Dear Ebrima,
Just wish to let you know that you have adequately expressed the sentiments
and aspirations of all progressive, peace-loving and truly patriotic
Gambians, both at home and abroad.
May Allah bless us all and our Dear Homeland and BANISH the APRC from their
ill-fated stewardship of this beloved nation, that they are bent on
wrecking. AMEN.


BMK


>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: My 30th Message To All Gambians!
>Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 20:08:14 +0000
>
>My Fellow Gambians!
>
>
>In today’s message, I shall attempt to paint the bleak picture of The
>Gambia
>in the coming years should you, the electorate, fail to vote Yahya Jammeh
>out of office.
>
>Therefore, it is vital that the right choice is made on October 18th,
>otherwise we shall be haunted for a long, long time to come.
>
>For the past seven years of Jammeh’s misrule, we have all seen at first
>hand
>what this terrible man is capable of.  He has virtually destroyed all
>aspects of Gambian life:  he has led a regime which is synonymous with
>repression, incompetence, brutality, nepotism, abuse of office, abuse of
>power and gross corruption.
>
>Just the other day, I undertook some independent research into how much
>money Jammeh has taken in national loans since 1994.  To my horror and
>amazement, my findings indicated that in excess of 420 million US Dollars
>has been taken out in foreign loans. The government will obviously try to
>deflate this massive figure since it would  seriously embarrass them were
>the truth to be told.
>
>However, using my sources and contacts in the International Monetary Fund,
>the World Bank and other international financial institutions, it was
>concluded that this figure of 420 million US Dollars is accurate.
>
>It is therefore no understatement to say that whoever replaces Jammeh will
>have a difficult task ahead:  these criminals have drained our resources
>and
>burdened us with this massive debt.
>
>Even three generations from now, the debts will still not have been repaid.
>The interest we are having to pay on these loans is a crippling amount for
>a
>small country like The Gambia.
>
>Consequently, we have a duty to ourselves, to our consciences, but more so
>to our children and posterity in general, to try and make things better for
>them, so that tomorrow they might judge us in a more kindly way.
>
>Our country is at a crossroads and we have to do everything within our
>means
>to make The Gambia a better place for all of us to live in.
>
>The problems we face are immense:  the causes of the problems are
>multifaceted.  But let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the prime
>cause of all our current troubles is Yahya Jammeh himself and all that he
>represents.
>
>Therefore the  first and major step towards beginning to solve our
>problems,
>is to unseat Jammeh from the presidency on Thursday.
>
>Over these seven years, we have witnessed how Jammeh has misruled our
>country, how he has paralysed the economy, how he has crippled businesses,
>how he has destroyed the civil service, how he has swindled public funds,
>how he has illegally detained innocent people, how he has sacked people
>unjustifiably, how he has quite openly dished out public funds to his
>cronies, how he has boasted about his personal wealth to the extent that he
>said that even his great-grandchildren would never have to suffer.
>
>As a result of all this injustice and corruption, most of us, apart from
>his
>clique of gangster colleagues, have been lamenting the situation in The
>Gambia.  We have feared for our country, we have cried for our country, we
>have been disheartened because of the manner in which it is being run.  We
>have been talking about how The Gambia is being mismanaged and
>maladministered by Jammeh.   We have lamented how incompetence is now the
>norm in central government.
>
>We have complained about how our meagre resources are being squandered or
>stashed away by Jammeh and his gang for their own personal use and
>aggrandisement.  We have been saddened by the knowledge that our citizens
>have had all their hopes lost because of this barbaric regime.
>
>We have talked about how Jammeh has destroyed the human resources of our
>country.  If you go to South America, to the USA, to Canada, to Asia, to
>Scandinavia, to Northern Europe, to the UK, you will find there talented
>Gambians – men and women – who have so much to offer their own country and
>their own people, but yet the political situation at home prevents or
>deters
>them from returning:  their talents are ignored by the ignoramus Jammeh, as
>are the talents of people in The Gambia who are being forced into exile
>because of daily repression, daily injustice, daily corruption at the heart
>of government.
>
>Today, thousands of talented Gambians have found themselves contributing
>substantially to the political and economic lives of  other countries, when
>if things were right, their contributions would have been directly to and
>in
>The Gambia.  Charity, they say, begins at home, but the reality is that the
>climate at home does not only prevent the recall of talent, it also expels
>and exiles talents.
>
>We no longer need reminding of what Jammeh represents for us and our
>country:  the facts are in the open and for all to see.  Any Gambian in his
>or her right senses needs no convincing that Jammeh is a liar, a thief, is
>corrupt to the core, has killed innocent school children, is despotic, is
>incompetent and is a laughing stock throughout the world.
>
>Having seen the hardship, the impoverishment of our people, the injustices
>perpetrated on our people by Jammeh, we have all been looking forward to
>the
>elections to give us an opportunity to right the wrongs in our nation and
>to
>uproot Jammeh once and for all.  We have all been looking forward to
>election day, when we shall close the Jammeh chapter and open a new one.
>
>During the past five years, after the 1996 elections, we have been longing
>for the next presidential elections in order to unseat the tyrant. Because
>of our conscience, but more so because of our love for justice and the
>truth, we have all been looking forward to the 2001 elections so that we
>can
>teach Jammeh a lesson he will never forget in his life.
>
>If you take the year 1997, the repression in evidence then (and continuing
>to the present day) was too much.  The levels of  poverty intensified, the
>arbitrary dismissal of people from their jobs increased, business went into
>the doldrums throughout the nation. We started then and there to look
>forward to the elections, but realised how far they were from 1997.
>
>Well – in my part of the world, they say that "time flies", and indeed,
>time
>has flown.  At long last, the elections are days and not years, months or
>weeks away.
>
>It has been difficult, all these years;  it has been tough for Gambians
>everywhere. Words cannot begin to describe how awful these last five years
>have been for all except a few of us. Every sphere of Gambian life has seen
>the hardship – teachers, nurses, doctors, taxi drivers, shop keepers,
>market
>vendors, journalists, members of the judiciary, farmers and housewives.
>All
>of us have suffered.
>
>Well, anything that has a beginning must also come to an end:  the
>opportunity has now come for us to get rid of Jammeh.  He has abused us,
>disrespected us, cheated us, lied to us. Now it is our time and turn to
>take
>our destiny into our own hands.  This is the chance we have to turn to our
>best advantage.
>
>Let us now think about the unthinkable:  let us imagine what will happen to
>The Gambia and its citizens if you, the electorate, fail to vote him out of
>office.
>
>If you the electorate do not take this election seriously, if you do not
>take your vote seriously, if you do not make the right choice, if you do
>not
>make the right decision, then more hard times will be ahead of us all, and
>we shall all soon live to regret it.
>
>If we fail to get rid of Jammeh in the polls, then in the first instance,
>Jammeh and his cronies will have been given carte blanche to act without
>regard to the people of The Gambia.  They will have more and better food to
>eat than the rest of the country, they will live in better houses and
>palaces, they will travel even more extensively in first class, they will
>have treatment for themselves and their families in the best Western
>hospitals and clinics.
>
>We, the Gambian majority, will struggle to pay our daily travel expenses at
>home, we will fight to afford enough food to eat, we will see our levels of
>accommodation deteriorate, we will remain impoverished, destitute and
>without access to decent levels of medical care, education and social
>welfare.
>
>The impact on our children of Jammeh hanging onto power will be huge.  Poor
>diet in the early years, restricted access to lower and upper basic levels
>of education, poor health care and lack of medicines and vitamins, early
>death.  This will be our children’s legacy if we allow Jammeh to remain in
>office.  And be sure that the rich cats, the fat cats (as we say here in
>the
>UK) the Jammeh sycophants in our land will get richer and fatter at our
>children’s expense.
>
>If you think we have seen enough of Jammeh’s corruption, tyranny and
>brutality, his heavy-handedness, then you are totally mistaken.  These past
>seven years, as tough and as hard as they have been, are just the tip of
>the
>iceberg.
>
>Those of us who know Jammeh and have observed him closely for some time,
>are
>convinced that Jammeh is capable of more treachery, more dishonesty, more
>brutality and more corruption than he has shown to date, or than you would
>believe possible.
>
>You see, Jammeh’s psyche is deranged:  he truly believes that Gambians
>should thank him for ruling us! His megalomania knows no bounds.  Instead
>of
>him being our "elected" public servant and  with us as his masters, he has
>subjugated us to an extent never before witnessed in our country’s history.
>He puts himself forward as our undisputed and omnipotent King. For Jammeh,
>the Gambia and its people are his personal property to dispose of as and
>when he wishes.
>
>Jammeh is deranged, mentally unstable and does not deserve to look after a
>herd of cattle or a flock of goats, let alone a nation of decent citizens !
>
>My Fellow Gambians! Jammeh has already hinted at what his intentions are
>were he to be re-elected.  He wants a clause inserted into the Constitution
>which would give him the power to appoint Chiefs and Alkalolus:  he wants
>another clause in the Constitution which would increase the term of the
>presidency from five to seven years.  He wants to dissolve the IEC. He
>wants
>to give additional powers of arrest and detention to the NIA and to the
>Army.
>
>I know that some of the clauses in the Constitution which he wishes to
>change are entrenched:  that is, they can only be changed by a national
>referendum.  But we all know that Jammeh has no regard at all for the rule
>of law.  He will do as he pleases and when he pleases.
>
>Consider the plight of those innocent Gambians who are still  held without
>charge and without regard to the due process of the law:  people like Dumo
>Sarho, Ebrima Barrow, Lt. Lalo Jaiteh, Lt. Omar Darboe, Momodou Mareneh and
>many, many more.  They will continue to languish in detention, and be sure
>that they will be joined by many others if Jammeh hangs onto power.
>
>Jammeh has publicly claimed that he wants absolute powers to appoint senior
>public servants directly, rather than through the Public Services
>Commission. Jammeh wants all appointments to be centralised in the Office
>of
>the President, and already in practice he has accomplished this, to the
>extent that the PSC is a body in name only.
>
>My Fellow Gambians!
>
>The opportunity is here.  The election is four days away.  Let us close the
>Jammeh chapter. Let us put an end to this dark page in our history.  Let us
>know that Jammeh has failed us miserably.  Let us know that he does not
>have
>what it takes to lead our country forwards.
>
>Jammeh is interested in his personal well being:  he is interested in the
>welfare of his immediate family and his cronies. He does not, and never has
>had, The Gambia at heart.  This is a man who boasts about our Gambian
>health
>sector, and yet sends his wife abroad to deliver her baby in the USA:  this
>is a man who banned skin bleaching in The Gambia and castigated young
>Gambians for marrying Westerners, and yet he himself has married a
>light-skinned Moroccan having dumped his first Gambian wife.
>
>Jammeh now travels extensively in "his" private jet, paid for by the public
>purse.  During one of his recent trips, he went with more than fifty two
>people all of whom were paid Imprest and Per Diem allowances by the tax
>payer !  They are all accommodated in the best and most luxurious hotels.
>
>Jammeh boasts about paying for his relatives in Universities in America and
>in England, and he is buying more and more international properties for
>himself (at the last count, 1 in Egypt, 2 in Morocco, 1 in Libya and 1 in
>the United Arab Emirates).
>
>He has personal bank accounts internationally, and recently it was
>disclosed
>that he has opened a further account in Abu Dhabi in the UAE, which is
>believed to hold 17 million US Dollars !  All this is for one man !!
>
>Really, the truth is that Jammeh is a thief, a liar, a scoundrel, a
>murderer, a buffoon and a laughing stock.  He is an enemy of our country,
>which he has brought to its knees in his seven years in power.
>
>Only you, the Gambian electorate, have the power to see the back of this
>man, peacefully and through the polling stations.
>
>I urge you not to let Yahya Jammeh stay in power for one second more after
>October 18th. It is your duty to save our nation from this evil man and his
>gang.
>
>Go in your thousands and VOTE HIM OUT OF OFFICE.
>
>God help The Gambia.  God save us all.
>
>
>Ebrima Ceesay,
>Birmingham, UK
>
>
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