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Subject:
From:
Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 11 Oct 2001 16:54:57 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (304 lines)
Brother, you are indeed a heavy-hitter. No doubt. I look forward to more
Messages before Thursday. Please allow me to digress a little (because of
limited posting threshold) and inform Yahya Darboe that I just learnt that
Gabriel Roberts did NOT revisit his unilateral decision to decree 20 or so
counting centers. We are still stuck with that figure. Yahya Darboe, please
do some more probing. I'll get back to you on this topic tomorrow.
Meantime, brother Ebrima, you just dealt Yaya a devastating blow.
KB


>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 Twenty Eighth Message To All Gambians
>Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 20:25:15 +0000
>
>My Fellow Gambians,
>
>
>After seven years of Jammeh’s misrule, it is now fast approaching decision
>time.  In one week’s time, eligible Gambian voters will be going to the
>polls to elect a President for the next five years.
>
>Indeed, the moment of truth has arrived:  the time to take our destiny into
>our own hands has come:  the time to do away with Jammeh’s awful
>"leadership" is imminent:  the time for us to try to rebuild our Gambia
>from
>the ruins left to us by Jammeh, is upon us.
>
>It is our duty to make our country a better place for all of us in the
>twenty-first century, and our job starts next Thursday, 18th October, when
>we shall go to the polls to rid our country of the criminal Jammeh, and
>install a person of integrity and vision into the Presidential role.
>
>This is a decisive moment in our history, and we have to do everything
>right, at the same time as avoiding doing anything wrong.
>
>Come October 18th, we have to make the right choice for our country and its
>people, or else we shall certainly live to regret it, and our children and
>posterity will indict us for having failed our country in its hour of need.
>
>None of us Gambians need to be told who Yahya Jammeh is, nor what he
>represents. We do not need any more reminders of what his rule has brought
>to our nation in the last seven years.
>
>None of us needs convincing that Jammeh lacks integrity, is a liar, is
>corrupt to his very core, is a brutal and vicious tyrant, is a murderer of
>young Gambians.  We know this evil man:  we know his ways:  we know how he
>has brought our country and its people to their knees.
>
>It is important that we Gambians judge Jammeh and assess his rule on the
>yardsticks that he himself put forward when he seized power illegally in
>July 1994.  Nobody put a gun to Jammeh’s head, and yet of his own volition,
>he made grandiose promises and outlined the criteria by which he himself
>wished to be judged in the future.
>
>Amongst his grievances were that senior officials of the former regime
>(including President Jawara) were rampantly corrupt; that they travelled
>endlessly; that they practised nepotism and favouritism; that they lived in
>the fashionably-exclusive areas in luxurious compounds paid for by the
>public purse; that they led flamboyant lifestyles; that they sent their
>children to the best Universities overseas; that they sent their wives to
>give birth in the best Western hospitals.
>
>Jammeh said that these grievances justified his military intervention and
>seizure of power, and that in the place of the former corrupt regime, he
>would oversee the installation of a government which would be temporary,
>accountable to the people, transparent in its dealings, and based on
>probity
>and integrity throughout.
>
>Jammeh looked into our very eyes and told us in clear language that he was
>not interested in politics; that politics was meant for the rogues, the
>drunkards and the liars.  He said that he would never aspire to be a
>politician because he could never lie, and did not ever want to lie.
>
>These statements by Jammeh have proved to be the greatest lies and
>misrepresentations ever perpetrated on The Gambia and its people.  History
>tells the true story of the last seven years in our country.
>
>In his seven years of misrule and mismanagement, not only did Jammeh renege
>on his pledges, he has also instituted a regime never before, in my view,
>encountered in our Gambia.  Jammeh’s government has been brutal; his regime
>is the essence of corruption; innocent people have been viciously and
>violently killed; many people have been arrested illegally and detained
>arbitrarily and without the rule of law; hundreds of people have been
>arbitrarily dismissed from their jobs.
>
>In Jammeh’s regime, appointments are no longer based on qualification or
>suitability, but rather on connections with a member of the APRC regime.
>"Square pegs in round holes" are now a commonplace.
>
>A case in point is Fatoumata Jahumpha Ceesay:  here is a woman who cannot
>even construct a decent sentence in English, and yet she is in place at
>State House as the official government spokes-person.  Her gaffes and
>mistakes are legendary, and she has brought our country into international
>disrepute.  In her attempts to please her master Jammeh, she has even this
>week taken to referring to the criminal as "Baron"!!!!  We should be spared
>this sort of foolery!!
>
>Under Yahya Jammeh, mediocrity and incompetence are synonymous with the
>regime. Government official speeches (including Jammeh’s own speeches) are
>disjointed, untruthful, and written in language that a fourteen-year-old
>student might be expected to use.  As a journalist, I despair at the
>nonsense which comes out of  State House or Kanilai, and I feel ashamed of
>the so-called leaders of my country.
>
>Standards in government have dropped so immensely, that we are now the
>laughing stock of the world:  at Commonwealth, ECOWAS and OAU Summits and
>meetings, our country is ridiculed because Jammeh and his cohort are unable
>to put forward coherent and unequivocal arguments.
>
>Nobody in the international community takes The Gambia seriously these
>days.
>Non-Gambians who wish well for our country find it extremely hard to
>believe
>that a moron and a non-entity such as Jammeh can be allowed to rule The
>Gambia.
>
>My fellow Gambians, you have all seen evidence of Yahya Jammeh’s
>incompetence, greed and criminality.  From a simple, scantily-educated
>Lieutenant in the Gambia National Army seven years ago, Jammeh now "owns"
>his own personal plane;  he has built mansions overseas;  he has built
>palaces in Kanilai and Banjul;  he has set up bank accounts in his own name
>overseas;  he publicly boasts about his personal wealth.
>
>There is evidence that he is directly involved in marital infidelity, the
>blood diamond trade, the hard drugs trafficking business, foreign currency
>scams and corrupt business deals.  Jammeh has lined his personal purse with
>public money, and his hands are stained with filth and blood.
>
>Indeed, every sphere of Gambian life has been tainted by Jammeh and his
>crooks:  health, education, religion, agriculture, legislature, business,
>security, judiciary, social, economic and political spheres have suffered
>at
>his hands.  There is not one single aspect of Gambian life which has
>escaped
>Jammeh’s wickedness, corruption and mismanagement.
>
>More importantly still, Jammeh’s rule has brought about mistrust and
>disunity amongst Gambians.  In seven years, this terrible man has
>undermined
>the very fabric of Gambian society.
>
>Once, we Gambian were known throughout the world for our mutual trust, our
>understanding and tolerance of each other, our respect for differences, our
>one-ness and genuine sense of unity, our fairness and our sense of
>security.
>
>All this has gone – vanished into a sea of corruption, scandal and
>brutality
>which began its life on July 22nd 1994.
>
>Our country is now set against itself.  There are growing inter-tribal
>tensions, problems and misunderstandings.  Religious groups are often at
>each other’s throats.  You have only to listen to Imam Fatty from the State
>House Mosque, to understand how much we have lost as brothers and sisters
>in
>faith and unity. The Gambia has lost its secular nature, and Imam Fatty now
>has access to both radio and TV and uses these to lambast everyone who
>differs with his views (and especially our decent Christian brothers and
>sisters).
>
>Families are also divided:  Jammeh’s game is to push one family member
>forward and to dismiss another.  For instance, Basirou Jahumpha (one of the
>most intelligent and diligent civil servants I personally have ever known)
>has been unjustly victimised by Jammeh and dismissed from his post: at the
>same time his blood sister Fatoumata Jahumpha Ceesay has been pushed
>forward
>as the spokesperson of the infamous APRC regime.
>
>Another case of a family apparently split as a result of Jammeh’s
>machinations is that of my able and competent sister Hawa Sisay-Sabally and
>Joseph Joof, her brother-in-law. After Hawa was relieved of her duties as
>Attorney General and Minister of Justice, she went to share offices with
>Joseph Joof.
>
>Now, Jammeh has deliberately elevated Joseph Joof to the position of
>Attorney General and Minister of Justice, thus bringing discord between
>these two people who had previously had professional respect and family
>regard for each other.
>
>It therefore pains me to see how Jammeh has managed to divide families who
>were once a unified whole, whose members cared for and looked out for each
>other’s well being and welfare. Our society is now, thanks to Jammeh,
>divided and unhappy, and our relationships are tainted by distrust and
>fear.
>  God help us all !
>
>Jammeh’s strategies for government are based on an evil policy of "divide
>and rule". This is his personal tactic for survival and for governance.
>
>My Fellow Gambians!
>
>The message is abundantly clear to us all.  With Jammeh continuing at the
>helm of our country, there is no hope for us, for our children or for
>posterity.  Our future under Jammeh would be bleak indeed, and will become
>increasingly bleak with every day that passes with this immoral and
>iniquitous man in power.
>
>Jammeh makes promises which he cannot or will not keep.  Do you remember
>how
>in July of  2000, he promised that 95% of The Gambia would be electrified
>by July  2001??
>
>Of course, we all know that this is a blatant lie:  you yourselves are
>leading so much of your life in darkness and without benefit of electrical
>current on an almost daily basis.  You lead your life by candlelight, while
>Jammeh and his cronies enjoy every modern convenience of the twenty-first
>century.
>
>Jammeh indeed represents despair and a total lack of hope for the Gambian
>people.
>
>
>HOWEVER...........................
>
>
>There could be a light at the end of the tunnel, and it could be YOU
>holding
>that light.
>
>YOU, the Gambian Electorate, have the opportunity to vote Jammeh out of
>office, and send him scurrying away in shame and fear.
>
>YOUR chance will come next Thursday, October 18th.
>
>I urge each and every one of you eligible voters to go out early on
>Thursday
>next and VOTE FOR  THE OPPOSITION CANDIDATE OF YOUR CHOICE.
>
>Your votes are your weapons to fight for dignity, freedom and progress in
>our country.
>
>You should use your vote wisely and in the best interests of The Gambia and
>the majority of Gambians in mind.
>
>I urge you NOT to sell your votes to any APRC member who comes to your door
>with Dalasis.  If you sell your vote, you will sell your country down the
>line, and you will live to regret it.  The money you receive might give you
>a temporary reprieve from a problem, but I can guarantee that by sunset of
>the same day, your problem will not have gone away.
>
>The problems facing The Gambia cannot be solved unless and until YOU elect
>and install a government which is capable of addressing your real needs and
>aspirations.
>
>The crisis in The Gambia can never be solved by Jammeh and his band of
>criminals.  He has neither the will nor the wisdom to do it.
>
>It can only be resolved by committed leaders who genuinely wish to empower
>the Gambian people, and who are willing to serve them.
>
>This is why it is VITAL that early next Thursday, YOU come out in your
>thousands and give your vote to the Opposition, and NOT to Jammeh and the
>APRC.
>
>Our problems are huge, but if we elect a competent leader next week, we
>shall have started our programme of putting a decent system of government
>back into our beloved Gambia.
>
>"Rome was not built in a day", and our task of reconstructing The Gambia in
>a post-Jammeh era will not be easy:  it will take time, patience,
>diligence,
>energy and decisive action.
>
>However, it is do-able:  if we come together with our expertise, our
>knowledge, our determination and our love of our country, then anything is
>achievable.
>
>Our first and VITAL step is to vote the tyrant Jammeh out of office.
>
>You have the means, the power and the strength of vision to do it next
>Thursday.
>
>God help us all, and Long Live The Gambia.
>
>
>Ebrima Ceesay,
>Birmingham, UK
>
>
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