Ebrima,

You are no match to the piffling and rambling of our Canterbury educated
'Kebba Jobe'.  The issues he ventured to articulate made me to nearly fall
asleep on my keyboard.  I couldn't find any relation to what you charged
Yahya on your excellent submissions with his badly argued posting.  Jobe is
yet again trying to rest blame on those who killed our children somewhere
else.

Jobe is yet again rattling that it is not enough to blame Yahya even if he
had given the others.  Since Jobe once compared himself with giants like
Mandela, i want to know who is to blame for the crimes of apartheid in South
Africa. Is it the small fry who carried out the orders of their superiors or
the big guns who pulled the strings from behind the scene?

It is just lamentable when you see a relatively informed person attempting
to absolve Yahya's crimes. They always find themselves waffling without any
coherence.

Jobe, please get real.  We can differentiate developmental issues and all
that.  Maybe people Jobe see nothing wrong with the millions who died during
Hitlers rule when compared with how he made Germany a powerful nation both
economically and otherwise within a short period of him stealing power in
1933.

Anyway Ebrima keep it coming.

Regards,

Mboge

P.S Indeed Jabez Ayo Langley is an intellectual giant.  His book which  was
developed from his PH.D thesis which he defended here at SOAS in 1973 is a
standard text on African nationalism and Pan-Africanism.  One of my
Professors here at SOAS talks big about him.
>From: Kebba Jobe <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Yahya Jammeh is indeed a LIAR!
>Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 14:03:02 -0000
>
>
>Ebrima,
>
>Initially I wanted to wait until you finish documenting Yahya's lies and
>move on to Yahya, the president and his government before engaging you on
>matters of more relevance than his person. Unfortunately it is virtually
>impossible to extricate the person's individuality (I mean Yahya as a
>person) from the government. However much it will be difficult to the
>extricate the two or the two from the government. My stance is to give the
>"other side of the story" whenever I feel that your account of events is
>not
>factual.
>
>Please allow me to, first of all, ask whether you still believe that I am
>Sarjo Jallow, S.O.S. Strictly speaking it will not affect our debate one
>way
>or the other. It is just that I want you to focus more on the issues that
>we
>shall be discussing rather than thinking that you are dealing with Sarjo
>Jallow, who betrayed his comrades etc., etc. Secondly, I wish to re-iterate
>that all views that I express on this forum are mine and mine alone.
>Thirdly, it is very important for all and sundry to realise that I am not
>speaking for Yahya or the APRC.
>
>You wrote:
>
>"Gambians should be interested in politics: it is a vital part of all our
>lives, and is what governs us. Gambians really do have to seriously attend
>to what politicians say and do, since they are the ones assigned by us to
>run our affairs and look after our best interests. We should be monitoring
>our politicians to discover those who are competent and sincere, and those
>who leave a lot to be desired.
>The situation in The Gambia is critical, and Gambians themselves have to
>take the bull by the horns and aim for change for the better in our small
>country. We should not allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by those
>politicians
>who are only keen to line their own pockets".
>
>This is exactly the reason why we should engage each other possitively and
>with decorum. Your analysis of Yahya Jammeh so far cannot and will not be
>refuted by me, as most of what you've said I have also heard. For the rest
>you have provided references which I can check if the need arises. However
>that is not the case yet.
>
>Now, if you cast your mind back to yesterday, someone, I guess it was Saul,
>who informed us about the government's intension to ammend the imdemnity
>clause, that will prevent the prosecution of anyone implicated in the April
>10 & 11 killings of last year. The ammendment will also allow the president
>to imdemnify any individual or groups of individuals for any acts or
>ommissions during riot situations or croud control, that may result in the
>demise of any person or persons. I haven't read the full text but I'm just
>trying to recall, from memory, what I heard on the radio by one of the
>local
>language GRTS announcers. On the face of it, it may seem to be preventing
>the future prosecution of any of those who may have been found to be
>responsible of the deaths of those innocent kids. But if such a VERY VERY
>BAD piece of legislation is passed, do we need any court? Do we need that
>clause in the constitution that allow the president to exercise a
>preorogative of mercy? Now take a guess; who do you think formulated this
>piece of legislation? Is it Yahya Jammeh alone or the entire cabinet, which
>incidentally include mothers of very high education and national standing?
>Cabinet having reviewe it has now presented it to the national assembly for
>ratification and possible enactment. I hope it is thrown out. But and a big
>but for that matter, if it is not thrown out, most probably it will pass on
>a partisan basis. Such is the calibre of people that we choose as our
>representatives in this august body.
>
>My contention is that the government is not Yahya Jammeh alone. If you
>recall the trial and execution of Ken Sara Wiwa, you will realise that Ken
>sara Wiwa was tried and executed under a law that would have found him
>guilty and sentence him to nothing other than to hang, even in the UK,
>Sweden or the US. This decree, under which he was tried and executed, was
>passed during Yakubu Gowan's rule over Nigeria during the Biafara war.
>Successive governments, civilian and military alike, simply pretended it
>did
>not exist. Each of those subsequent governments wouldn't have hasitated to
>use it against any opponent who threatened them.
>
>Back to The Gambia.
>
>The 1997 constitution is very clear about the role of our national assembly
>members and how cabinet will be appointed. In this constitution it states
>very clearly that no cabinet minister will be appointed from the national
>assembly. The rationale was to discourage the cross-carpet phenomena that
>was so rampant during the Jawara era and was extensively used to break up
>any effective opposition political party. Good idea wont'you agree?
>Unfortunately, our present national assembly members don't know or value
>their independence from the executive. The same constitution guarantees
>them
>their salaries, immunity from all forms of arrest or harassment that mere
>mortals like us can be subjected to. But do our national assembly members
>know this or are their minds really independent? As far as I am concerned,
>the 3 NAMs that I really respect are Churchil Falaye Baldeh, Hamat Bah and
>Kemeseng Jammeh. Very odd stance for a Jammehist, isn't it? This my opinion
>of our NAMs and what I find even more baffling is the fact that most of
>them
>have been secondary school.
>
>The tragic events of April 2000.
>
>Do you know that those people who were shooting life bullets at the unarmed
>student demonstators were 100% Gambians? They are people born and bred in
>Banjul, Kaur, Brikama, Serekunda, Fass, kuntair etc, etc. They attended the
>Gambia high schools, armitage high schools, Bansang secondary schools,
>Sibanor secondary technical schools, etc, etc. We attend the same funerals,
>naming ceremonies, drink ataya together and marry between our families. Now
>would you still hold Yahya and Yahya alone responsible of this dastardly
>act? Who, in his right mind, will aim life bullets at a croud of
>demonstrating students who may include a a very relation considering our
>extended family setup? I hereby submit that the brutality of some members
>of
>our security forces is inherent in them and has nothing to do with Yahya
>giving the order. Those of you who recall the 1981 attempted coupe
>syppressed by the Senegalese will recall the brutality of our the field
>force. he metted more havoc on their own people than the Senegalese ever
>did. Those of us who had relations incaserated, especially those who were
>detained in the Depot hangers, vividly remember the brutality of the likes
>of the late Tex Khan.
>
>The tragic stampede of two weeks ago in which 5 students were trampled to
>death is another case in point. Interschool sports like I can recall, used
>to be an event of immense pleasure for all and sundry. For those who went
>to
>Armitage school, it allowed us to come to Banjul and also to be close to
>our
>girls, which was very difficult in those days. Unfortunately, these
>students
>went to this event armed with knives, matchetes, tear gas and mosquito
>sprays. Who is to blame?
>
>My contention is that Yahya Jammeh is not the alpha and omega of the ills
>in
>our country. Our actions now and before helped create this ungodly
>situation
>in our country and we are all to blame. We need to instill discipline,
>decorum and tolerance in our society. The way some of us have been engaging
>each other even on this forum leaves a lot to be desired. Imagine the UDP
>leader saying, at a rally in Sukuta recently that Yahya is saying he is a
>drunkard when he, Yahya, knows that jolas were the worst drunkards. He
>again
>urged the Mandinkas to unite as Yahya has successfully united his jola
>folks
>and is placing his own kindred in all strategic possitions in government.
>Diabolical, if you ask me.
>
>I would end this contribution by quoting T. S Eliot, who wrote in Burn't
>Norton :I "Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time
>future, and time future contained in time past. And if all time is
>eternally
>present all time is unredeemable".
>
>Have a good day and bye 4Now, KB Jobe.
>
>_________________________________________________________________________
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