BY PA NDERRY M'BAI
Gambians and friends of The Gambia, received their rudest shock when Ruling
APRC self styled "Jali Yankuba Touray" erroneously implied that without
dictator Yahya Jammeh, there cannot "peace and stability" in the tiny West
African country.
JALI TOURAY A GREAT
POLITICAL DECEIVER!!!!
This misleading and misplaced statement of Jali Touray cannot go
unchallenged. In the interest of posterity, we though it imperative to set
the records straight. While Jali Touray, told the people of opposition
strong hold town of Bakau to rally behind president Jammeh if they want to
"see peace, stability and development, we want to remind Yanks that with or
without Jammeh, Gambians will decide the future of their country at the
soonest possible time.
The issue of peace and stability squarely lies in the hands of Gambians and
not Yahya Jammeh as an individual. Gambians have the moral and sole
responsibility in nurturing the country's peace, which had been battered by
Jammeh and his thugs.
Since the advent of this undemocratic and hopeless regime, Gambians have not
seen peace as implied by Jali Touray. Instead, we witnessed a totalitarian
regime bent on showing seeds of discord in The Gambia. That the Jammeh
regime have seized the rights and freedoms of Gambians.
Killing and torturing of political opponents had never been part of Gambia's
body politics. But today, the situation is the reversed. Reports of
mysterious killings, abductions, summarily executions, death threats, arson
attacks and persecution of people perceived to be critical of the regime is
the order of day. 14 defenceless students were murdered in cold blood on
April of 2000 by Jammeh's trigger happy uniform men. How about the November
11 mass killings of soldiers? And the recent death of journalist Deyda
Hydara?
Can Jali Touray, show us the peace he is talking about under Jammeh's rule?
Could Jali Touray do justice to himself and The Gambian people to stop the
lies and deception campaigns. Nobody with his right mind will buy such a
silly and bogus story advanced by Jali Touray. Gambians are too smart to be
fooled by such empty and misleading political rhetoric to be advanced by no
other person other than Yankuba Touray.
Here is a man who is suffering from image and personality problem.
His reputation had been shattered by Yahya Jammeh who went around the
country, accusing him of economic mismanagement and corruption. Can such a
criminal and unreliable person turn around and preach message of peace to
Gambians? Knowing how corruption have wrecked the African continent, who is
going believe such a deadly person?
Peace is an important commodity. But it's hard to come by in a country like
The Gambia. Almost everybody in the country is living in a state fear. The
regime had instilled fear in the minds of Gambians and non Gambians.
Freedom of speech and expression is no longer considered as a right but a
privilege under Jammeh's rule.
Jali Touray should not be taken seriously, as he is trying to impress Yahya
Jammeh. Gambians should not be surprised if the likes of Jali Touray and
APRC'S Fatoumatta Jahumpa Ceesay should rally behind any new government
that come into being beside the current regime. Time will tell.
These two are just following Jammeh for their own personal interest. We do
know that most of those chanting Jammeh's praises are not true supporters
but mere political parasites and hypocrites. They will lie to him to be in
his good books. Knowing that Jammeh is not a matured leader, such self
centred so called politicians will go to the extreme to exploit Jammeh's
political weakness. They will tell him fabricated stories just to win
favours from him.
Jali Touray should be honest enough to admit the fact that the Ruling APRC
government under the leadership of Jammeh is a stumbling block to peace and
stability. This government is at war with itself. While struggling to deal
with a disintegrated political setting, the APRC is also faced with power
struggle. There is no proper coordination among its officials. Jali Touray
will said this today and the next day FJC will come up with a different
story.
Yanks Touray should know that there is no amount of inducement that will
make the patriotic sons and daughters of Bakau to support Jammeh's
government. You can go ahead and withdraw your so called road and other
development projects. This will not move the people of Bakau. These are
true patriot who will not compromise their integrity for money, like Jali
Touray.
The mere fact that the regime is threatening to withdraw "white elephant
projects" from Bakau and other opposition strong holds, goes to show that
they are not certain of wining an election in these localities.
Now that they have exhausted politics of terror and intimidation, they are
shifting gears to politics of exclusion. Such kind of politics is dirty and
undemocratic. We are not surprised, since Jammeh's sole intention is to
divide the country. He is not tolerant the least. He behaves as if he owns
The Gambia and her people.
These developmental funds Jali Touray is talking about belongs to Gambians
and not Yahya Jammeh. What audacity does this shameless griot had to say
that the government can deny opposition strong holds projects.? Since our
country is being presided over bunch of self centred and greedy politicians,
they are capable of slamming a ban on development projects against the
opposition.
We are asking NGOS and other key donor agencies to take up this issue with
the government of the day. That since they are not committed in improving
the lives of poverty stricken Gambians, there is no need for donor agencies
to extend helping hands to them.
Go ahead and accuse us of calling for a sanction against The Gambia. Go
ahead and brand us as unpatriotic. We are just being concerned about the
state of affairs. We are just being honest. This is how a true patriot
should behave. There is no crime in exposing the truth and this's exactly
what we are doing here at AllGambian.
We love our country and will not allow such disastrous statements made by
Jali Touray to go unchallenged. As one local medium in The Gambia reported
that "Yanks made an impressive come back", we are saying that his statement
is treasonable. If he had said this in other civilise and democratic
nations, he will be fired without delay. Such a statement will cost the
APRC dearly in the near future. So Jali Touray take note of this.
Donor nations, including financial institutions such as the IMF and World
Bank will certainly be disappointed to hear such reports coming from a
Gambian minister. We are once again urging these institutions to act now
to avoid what happened in the Southern African country, Zimbabwe to be
repeated in The Gambia. The current administration is holding Gambians into
ransom. Developmental funds are not judiciously managed and often went into
the pockets of greedy politicians. The much talked about "accountability,
transparency and probity" which dictator Jammeh had been singing on a daily
bases in the early days of his rebellion had been buried in the Atlantic
ocean. It's considered as a taboo in The Gambia today to openly talk about
corruption or to think of fighting it. The regime is not making any
serious efforts to tackle graft, which is now endemic. God save The Gambia.
Our country is in wrong hands and there is no indications that things will
change for the better for now.
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