Ansuma,

You wrote:

"You are the worst DEBATE DODGER I have ever come across in my entire life
time. Instead of answering simple questions, you decided to HOVER the EDGES
of the INTELLECTUAL DISCOURSE, period. Please, we want you to VACUUM deeper
into the fabric of the DEBATE. There is no doubt that you have long been
metamorphosed, and that is a vivid demonstration of your INTELLECTUAL
DISHONESTY and PROSTITUTION(excuse my language). Ebrima's questions are
simple and straight forward. Instead of answering the questions, you are
fetching ways and means of alluding them".

What in God's name are you yapping on about? What simple questions did
Ebrima ask, expecting answers from me? Ebrima catlogued "lies" told by
Jammeh and went on to debunk Jammeh' claim of good governance,
accountability, transparency and probity using "David Betham's criteria for
genuine democracy". The only question that Ebrima asked was "wherein lies
probity here?". This question was more of a qualifier for his assertions
that jammeh does not practice what he preaches rather than a question
requiring an answer. Even if he required an answer, that answer could be
found in the fourth paragraph of my reaction to his post when I wrote "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". Is it a case of just yapping
for yapping sake or is it because you don't understand what I wrote?

You again wrote:

"If you look your self in the mirror, please, pause a
little while and reflect on your pre-metamorphosing days, that is to say,
try to recall all that you used to say about those intellectuals who have
betrayed the trust of their own people and sold their souls to the devil. A
close friend of yours who knew you then was lamenting on the fact you used
to bitterly contend that God had brought you in this World, just to severe
your fellow human beings, and NOT to create HEAVEN in this World. NOW,
"JOBE" the martyr, has not only done a U-TURN, but also a C-TURN. Eating
LAMB CHOPS have made to you to forget your fundamental philosophy and
principle".

You see Kujabi, our debate will not be fruitful if you think that you are
dealing with Sarjo Jallow or Tombong Saidy, as believed by ML Conteh. If you
want to look at anything that I write believing that I am Sarjo Jallow
pretending to be some else, then your reactions will always be prejudiced.
In order for Ebrima not to fall into the same trap, I wrote in my second
paragraph "Pleas allow me to, first of all, ask whether you still believe
that I am Sarjo Jallow, S.O.S. 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 btrayed his comrades etc., etc. secondly, I
wish to re-iterate that all views that I express on this forum are mine and
mine alone.". The rest of your post that reflect your opinion of the likes
of me will go unanswered.

Mr. Barrow, you wrote:

"It goes beyond me how you can accept the fact that Yaya or the APRC is
worth governing the Gambia when you concede that they killed our kids and
went on to immorally buy votes votes just to stay in power". That is
precisely why am on the L. I strongly believe that, any future change of
government in this country must be through the ballot box and that any
government that we have must derive its legitimacy from the expressed will
of its people. As such I support the present government based on those two
principles. If, however, you believe otherwise, try to convince me and the
many other people like me as to why not. A good start would be the way
Ebrima Ceesay has started. If you tell me that this government is bad, I may
agree to that, but I believe in Sir Henry Cambell-Banner who said "Good
government can never be substitude for government by the people themselves".

You wrote:

"Mr Jobe, the issue before us is that of interest versus conscience. Those
with a clear and honest conscience who CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT THIS BARBARIC
REGIME MOVED ON AND FEND FOR THEMSELVES (emphasis mine)".

Are you implying here that all of us living here either don't any conscience
or cannot survive without this barbaric regime, a regime that is accused of
not being able to govern or develop the country? Or are you suggesting that
we should all just pack up and go? Where is your sence of patriotism? It may
be easy for people like you to run away when the going gets tough but there
are others who will stay and do their bit for the survival of their people.
Your assumption that I cannot work else where besides working for the APRC
government is absolutely baseless. It is very unfortunate that some of you
are so narrow minded that you assume, because you are living abroad, some of
us are only scavenging to survive. Barrow if that is what you believe, you
ought to go and see an optician. I will not answer other questions that
you've raised simply because I have done so many times before.

Kebba Dampha,

You wrote:

"You are a phony. I just saw another illustration of your double-talk. You
condemned indemnity for perpetrators of the April massacre but hasten to
point out how Yaya is not responsible for the cold-blooded massacre of our
children. To the amateur it will appear that Jobe supports the Rule of Law
and condemns the impunity that will be ensured by the Indemnity Clause. Why
you do not like me, is because I see through your hypocrisy and will state
it in no uncertain terms. According to you: no immunity so long as Yaya is
not held responsible. That is very different from: no immunity. Period. In
my book, you will be a decent person and in the league of people like Saul
Khan had you just said that you denounce the Indemnity legislation and not
try to
absolve Yaya. It is this type of hypocrisy and double-talk that I will not
stand from you. Call me angry or petty if you want, but I vow to unmask your
hypocrisy".

Dampha, whatever possessed you? Where did I ever try to absolve Yahya of
anything I consider despicable that had been done by him or his government.
When I said that you are a very angry man, I did not realise that you are
also very narrow minded. To prove my point, you wrote:

"Look who is talking about clouding a debate. Who veered off to talk about
Nigeria and the 1981 coup and the stadium stampede in order to justify
Yaya's despicable actions vis-a-vis the massacre of our children in 2000?"

Having nothing substantial to refute in Ebrima's posting, I decided to state
my possition relative to his post and went on to point out the role of
others vis-a-vis our National Assembly Members. I have stated that I am not
as obssessed of removing Yahya from office as you are. I strongly believe
that the Gambian people will never get the government that we deserve if we
always focus on the president. It mystifies the post and makes it more like
a monarch than a servant of the people. It seems we give too much credit or
discredit to the presidency. If times are good, thanks to the presidency and
if times are bad, woe to the presidency.

Another reason for veering off to Nigeria was to highlight a tendency in
African politicians who, knowing the existence of very bad laws, stay mute
about them as long as it does not directly affect them. That, a man like
Sara Wiwa, would be tried and executed under a decree from the Gowan era,
when successive governments both civilian and military knew it existed is,
in my book, despicable. I also wanted to highlight the fact that we tend to
focus more on who applied the law rather than who enacted it.

You also wrote:

"Why, may I ask, did the same 'callous soldiers' you talked about in your
theory not open fire on our children on April 10 and 11, 2001? If they are
'inherently evil' and do not need Yaya's orders to massacre our children,
why did these people spare the Gambian children before 1994 and in 2001?"

This taken together with the section on the student stampede was to bring
everyone's attention the sort of society we live in and the sort of animals
we have become. Surely any "Gambian" soldier who can put live bullets in a
gun, aim at poor innocent school children, open fire and see them fall,
reload and shoot again is worst than Yahya in my book. Many a times good
professional soldiers refuse stupid orders like shoot to kill against their
own people. It happened in Ivory Coast (when Robert Guey was forcibly
retired some years back) and it happened in Yugoslavia just a few months
back.

You wrote:

"They are still soldiers because Yaya has not punished them by taking away
their guns. I submit to you that had these people not been Ordered by Yaya,
not a single life would have been lost on April 10 and 11, 2000. What you
failed to include in your comparative analysis was that there were student
demonstrations during the Jawara regime and our children were not massacred
by these 'inherently evil soldiers'. These animals acted on Yaya's
diabolical Orders. Yaya is as culpable as the trigger happy animals that
pulled the trigger on our children".

Another reason why I veered has everything to do with your above writing. If
our own Gambian brothers and sisters in this small country were almost every
knows or is related to every one else, can massacre school going kids at the
order of someone thousands of miles away in Cuba, then we have a very sick
society. What makes me shudder even more, is that security forces in this
country have been known, since time immemorial, to declare that they could
shoot and kill people and nothing will come of it. Now that the Act to
ammend the Imdenity Act of 1982 has been passed by our NAMs, and is likely
to be ascented to by the president, what other legal avenues are available
to the victims of April 10 & 11 for redress? In your HONEST opinion, who
would you absolve of this heinious crime against our very own brethren;
yahya Jammeh who is assumed to have given the order to shoot, our own
brothers in the security forces who pulled the triggers or our supposedly
independent arm of government, the NAMs who want to give blanket amnesty to
those responsible of this dastardly act.

You also wrote:

"It is just incomprehensible how you spend your time trying to perpetuate
Yaya and you still cannot articulate why you think a child murderer and a
thieve deserves to lead us or deserves your support. How can you concede to
everything Ebrima said, and still be loyal to Yaya? How can you concede that
Yaya is 'remotely' responsible for the massacre of our children and still
argue that he deserves the highest honor in the land: the privilege to lead
us and live at taxpayers' expense? If you reconcile this conundrum for me, I
promise to get off your back. I have tried several times to elicit an answer
from you to no avail".

You see Dampha, Yahya's coupe D'etat was enthusiastically welcomed by the
majority of Gambians especially when they soon embarked on development
projects that the people yearned for but could not get under the previous
regime. You may be one of a small minority of people who did not like the
coupe in those days. Unfortunately, since then we've gone through many
nightmarish episodes, never experienced in the history of this country. Many
people sencelessly lost their lives, many were sent to jail and many others
harrassed and detained.

Now the question I would like to ask you is what did the opposition do about
it? My view: The PDOIS said they don't believe in politics of inducement,
they don't believe in rallies were drums are beaten etc., etc. The NRP
leader was initially taken as a clown when in his first rally he promised to
make passports available free of charge to all and sundry so that anybody
who wants to go to babylon can go. The UDP on the other hand, were seen as
very angry and disgruntled people composed mainly of former members of the
PPP whose only interest was to reverse all that the AFPRC/APRC were doing.
They embarked on a politics of confrontation rather than impressing upon the
people how they would be better off with them. They kept yapping about how
it was senceless to build us a TV station, how the projects including
schools and hospitals were white elephant projects etc., etc. One of the
major damages done to the UDP's credibility was their fervent believe, at
the time that our treasury was depleted and the AFPRC regime was about to be
bankrupt and that they would not even be able to pay salaries within a few
months. Imagine this being constantly forced down the throats of the people,
who were already beginning to feel the effect of the British travel advise
of 1994. When this did not happen and the AFPRC projects continued to be
implemented regardless of sanctions imposed on the AFPRC at the time, the
UDP were seen as prophets of doom. This is why some of us still support this
government despite all its ills. It is very unfortunate that peopel like
you, Conteh, Kujabi are doing very little to help your course. You people
stubbornly stick to you angry rhetorics and extremist views. Why can't you
moderate your views for once. You can calmly explain your strategy for
salvaging our country or catalogue, like Ebrima has started, all the ills of
the government that you know. If you do not appreciate any of the AFPRC/APRC
projects, just ignore them but don't try to downplay their importance to
some of us rely on them.

Bye 4Now, KB Jobe.
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