To paraphrase Human Rights lawyer, Emanuel Joof, let me also start by saying that I feel sorry for Gambia and Gambians. As I said in an earlier posting in the aftermath of the elections, we MUST NEVER forget that almost half of the electorate in the country and their families and friends did NOT vote for Yaya. Those people deserve and need the protection of the Opposition leadership. When I hear people say that it was a good (peaceful) thing to allow Yaya to continue to impose himself on us, I always ask myself: ‘good and peaceful for whom?’ Certainly NOT for the numerous Opposition stalwarts that were savagely attacked by APRC thugs in the aftermath of the election. Certainly NOT for Human Rights activists like Muhammad Sillah that was illegally abducted by the NIA and held incommunicado for several days. Certainly NOT for Dr. Manneh. Certainly NOT for OJ’s poor mother whose person and house was attacked by APRC thugs. Who does the ‘peace’ serve? Certainly NOT Babucarr Gaye and his Radio Station that is reported to have been closed by the APRC Dictatorship. The ‘peace’ served the bully (Yaya) that used intimidation to force Gambians to let him stay in power. As I said before, what the Opposition did by succumbing to the bully, was just postpone their plight. If anybody thinks that votes alone is going to remove Yaya from office, that person need to have his/her head examined. What it takes is votes and the tenacity to safeguard those votes. Make no mistake about it, Yaya has stooges ready, able and willing to perpetuate him in power. I just saw on Gambian newspapers the IEC readying to conduct a Referendum to (yet again) amend our Constitution. Can people believe this? This is the same outfit that few weeks ago was crying about lack of funds and tried to rationalize conducting a dodgy election. Yaya and his cohorts at the IEC and vermin like Yankuba Touray were all over the place saying that the IEC does NOT have enough funds to conduct a fully transparent election called by the Opposition. The mental midget (Gabriel Roberts) disenfranchised Gambians in the Diaspora (mainly critical to Yaya) because ‘there were NOT enough funds to register Gambians abroad to vote’. Meanwhile Roberts oversaw the registering and voting of tens of thousands of non-Gambians in our election. What was stopping these mental midgets at the IEC from putting two extra boxes at the polling stations to cater for the Referendum, while using the funds that would now be used for the Referendum to ensure a free and fair presidential election? The answer is simple? All along, Roberts was conniving with Yaya and Yankuba Touray to steal the election. The vermin will now use this Referendum to further entrench Yaya and further enslave the Gambian people. I feel sorry for Gambia and Gambians. But the problems do NOT stop there. The legal system in the country is virtually impotent when it comes to protecting defenseless citizens from the ‘might’ of the Dictatorship. No one is talking about the plight of Dumo et al (political prisoners illegally incarcerated for a crime they did NOT commit). No judge wants to step up and set these innocent citizens free. No judge wants to step up and release the numerous Opposition stalwarts that were illegally arrested in the aftermath of the election. Meanwhile APRC thugs are running around terrorizing people with impunity. There is even talk that Yaya is going to ‘pardon’ and ‘release’ the notorious Sanna Sabally. Commonsense is just turned upside down. While Dumo et al are languishing in jail, Sabally is let loose. Mind you, Dumo et al were NEVER tried and sentenced by a court. Sabally on the other hand was sentenced and now the Dictatorship is ‘releasing’ him. Goes to show that the courts have been emasculated and the Dictatorship (Yaya) is the law of the land. But the above still leaves out a more catastrophic problem that might just hit us if we continue to succumb to Yaya’s intimidation and thuggery. To fully grasp this problem, I respectfully urge those that did NOT go to ffdig.org to read Colonel Sarr’s piece there, to do so. That brilliantly written piece shed light on a problem that was neglected by most during the euphoria surrounding the elections. That problem is the Casamance Rebellion. The thought provoking piece in ffdig.org challenged us to ponder on why the rebel movement in Casamance was silent all this time leading to the run up to the election. Frankly, to the untrained eye, Colonel Sarr’s assertions could be dismissed as farfetched warmongering. But that would be a fatal mistake that Gambia will live to regret. Today I read Gambian newspapers and guess who was making headlines? Yes, the Casamance rebels. Now we all know that the rebels are no longer welcomed in Bissau. They are desperate and need Yaya big time. Does Yaya have what it takes to ‘betray’ the rebels after they helped him get elected by sending thousands of Senegalese (Casamance) citizens across the border to go vote for Yaya? As Sarr predicted, Yaya MUST ‘repay’ his fellow Jolas in Casamance for helping him in the election. Barely a week after the election, the rebels are back making headlines in our country. Are Gambians prepared for what the Wade government is going to do about the ‘hospitality’ the rebels have in Gambia? Again I ask, who does the ‘peaceful’ resolution of the election serve? You read Gambian papers further, you realize that there is a shake-up in the upper echelons of the military. Top army officials FIRED for no apparent reason. Is this not the type of thing that brings instability in a country? Top military officials fired without just cause? Who does the ‘peace’ serve? Which one of us will tell their children to give in to the school-yard-bully in order to foster peace between the bully and your child? Naturally, bullies only pick on easy targets that are going to give in to them. When some kid that was five years older than my child was bullying my child, I did NOT tell my child to fight back or give in. I just counseled him to let me know about any bullying. Then I go and threaten the bully and give him a doze of his own medicine. There is a deep morale to this simple story. It is foolhardy for 60 or so people to stand up to the NIA when they are illegally arrested. But, it is an entirely different ball game if the entire Opposition gets rid of this ridiculous ‘peace’ thing and stand up to the bully (Yaya). This ‘peace’ does NOT serve us. It only serves Yaya and his cohorts. Despite that in the name of ‘peace’ the Opposition ‘gave in’ to Yaya, the thuggery still continues in the country. Innocent citizens like Dumo are still languishing in jail and there isn’t a darn thing the courts can do about it. Innocent and patriotic citizens like Muhamman Sillah are incarcerated incommunicado for spurious ‘crimes’ like ‘inciting genocidal confusion (whatever that means). Scores of Opposition supporters are languishing in jail just for being Opposition supporters. APRC thugs are terrorizing people with impunity. Gabriel Roberts is readying to pull another fraud on the Gambian people and in the process further entrench the Dictatorship. Yaya and cohorts like Baabaa Jobe and Yankuba Touray are still stealing from our meager resources. Loose-canon Sana Sabally is about to be unleashed to an unsuspecting public. Radio stations are being closed and journalists harassed for reporting the news. Government servants are being dismissed willy-nilly. The Casamance rebels are creeping back to the limelight. Who does the ‘peace’ serve? 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