monthly salaries and
>who
>are toiling under tremendous pressure, without the resources necessary to
>do
>their jobs properly. We see classes of more than 60 children, often taught
>in two shifts, and we hear of terrible shortages of qualified teachers at
>Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels. The recruitment of high calibre
>students to the teaching profession is becoming more and more difficult.
>
>Fourthly, we see new health centres, which are not fully open or
>functioning. We see new and old health centres that do not have the
>staffing, equipment or indeed drugs to offer any sort of help to The
>Gambian
>people: we see health centres facing this year's rains with inadequate
>supplies of antimalarials: we see pregnant women who are suffering from
>anaemia because of poor diet, who cannot afford to buy vitamin B12 or Folic
>Acid (even if it were available to them).
>
>We see people who cannot even receive a paracetamol or aspirin tablet to
>alleviate pain or fever: we see infections which run riot because people
>cannot afford the antibiotics or they are unavailable. We see so many of
>our
>people who cannot afford the fees charged by the health centres even to
>attend an out-patients clinic.
>
>Fifthly, what about the state of the South Bank main road - the artery of
>our nation? From Farefenni to Soma, I am told, the road surface is
>non-existent: on other sections of the road, there are more potholes than
>shell surface: where tarmac has been laid, the work has been so poorly
>undertaken that the repairmen need not have bothered. On the North bank, I
>am further informed, the road situation is even more dire. Buses may not
>travel from Lamin Koto to Farafenni during the rains (and indeed for most
>of
>the rest of the year). Where is the infrastructural development here?
>
>Sixthly, what about the supply of electricity? It is erratic, irregular
>and
>the fluctuations in current are damaging expensive equipment. Even Jammeh
>himself has said that the situation vis-a-vis electrical supply is
>unbearable, and that he was looking forward to the day that things would
>improve. How many homes are still without a supply of electricity, even in
>the Kombos? If you are lucky enough to have 8 hours supply a day in certain
>areas, you thank your lucky stars.
>
>Seventhly, what about our Judiciary? Where is our impartial, independent
>and reliable system of justice available to all people? Judges and
>magistrates make decisions against the government, and immediately their
>contracts of service are terminated. How many Attorney Generals have we
>seen in the last six years? The courts make orders against the state, and
>the state does not comply: a case in point is that of Baboucarr Gaye, the
>proprietor of Citizen FM Radio Station. Last week, a High Court Judge ruled
>that his Radio Station seized illegally by the government over two years
>ago, must be returned to him within seven days. The seven days have since
>elapsed and, as I write this piece, the government has deliberately refused
>to hand back the keys to Mr Gaye. In fact, Jammeh even enquired from his
>Attorney General about the possibility of sacking the Judge in question.
>
>Eighthly, the Independent editorial did not bother to mention the missing
>persons, the deported individuals, or the massacred students of the awful
>April 10/11th days. Every day, people are fleeing the country, in fear of
>their lives or in fear of injustices, which may be done to them and their
>families. People are being kidnapped, people are missing, people are being
>tortured by puppets of the State: this is the new pattern of The Gambia of
>today.
>
>Ninthly, the inflation rate is steadily rising: in February 2000, the
>exchange rate was 19.6 Dalasis to the pound sterling: now it is almost 22
>Dalasis. The unemployment rate is rising rapidly, and more and more people
>are having to resort to begging in order to keep their families fed and
>sheltered. Of late, because of the inflation and the incompetence of the
>government, certain simple basic commodities are now unavailable in the
>country.
>
>Meanwhile, the government continues to take out loans with huge interest on
>the repayment mode of the loans, and yet we are not being told anything at
>all about these, even though the government claimed transparency and
>accountability when it came to power. With the introduction of the BIVAC
>scheme, the Gambian economy is in the doldrums; scandal follows scandal and
>Yahya himself is implicated in all them.
>
>Tenthly, the government media, including GRTS, leaves a lot to be desired:
>they are incompetent, unprofessional, unproductive and useless: the quality
>of programmes is poor to say the least, and the political skew to the
>government is heavy. Simply put: the government press is an appendage of
>the
>executive and it only serves one purpose and that is to sing praises to
>Yahya Jammeh. Stories which have been fabricated are published regularly in
>order to boost Jammeh's massive ego!
>
>In my view, good infrastructural development is necessary to ensure a
>healthy future for The Gambia, but what is happening in our country at the
>moment, should not be described as infrastructural development: rather, it
>is a series of projects which are used to gloss over reality.
>
>We are being conned. And in as much as we want infrastructural development,
>we also want freedom, justice, dignity and respect: some of us would even
>argue that these fundamental key issues are more important than anything
>else.
>
>Ebrima Ceesay
>Birmingham, UK.
>
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