My heart goes to this Camara Kunda man.  Keep up the good 
work!

Asalamu alaikum
MMC


On Wed, 14 Jun 2000 09:24:35 PDT ebrima ceesay 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Gambia-L:
> 
> This piece below was published in the Daily Obsever and might be of interest
> to some of the members of the L. It was sent by one of my sources in the
> Gambia who said he had "enjoyed" reading it.
> 
> Ebrima
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> 
>    SAGE OR FOOL by Sainey Camara, Banjul
>     (Culled from the Sunday Observer June 11, 2000)
> 
> Only “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The statement made
> by the Sage on Sunday, May 28 on the Newshour broadcast over Radio 1 FM begs
> the question. It is interesting that the Sage did not padlock
> his mouth. Instead, he uttered statements that only a fool can
> make. He categorically denied on behalf of someone, of something
> that he was not privy to.
> 
> The Sage swore that Alhaji, The President, Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh,
> knew nothing about the crude oil saga. He claimed that he was
> hundred percent certain that the president knew nothing about it and
> that the opposition parties falsely levelled the accusation against
> him.
> 
> Extraordinary, my dear Sage, how extraordinary! This type of blind
> loyalty is indeed extraordinary. Sage, when did you become so
> abstruse?  When did you lose your logical thinking and deductive
> reasoning? Did you also exchange your wisdom for position, power
> and privilege?
> 
> This is not the Sage of the Kent Street Vous or the Tonya years.
> (For the benefit of the readers who do not know, Tonya is a Mandinka
> word for truth and was the name of the student magazine published in
> the mid-sixties). The Sage claimed that he stood for the truth and
> was a vocal critic of the government of the day.
> 
> What is good for the goose is good for the gander. As a youth, the
> Sage vociferously demonstrated against the PPP government? Or have
> you forgotten?  Let me remind you of two instances.  The first was
> when Jean Collin, the Minister of Finance of Senegal, accused The
> Gambia of cross-border smuggling and stated that it was the only way
> the country could survive on its fragile economy.
> 
> That unfortunate statement was made on the eve of President Senghore’s visit
> to The Gambia. The student body gave government the ultimatum that Senghor
> should not visit The Gambia until an apology was made.  The government
> ignored the demand much to their embarrassment.
> 
> The Sage was among the leaders who organised the demonstration against the
> visit of Leopold Sedat Senghor to The Gambia. The student and youth leaders
> came out, pulled down the flags and buntings erected in honour of the
> visiting president, overturned cars and threw tomatoes, rotten eggs and
> stones at the visiting dignitaries.
> 
> Jean Collin had to leave by boat at night and the state visit had to be
> abandoned. All the rioters were faced with were riot police shields batons
> and tear gas. Yet the demonstration was of international proportion.
> 
> Two years later, in 1970, the Tonya movement organised another
> demonstration. This time, Stockley Carmicheal (Kwame Toure) and
> Miriam Makeba were to visit The Gambia. The government slapped an
> order on Stockley, asking him to leave the country immediately.
> 
> This was the era when the government was extremely nervous of the
> Black Power movement and communism. Anyone who associated with
> these two organisations or was suspected to have sympathetic leanings
> towards them was regarded as suspect.
> 
> The government, like many others, was wary of anything or anyone that would
> upset the status quo.  The institutions of capitalism and democracy were to
> be safeguarded and the PPP government did all it
> could to ensure this.
> 
> The deportation of Stockley Carmicheal was seen as an infringement
> of the right of association by sympathisers; Tonya, Kent Street Vous
> and the youth leaders. They rebelled against the decision. Again,
> they clashed with government and the riot police. Some of the
> leaders were arrested and some obtained minor injuries. The detainees were
> released shortly after their arrest when their colleagues outside clamoured
> for their release.
> 
> If only Kent Street Vous could talk, it would have plenty to tell.
> This was the meeting point of the young radicals known as Kent Street Vous,
> where plots were hatched and the government criticised daily. The Sage, the
> most hotheaded and vocal among the dissidents, did not bow down in
> allegiance and submission to the government.
> 
> If his arguments are valid that the APRC government provides educational
> opportunities and scholarships to students and the young
> and therefore they should be grateful, then in the 60s, the Sage
> should have been mute.
> 
> During this period, students were not only offered full scholarship
> to go to sixth form, that is, uniform and books, they were paid an
> allowance. Access to quality education of students in school were
> concerns then as were now and to ensure that students attended school,
> stayed in school and performed well, they were “paid to go
> to school.”
> 
> On completion of their sixth form education, every student was guaranteed a
> scholarship for further studies. Whether it was in
> Africa, America, Australia, Europe or Asia, the funding was
> provided.  The Gambian student body was the most privileged class in
> The Gambia.
> 
> In spite of this, the sixth formers were the most vocal critics of
> the government. They harangued the government, used Tonya as their
> mouthpiece and sought to establish a system of transparency.  The
> students were told to be grateful for their privileges and to keep
> quiet.
> 
> Those students knew as today’s students know that the money for
> their education was coming from the taxpayers money; money that was
> provided by the people of this country or another and no single
> person could claim the glory.
> 
> Scholarships were awarded not to buy the silence of the recipient
> but to defray the cost of education or as a reward for merit.  If
> scholarships are for the purpose of muting students, then The Gambia
> will be losing the very essence of the provision, that is, to
> provide erudite and learned people who are not programmed robots.
> 
> Did the Sage’s scholarship silence him? It didn’t, yet he continued
> to receive others to the extent of getting a PhD. Somewhere along
> the line, however, he opted out. Neutralised and neutered, he
> clammed up. The path to the truth is too difficult, full of hazards
> and less lucrative.
> 
> The Sage could not face the challenge and chose comfort over the truth.
> Falsehood cannot and will not buy comfort. Like an absent-minded professor,
> the Sage was well known to walk around in
> wet socks (just washed before putting them on) in tattered shoes and
> a frayed shirt and trousers.
> 
> Eloquent and erudite, the Sage was blessed with the gift of the gab.
> He has misled so many.  Always the demagogue, he can outtalk everyone
> pretending to be what he was not.
> 
> Those who live for the truth, die by the truth. They are not with
> the truth today and tomorrow they are elsewhere. There are no
> halfway houses.  We have seen the Alexandr Solzhenystens, Patrice
> Lumumbas, Martin Luther Kings, Steve Bikos and Nelson Mandelas of
> this world.
> 
> There is a saying, “when a person is said to be good, then you
> should ask the family.”  Has any one bothered to ask the Sage’s family what
> type of a person he is?
> 
> If a matter as simple as managing a household is so difficult for
> the Sage, then I don’t know how he can cope with running whole party
> machinery.
> 
> The Sage criticises the press for biased reporting.  He states, “you
> only have to take a look at the headlines to know what the intention
> of the press is.” The Sage is the last person who should talk of
> biased reporting. He is so myopic that he cannot see beyond his
> nose.
> 
> During the 1996 elections, he was member of a panel that was analysing the
> results of the elections.  The Sage’s conclusion was that the APRC won
> because they had a clear coherent message for the people. What the Sage
> conveniently forgot in his analysis was that the public media was not
> available to the opposition members and that there was virtually a media
> blackout for them.
> 
> In addition, the APRC had a lead-time against the others. As an
> educator, the Sage should know that even the best message takes time
> to sink, so the issue was not about messages but about something
> else. Who was he trying to fool?
> 
> When the Sage was confronted with the statement that journalists
> find it very difficult to get news or confirmation of stories, he
> tries to justify it with the memorandum against civil servants
> talking to the press. According to his explanation, every statement
> has a political reaction. Thus civil servants should not make
> statements to the press because they may jeopardise their secretaries of
> states who are political appointees.
> 
> He further goes on to buttress this point by arguing that this dates back to
> the Jawara regime. The APRC came in with a ticket to change.  Their campaign
> slogan was “transparency and accountability.”  Change implies alteration, a
> substitution of the older order.  If the APRC are perpetuating the policies
> of the PPP government, then what is the new, learned Sage?
> 
> Transparency indicates overtness, something that is nor hidden. That is seen
> through, recognised, easily detected, open and candid. If civil servants
> cannot talk to the press because they may put the SoS at risk, then
> something is wrong somewhere.  Then the conditions
> of transparency do not exist.
> 
> If the SoSs are not accountable to the people, then who are they
> answerable to?  Or is that the reason for the separation of the two
> institutions?  That instead of appointing them from the elected
> members of the National Assembly, they were culled from the citizenry so
> that instead of being answerable to the electorate, they are now answerable
> to the person who put them there.
> 
> The desired neutrality is not to the people but to their appointer.
> Demonstrated by the donning of the colours of the green and by their
> assuming the role of political activists, they campaign, castigate
> the opposition, form members of the executive of the APRC and are
> anything but neutral.
> 
> No wonder they are scared.  If they are running on the ticket of
> transparency, they will be more than willing to interact with the
> press. Why should the press not go by unconfirmed reports if they
> have no one to confirm it for them?
> 
> The public relations officers and so called spokesmen and women
> conveniently disappear and resurface when it suits them. When they
> need to answer a question, they are nowhere to be found.  When the
> issue is published, they appear with a rejoinder that they were not
> contacted. He wanted the PPP government to be transparent, yet he
> condones the lack of transparency of the APRC.
> 
> Why not advice that the archaic law that says civil servants should not talk
> to the press is abolished?  It levels the playing field and provides for
> better flow of information.
> 
> It is not, of course, in the best interest of the Sage and his associates to
> make the playing field level. For tailor-made reactions can always be
> manufactured when the press comes out with “unconfirmed reports”. At least
> the press is trying to inform the people.
> 
> In one area, at least, the Sage has stayed constant. His terror tactics have
> not changed.  At the department of state where he
> worked before, he made life miserable for everyone. Even the
> secretaries of state did not escape his bullying. The highly intelligent,
> sedate, hard-working 1st Secretary of State found it
> extremely difficult to work with him. He was removed from office.
> 
> He saw his reinstatement in the same department of state as an
> opportunity for revenge. He did everything to put the spanner in the wheels.
>   He thwarted her every move. She left him to his devices and made a
> dignified exit, resigning on the grounds of ill health.
> 
> The second stood up to his “terrorism”. When the two pitched forces
> against each other and exchanged letters, it was the Sage’s turn to
> go. The main reason in her argument against the Sage was his
> “terrorist” tactics.
> 
> Lucky for him, he was laying the foundation for a house and was to
> move to the headquarters of that house. The department of state
> heaved a sigh of relief. In addition to the stress he created among
> the human resources, he caused so much wear and tear on the vehicles.  His
> weekly sojourns upcountry to God knows where wrecked the vehicles and
> created an enormous bill for the department of state and the project
> co-ordination unit.
> 
> After one such trip, one of the vehicles had to be taken straight to
> the garage for maintenance completely stripped down and rehabilitated.  The
> Sage, who today is so concerned with the safeguarding of government
> property, was not as caring when he was there. Is this a case of “do as I
> say, don’t do as I do?”
> 
> How solicitous is the Sage of government resources?  In his imbroglio with
> the second SoS, the three principal officers who refused to take sides are
> still suffering from reprisals.  The SoS wanted evidence to prove
> mis-management of funds. The principal officers kept a safe distance. The
> Sage was moved and they were left with the person they did not support.  He
> is of course impervious to their present predicament.
> 
> There is a saying, just show me your friends and I’ll show you who
> you are. The Sage and his friend, the Gnat, are two of a kind. They go
> around together to do maximum damage to other people’s integrity. They boast
> “I will damage so and so”.
> 
> The Sage did not accuse the Gnat of biased reporting when he has his
> own newspaper. Together, they connived and concocted stories that
> they were paid to publish against people.  Their “conscience” was
> sold to the highest bidder.
> 
> These were the tactics that the Gnat wanted to continue in Rainy
> Season. The all-knowing Law knew his tricks and stamped the Gnat to
> extinction. Just like the species, when you think you have got rid of them,
> they crawl away only to resurface elsewhere. He now follows the Sage
> wherever he goes. They have forgotten the biblical saying, “When thou
> ceaseth to spoil then thou shall be spoilt”.
> 
> The two of them can continue to have a field day. Their day is coming
> also. It will not be from the hands of other people but from their own. The
> substances of destruction that the two of them are indulging in will not
> only destroy their health but their wealth and life as
> well. The substance that makes them acts so irrationally and violently at
> times.
> 
> The Sage is all “sound and fury signifying nothing”.  He believes he
> can hide from God. He is as naked as the emperor in Hans Anderson’s story.
> He struts around in his nakeness, believing that he is clothed.
> 
> However, the truth will be out one day.  The truth that the Sage so
> vigorously espoused for in his younger days.  The truth is indeed
> difficult to handle.  The most elusive of virtues which even Jesus
> Christ could not explain to Pontius Pilate.  The Sage cannot handle
> the truth.
> 
> Please, do not castigate the press after reading this piece.  They
> are innocent.  I am not among the ranks but an interested observer
> of current affairs who will make commentaries where and when
> necessary.
> 
> THE END
> 
> 
> ________________________________________________________________________
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Mansour Ceesay
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