Dampha,
I concur with you totally. This whole "challenge" stuff is very Buharry,
and absolute cobblers (to borrow from the great Hamjatta.) I'm surprise he
hasn't gone into his rainbow family background this time. Any time someone
takes on an ugly Gambian reality, this man has to put on this ridiculous
patriotism show. Somehow, some of us are people with "agendas" who are bent
on tearing the Gambia apart, and him and his likes are the true patriots who
are keeping us together. Nothing could be further from the truth! None of us
asking the opposition to stand up and fight back are any less patriotic than
Buharry and co. But, if people like him are the best the Gambia has to rely
on, then God help that nation, because this guy has a problem dealing with
ugly reality. No one on this list "advocating violence" has ever committed
any such thing. It's the govt. in power back home that is doing so. And just
for the record, unless I've missed something, no one has said anything about
the UDP forming a "vigilante" group. What I said is for the UDP to train
some of their cadres as a security contingent, and that these people will
keep vigilance anywhere their party leaders/members congregate. I was
thinking along the lines of the Nation of Islam. Louis Farrakhan is alive
today not because thousands of assassins don't attempt to kill him every
year, but because of the dedication of his UNARMED security contingent who
keep vigilance at ALL times and ALL places where Farrakhan goes. There have
actually been cases where the Fruit Of Islam (the NOI security) have
confronted and disarmed potential assassins! So, there is a real-life
example of what I'm exhorting the UDP people to do here. There is a world
of difference between that and forming a "vigilante" group. If I meant to
say the UDP should form a vigilante group, or even an army, I'll say exactly
that, because unlike people like Buharry who use semantics, I say exactly
what I mean, irrespective of how unpopular that opinion may be. But, somehow
it's "irresponsible" to tell these law-abiding gentlemen to defend their
god-given rights. What does the Great Buharry suggest instead? Rely on
"pressure" because it's bearing fruits!
The reality on the ground however is different. The senior echelon of both
the army and police are openly antagonistic to the UDP people. Gambians
don't come any gentler than Ousainou Darbo, Amadu Sanneh, or Yaya Jallow
among others. Imagine these gentlemen turning in to the police a group of
thugs who had just made a serious attempt on their lives, but instead of the
criminals being booked, the victims are the ones dumped in jail. What a
travesty of justice! So, who will protect these people when the police
clearly have no intention of doing so? Why should they obey any law that is
criminal in the first place? Because as far as I am concern, ANY law that
treats equals unequally renders itself null and void. To drive home my
point, if a law allows Musa Njie, private citizen, and APRC supporter to
carry a pistol, but the same law bans Yusu Jobe, private citizen, and NRP
supporter to do the same, am saying Yusu Jobe and people like him have no
obligation -moral or otherwise- to obey that law. For any type of law,
statute or ordinance to have legitimacy, it has to treat all subjects
equally. If it doesn't do that, then any responsible citizen would be
foolhardy to obey such a law. What we have in The Gambia is a big joke,
cause the jailers are the real criminals. If one cannot count on the regular
law-enforcement officials to protect one, then one has a god-given right to
do what one must to save one's life. That is my advice to all the opposition
groups.
And talking about not wanting a war, this Buharry better wake up and smell
the coffee, because we may not be Liberia, or Sierra-Leone, but there is an
un-declared war going on in The Gambia. When a cabinet minister is
butchered in cold blood, and the govt. refuses to launch an independent
inquiry, a war is on; when people who have served in the public service for
over thirty years are fired on the spot for no reason, a war is on; when
it's govt. policy to fire anyone who is "suspected" of being an opposition
sympathizer, a war is on; when people who have never had a problem feeding
their families for decades are all of a sudden forced by circumstances to
beg for a living because of govt. policy, a war is on; when otherwise very
decent and religious people are forced to turn a blind eye on their
daughters' prostitution because their entire family relies on such illicit
income to survive, a war is on; when totally unqualified/incompetent people
are promoted to senior positions over more qualified candidates because of
their creed, or where they hail from, a war is on; when a woman gets beaten
in public for merely TRYING to pass through the "wrong" gate, and nothing
comes out of it, a war is on; when a Head of State dishes out public money
to whoever he likes as a "personal gift," a war is on; when very decent
gentlemen are thrown in jail when punks are allowed to walk in and
taunt/insult them, a war is on; and just to make it short, when a Head of
State orders the mowing down of little kids for standing up and saying
"enough to all the madness going on in our country," a war is on! So, you
better wake up Buharry. Every single value that we cherish as Gambians is
being destroyed by these savages. And it's "irresponsible" telling Gambians
to say "enough is enough." Why don't you Buharry tell us how you hope to
keep the peace in a country that has so much obvious injustice. I'd love to
hear you explain how one can sustain any type of peace based on blatant lies
like we have in Gambia. So, you tell us Mr. Cool-headed, No-Agenda, No. 1
patriot, Responsible man. You tell us.
The Apartheid army was stronger than the army of the rest of Africa
combined, but that did not stop Mandela and his people from taking it on.
Just because I'm dog-tired after a hectic weekend, I'll cut this here, but
this whole challenge shows how naïve, and idealistic this Buharry guy is.
And he's clearly seeing himself in others by assuming that if a real war
breaks out, most/all of us will be in Europe/America while our
parents/people's hands are being chopped off. I hope Buharry will stick to
speaking for himself next time. He Buharry will stay, but not all of us
will. It just goes to show how non-monolithic we are as Gambians, because
this Buharry types might as well come from a totally different planet as far
as I'm concern.
Saul.
>Buharry, are you really serious when you ask us to come to Gambia_L
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
