D. A. Jawo, you're right on the money. Who are we kidding, but our selves. Read on: The Cabinet Palaver Rages On The Independent (Banjul) COLUMN March 18, 2002 Posted to the web March 18, 2002 D.A. Jawo Banjul There is No More Miserable Human Being Than One in Whom Nothing is Habitual But Indecision - W. James It is now five months since President Jammeh was re-elected for a second term as head of state, (hopefully his last), and it is three months now since his flamboyant inauguration, and he has still not appointed a new cabinet, contrary to everyone's expectations. It seems to have gone against all the grains of people's expectations that it has now become the hottest topic of discussion in town. However, I am not quite sure that Section 71 (4) (a) that some people are quoting has really compelled the president to appoint a new cabinet after being sworn in. They seem to misinterpret that section, which simply says that "The office of secretary of state shall become vacant (a) on the assumption by a person of the office of president". As far as my limited knowledge of the law goes, the provision simply refers to a serving and not to the president - elect assuming office. Therefore, as far as I know, there is no specific provision in the 1997 Constitution, which compels the president to appoint a new cabinet on assuming office. Even though there may not exist such a provision in the constitution (apparently part of the deliberate omissions in the constitution), it is still the most logical thing everyone expects a president - elect to do immediately on assuming office. It does not really matter whether or not he would re-appoint the out-going cabinet members but people still expect him to form a new government. As it is often the case in a society like ours where there is very little flow of information between the government and the governed, there is certainly bound to be quite a lot of rumours and speculations as to what may be responsible for such an unconventional situation. Therefore, if the government is not prepared to involve the people in the decision making process, then the people themselves would reserve the right to give their own interpretations to the actions and omissions of the government. There are indications that the unprecedented delay in the appointment of a new cabinet is caused by President Jammeh's apparent inability to still determine whom to include in his new cabinet and whom to drop from among the out-going cabinet. There are rumours that the out-going vice president does not want to continue in the next cabinet and as a result, there is intense struggle among the anointed few as to who would succeed her. While everyone had assumed that the out-going secretary of state for Works, Communications and Information to be the 'national' successor to that position, there are rumours that someone else within the inner cabinet is tipped to be next vice president and that has engineered a lot of horse-trading within the 'kabudu' which may also be a factor in the delay of a new cabinet. However, it is also possible that the delay could have been caused by President Jammeh being bombarded by all sorts of lobbying from people who feel that both he and the APRC owe them a lot of obligations and they should be compensated to cabinet positions. There are also rumours that he has been presented with a long list of possible appointees by certain self-appointed king makers who want their own boy-boys and cronies to be appointed secretaries of state. It appears that President Jammeh is beginning to be confronted with the reality that it is not easy to run a government through the use of political patronage, as it seems to have been the practice in his administration. While he may be the richest head of state in the sub-region, he has to realise that the running of a government is much more than the frequent dishing out of money and material gifts as well as the distribution of public service positions to party loyalists and praise singers. Such a situation is not only expensive and unsustainable but there are not also enough public service positions to go round to all those who kow-tow after him. Therefore, the only reasonable thing to do is to appoint the right people in the right places, regardless of their political affiliation or social status.The frequent sacking of public service employees, apparently for being suspected of sympathising with the opposition is no doubt part of the scheme to create more jobs for the party loyalists and praise-singers. That in itself is not only unsustainable but is also having a negative impact on productivity within the public service. The situation is so bad that the public service is now less than half as productive as it had been before the coup in 1994. One possible reason for that is because most of the seasoned professionals within the public service have been replaced by mediocres whose most important qualifications had been their loyalty to President Jammeh and the APRC. While President Jammeh may have the best intentions for the progress of this country and the 'sky is the limit' for his intention to make this country into a model in Africa, but unless he gets the right calibre of people to man the various sectors of his administration and help him implement his Vision 2020 dream, he cannot make a headway. Therefore, it is time that he realised the futility of encouraging political patronage and instead start to encourage every well meaning Gambian with the necessary talents and skills to participate in nation building, regardless of their political inclinations. He should therefore disregard all the bad advices he had been receiving from his praise-singers and cronies, most of whom are only interested in their own personal aggrandizement. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~